I was due to replenish my band saw blades form the last purchase I made.  I have always used the highland woodworking wood slicer saw blades.  As it was primarily to resaw or rip, I took a pretty large blade (3/4") blade.

My band saw is a Laguna LT3000 16" band saw and the length of the band is 132".  Granted that there are longer blades then that, it was still pretty significant blade, specially with the 3-4 skip tooth configuration

Looking around for new blades

Not that I disliked the blades, they gave very good results.  But being in Canada, last time I ordered 2 blades, the shipping was nearly as much as the value of the 2 blades. 

This is not a complaint, don't get me wrong. But I was interested to see if there was not an alternative closer to home which would give me comparable performance and keeping the price in check.    

After looking around for different alternative, I found the Tuff Tooth web site. It is the site of the R&D Bandsaw blades sites. From their web site :

“ The Swedish Silicon band has three to four times the blade life of a normal carbon band. They have a five tooth pattern with minimal set. Every fifth tooth is a straight raker, with a 6.5º hook angle that gives it an incredible fast cut and smooth finish.”

Price were pretty reasonable and they are a Canadian company, even better.  Shipping cost were pretty minimal also. 

Dimensions

I have been running 3/4" blades since I own the saw, about 5 years ago.  I have been pretty satisfied with this dimension, but sometimes, having a smaller blade would of been appreciated.  

So I decided to go with a 1/2" and 1 3/4" blade to try out and see how would compare.  I also went  with the 3 tpi which is pretty aggressive cut. For what I do, the band saw blade is not the last blade to touch the wood so have a not so finish surface is ok with me.  There will always be another tool that will pass after to better the surface, being either a plane, other saw or sand paper.  

I should be able to test out the new blades pretty soon and report back for results.