Thanks for the replies. I've tried Tuffsaws and a few other ready made blade suppliers, not interested in selling rolls, I've just ended up with a quote for a new ready made blade. Just reinforces the fact that joining my own is considerably cheaper. For a carbon steel blade i have in the past made blades for about half the price of ready made, not such a big saving for HSS or bi-metal blade but still well worth doing.
I would not fully agree about the machines welder not producing good joins, I have had no problems with the blades I make although a little "tweaking" of the recommended settings is sometimes needed.
My saw came from a large local factory (broken gearbox, straightforward repair). They had in the toolroom a large bandsawing section, mainly Startrite and Doall saws. Small like mine to some very big machines capable of cutting 100mm alloy steel to form press tools. The steel arrived for sawing marked out, a suitable hole drilled if necessary for "internal" cuts, blade joined on the machine as were all other blades. Blade came from huge rolls, something like 500m of blade on each roll!