How to Fold a Bandsaw Blade (Without end up having a nice skin cut)

No matter whether it’s Re-saw lumber into thinner pieces or tackling curved cuts, the bandsaw is always there to make the woodpecker’s life smoother.

No doubt about it!

But……………… there’s one small catch:

If you’re a DIY person or you regularly deal with bandsaws, you know the struggle of folding or coiling your bandsaw blade.

Wondering Why?

Bandsaws have the largest and longest blades in the saw industry. So folding these units won’t be a cup of tea, dude.

These blades are long and hard to handle. Being made with sharp metal, they contain horrible teeth all over their body that’s pretty dangerous as well.

So, How to Fold a Bandsaw Blade & coiling band saw blade?

If you’re familiar with this saw, I cracked a super simple step by step guide to master the art of folding a bandsaw blade.

Yeah, there are many more Actually………

Ready?

How to Fold a Bandsaw Blade (My favorite 3 methods of coiling a bandsaw blade)

Folding the blades is, undoubtedly, an important fact for storage.

How?

It gives you the chance to examine your blade, it saves space, and it keeps you out of harm as well.

And the good news?

Folding the bandsaw blade is pretty easy if you know the right way. Here’re some of the quickest (And my personal favorite) folding a bandsaw blade methods.

Method 1: Push down & make a different loop (The most common and popular way)

First Disclaimer:

Before we start folding the bandsaw blade, we need to make sure that we’re wearing gloves as safety gear and we have shoes on. When you start folding, you’ll notice the needs of the precautions.

• The first step is to hold the blade with your hand. Make sure that you’re holding the blade while the teeth of the blade are in the opposite direction. Hold it with your one hand carefully, and make sure that you’re getting a firm grip there.
• The second step is to put your foot on the other side of the blade and push it towards the ground. This will hold the blade perfectly, and you’ll be able to use the tension to fold it. This is where you need shoes to do the job.
• Now, at the very last step, start twisting the blade inward and start pushing it down at the same time. It’ll make different loops themselves when you’re using the tension of the blade.
• After you reach there and you have three different loops, you can hold the blade with your other hand to complete folding it.

Method 2: Twisting (The recommended Method)

Here’s another way to fold the blade that’s a little advanced to do.

In this process, we’re not going to put a foot on the blade, and we’ll be twisting it horizontally. This is way easier to do but a little hard for beginners.

How do you fold a band saw blade into 3 loops?

The precaution is the same for this time; wear gloves until you master the folding process.

• Now, hold the blade with both your hands and make sure that you have a firm grip.
• After getting the grip, you’ll start twisting with both your hands at the same time. One hand will twist towards you, and the other hand will twist the opposite direction.
• Keep the twisting process going on, and you’ll notice that it started to make a coil of three loops. When the coil is almost there, hold it with one hand and finish the looping process.

Upside down twisting

This method is a bit advanced than the previous one. So how do you double-fold a bandsaw blade?

In this method, you’ll be twisting the blade upside down to make the loop.

1) Wear gloves for safety and hold the upper part of the blade with both hands. Make sure that you have a good grip while holding the blade and the teeth are facing up.

2) Now, shake the blade upside down and it’ll come across with different loops. This process is way faster.

Method 3: Fold a Bandsaw Blade into Four Loops: Advanced stage

When you have a bandsaw blade that’s bigger than the normal size, you may need to make multiple loops to store it properly. Besides, making more loops will save your space while you intend to store the blade safely. Some of the bigger blades come up with 5 or 6 loops as well.

How to fold up a bandsaw blade into four loops?

In terms of folding your bandsaw blade into 4 different loops, you need to go through the same process. Wear your hand gloves and hold the blade firmly. Let’s jump into the main part- How to wrap a band saw blade.

When done, put your foot on the blade and start twisting the blade and push it down at the same time slowly.

• When the twisting is done, you’ll get a 3 loop coil. Hold it and complete the process.
• After doing this, you need to release one loop. Now, you have two smaller and one bigger loops.
• Make the smaller loops smaller by tightening a little. When it’s done, repeat the same process by putting your foot on the bigger loop.
• Start twisting, and you’ll get your figure 8 at 180-degree twisting. You can stop there to get two more. But if you want three more, make sure you’re twisting 360 degrees to get the desired loops.
• All done, now you have your four loops or five loops. Complete the process by holding the coil with your other hand safely.

And How to unfold a Bandsaw Blade?

There is huge info about how to fold a bandsaw mill blade.

The machine bandsaw comes up with a user manual that shows you different things about the machine and its functions. But, it doesn’t cover much about the blade there & unfolds it.

Before we start, we need to make sure that we’re correctly unfolding the blade.

• First of all, wear a good pair of thick gloves to keep your hand safe while dealing with sharp teeth blade.
• Now, you can find the blade coiled into three or four loops. It’s usually there every time. When you’re trying to unfold.
• Separate the coil and take one loop on your right hand. Now you have one loop in your right hand and the other two loops on the left hand.
• Take a loop in your right hand and release the left-hand loop. It’ll free the blade, and you’ll realize that you’re holding a figure eight.
• Release the blade after that safely.

Bonus tips: Easy Hacks of Folding bandsaw blades for storage

Folding your bandsaw blade is important as it saves space.

While saving space, it has different benefits as well. It helps you to go through the blade carefully to check if there’s any quality issue with the blade as well. Besides, keeping the blade stored in loops is safer as well.

Here are a few tips on How to roll and tension a bandsaw blade to help you out during storage.

• Always wear hand gloves if you want to keep your hands safe while setting bandsaw blades. Bandsaw blades are full of different sharp teeth, and that can be dangerous for your skin.
• Always wear shoes if you’re going through the foot folding method.
• Keep your blade stored when you’re done working with it. Make sure to clean it as well.
• Always try to loop as the blade came when you bought it. Don’t make extra loops. It may affect the material tension of your blade.

The Bottom line

So, this is how you can fold bandsaw blades. If you’re struggling with this issue, you can easily follow these steps to make a loop or coil with your bandsaw blade.

Store it in a proper way, it’s important.’

Last one but not least………Don’t forget to take good care of your blade if you want to keep it long-lasting and durable.

Relevant Pages:

• How to weld bandsaw blade
• Types of bandsaws