16 Essential Bandsawing Terms You Need to Know

Key bandsaw blade terms with definitions to help you understand the meaning of bandsaw jargon.

1. Blade Back: The body of the Bandsaw blade not including tooth portion.
2. Thickness: The Dimension from side to side on the blade.
3. Width: The nominal dimension of a Bandsaw blade as measured from the tip of the tooth to the back of the band.
4. Set: The bending of teeth to right or left to allow clearance of the back of the blade through the cut.
5. Kerf: Amount of material removed by the cut of the blade.
6. Tooth Pitch: The distance from the tip of one tooth to the tip of the next tooth.
7. TPI: The number of teeth per inch as measured from gullet to gullet.
8. Gullet: The curved area at the base of the tooth.
9. Gullet Depth: The distance from the tooth tip to the bottom of the gullet.
10. Tooth Face: The surface of the tooth on which the chip is formed.
11. Chip: The piece of material removed by the tooth as it cuts.
12. Tooth Rake Angle: The angle of the tooth face measured with respect to a line perpendicular to the cutting direction of the saw.
13. Skip Tooth: The teeth on skip tooth blades have a zero degree rake angle and expanded gullets allowing the blade to cut softer materials without overloading the gullets with chips.
14. Hook Tooth: The teeth on hook tooth blades have a positive rake angle and a large gullet.
15. Regular Tooth: Blades with regular tooth shape have zero degree rake.
16. Vari-Pitch: Blades with vari-pitch or variable-pitch teeth are designed for metal cutting. The size of the tooth and the depth of the gullet changes from one tooth to the next.