Blades for cutting silhouettes

[tonyuk]

Although I've been scrolling for 2 or 3 years now and have moved up to an Excalibur I still consider myself to be little more than a Newbie.

I recently got a request to cut some silhouette pictures of relatives and so I read about it (as I always do before attempting something new) and found that spiral blades are recommended so I ordered some as well as others from over there (I'm over the pond in the UK) because I can't get Flying Dutchman blades over here.  I guessed I needed a fine blade so opted for a No 3.

On trying one out I was surprised to find the kerf being so wide such that fine work isn't possible.

So my question is what size blade do you experts suggest I use?

Thank you for any help.

Tony

[Kepy]

I don't use spirals as I don't like them and have done some silhouette cutting with a #1 or #3 reverse tooth.  It depends on the intricacy and the thickness of backing to determine which I use.

[sawdust703]

First off, & no offense, but, not knowing your location, Flying Dutchman blades are available from many online sources. I use Wooden Teddy Bear. They recently bought Mikes, & sell Olson blades, too. As far as cutting your friends portrait, the first question I'd ask is what type of wood are you using? Next, as a rule, spiral blades are designed for widening, small detail work, small opening work, that type of work. Without much experience with spiral blades, you'll do more harm than good. They take some practice to learn to use. Some will disagree, but that's my .02 on that. I use FD & Olson blades for the most part myself. Ya might try a #3 polar blade for the portrait work. The reason I'm suggesting that, is because the polar blade makes a clean, smooth cut, & is easy to maneuver. Good luck with your venture.

[sawdust703]

My apologies, after rereading your post, I see you're in the UK.

[DWSudekum]

For most fine work that is not lettering or part of a huge project I generally use flat blades - a #3 reverse tooth blade will give you a nice clean cut on most woods 2mm to about 18mm although as you get thicker wood you should increase in size to a #5 or #7.  Spirals have their uses however they take a lot of practice to get good results from.  A lot of portrait cutters use spirals however since you are doing a basic silhouette a flat blade should do just fine.

DW

[tonyuk]

Thank you all for your suggestions.  The timber I will use will either be oak, of which I recently obtained two 10 feet pews from a local church who were having the interior renovated, or 1/4 inch birch ply.  I'm undecided on that.  In the last 2 days I've practiced with small head portrait silhouettes about 3 inches square and found it very exacting so I've run the saw much slower than usually.  I also found that a No 3 blade is too big for some cuts so I picked up some No 1 blades locally today.   If I do more of this work I'll order some No 1 FD blades from Mike's.

Thanks again for your help.

Tony