Tell if a bandsaw blade is sharp enough

[--Tom--]

Interested in general thoughts, just had a bandsaw blade snap, machine was running but I hadn’t initiated the cut yet.
For a bit before that it had started drifting so I had the feeling was on its way out. The teeth still felt fairly sharp to touch and we’re still cutting without any effort, other than an annoying tendency to dive off in one direction.

Guessing it was getting blunt which caused the drift?

Is there any real way to tell sharpness, as to touch the teeth didn’t feel blunt?

Anyway now have an excuse to make a frame saw with the 10ft of blade I now have

 

[ps.harris80]

On mine when the blade started drifting it was because the teeth on one side had been damaged by some numpty (me) clipping a hidden screw, in my case the drift was quite dramatic. You may have something similar with the teeth on one side of the set being blunter than the teeth on the other side.

A new blade will resolve the issue I suspect.

 

[Kicked Back]

If you cut curves a lot, the set on one side of the blade can be damaged quicker than the other, which will cause drift. It's a good idea to have a dedicated blade for straight cuts where avoiding drift is important. Also if you've set up the guide bearings incorrectly at any point and run the saw, they can squish the set as well.

 

[--Tom--]

Cheers for the thoughts, I had thought the odd curve may have knackered it- always tempting to just use the blade in the saw rather than faff about swapping it out for a cut or two.

New blades enroute from tuffsaws anyway, had lost a few teeth in the m42 blade in my metal bandsaw so will be swapping that one out too.