I really do love my Laguna band saw. That sucker has been a true performer in my shop, helping me cut curves and slice boards like crazy. Or, maybe my son Dominic rip those boards…

So, when David Venditto of Infinity Cutting Tools asked me to come to his shop – and that I should bring my band saw – I told him he was out of his mind. That sucker weighs a ton, and I would bring myself instead.

Good thing I did, because he had a surprise for me. Infinity now has its own line of rip band saw blades – the Infinity Rip. These suckers are the real deal when it comes to band saw blades. Andy Gibson over at Infinity will introduce you to the blade here:

You can tell that a lot of care went into making these blades. I mean, holy smokes, look at the weld on that sucker!  I’ve seen plenty of clunky welds on bandsaw blades, but this one is ground so fine, you really have to look for it.

So, how does it work? After all, the proof is in the cutting. So, I put the blade on the band saw, over the top and bottom wheels, after backing the guides way off. To set the proper tension, I tighten the blade until a forceful push from my index finger can move the blade about 1/4″.  So far, it’s easy peasey…

I adjusted the guide blocks until they were close to the blade without touching it and put the guards back on the saw. After that, it was a simple matter to adjust the fence for the blade’s drift – something I have covered before in this article. 

With this step taken, it was time for the moment of truth. I grabbed a piece of hard maple – notorious for giving me fits – I got from my friends at Bell Forest Products and put it up on the saw. I was careful to use my full face shield and my MicroJig push blocks – safety first.

I am always amazed at how easily that saw pours out the power, and the new blade bit into the wood, slicing cleanly and dead straight. It was a real joy to hear that wood cutting.

So, how’d I do?  There is it the slightest vertical scoring with the blade, but again, this was the first test cut on the blade. I’m sure I could fine-tune by technique and setup, but wow, I am sold. That’s one nice blade, David.