That's a re-badged Burgess BK3 bandsaw. New blades are available here

I have the older single speed model which is still going strong after 45 years. I make up my own blades with a scarfed silver soldered joint from continuous reels.

The number of teeth needed depends on the thickness of the material. Ideally you should always have at least two teeth in contact with the material being cut. I have a reel of 32 tpi blade for thin sheet.

Russell

Subject to the two or three teeth in cut minimum coarser is better. More room in the gullet between teeth to hold the chips helping things to run smoothly and cut well. With too fine a blade tendency is to try and force the cut jamming chips into the gullet which isn't good for the blade. Machine tends to stall too.  Good point from Mark about things getting hot.  Coarser effectively runs cooler so goes further before you have too top and wait.

Bigger teeth have slightly more set in absolute terms which helps free cutting and promotes blade life. Assuming you don't break anything loss of tooth set due to wear or forcing on curves defines how long the blade lasts. When the set goes there is no clearance for the main body of the blade in the cut so it continually jams. If buying ready made blades you want all the life you can get.

If you take it steady, use the right speed and lightly lubricate when appropriate the blades will last a long time. Force or abuse it and life will be embarrassingly short. We had one of the single speed models in the trials prop workshop at one time. The EW's used to go through blades at a rate of knots. Like 3 in one day managing about a yard of cut from each! I arranged my own personal set which were still good when the saw went.

Clive

Edited By Clive Foster on 13/08/2017 12:11:34

Edited By Clive Foster on 13/08/2017 12:11:50

Doesn't that suggest a blade like the one that's already on it might be OK?

Neil

I find 14 TPI is a good all round compromise for most metal types. Good for thick aluminium plate and does not clog the flutes.

Mike

Steve, if you contact Ian at Tuffsaws I'm sure he will have recommendations. I acquired a Burgess BK3 a while back and went for a 1/4" 14tpi blade based on his advice – it has been fine in ali and (surprisingly) will also cut steel, albeit slowly. Although you can in principle go for a coarser blade in ali my gut feeling is that the machine would't have the power to cope. You also need to think about blade tension – I'm not sure that my Burgess is rigid enough to a tension a 3/8th blade adequately, and the coarser the pitch the more tension you need to resist the greater (inevitable) lateral forces.

This is the reply I had from Ian when I asked about the Burgess:

Hi Robin

Thank you for your enquiry. 

I've got this bandsaw listed as requiring 1435mm blades and because it's a 3 wheeled bandsaw the blades have to come from the Hobby/Thin Gauge range. 

For the wood cutting a 1/4" x 10tpi blade is ideal and for the metal cutting the same width but in 14tpi.
I'm not sure what the cutting speeds are on the bandsaw but for metal cutting the cutting speed needs to be around 4 times slower than for cutting wood. Usually on 2 speed bandsaws, the faster speed is for wood and the second speed is for non ferrous metal and some dense hardwoods. 
14tpi can be used on wood as well but if the cutting speed is too fast for the metal then the teeth will either strip off the blade or will just go blunt really fast. 

Here's the link to the blade on the website:

**LINK** 

The blade length and tooth pitch can be picked from the drop down menus on the page but if you have any problems or questions, please don't hesitate in contacting me.

Orders can also be placed through email or over the phone if you prefer?  

All the best 

Ian

Tuff Saws