> Does the slower velocity of the cutting teeth noticeably affect the
> quality of the cut's finish?

No.

Think of this as tooth cuts per inch over a given time. With a larger blade, (assuming tooth spacing is equal on all blades) you get more teeth going around the circumference. At any given RPM for the saw you can calculate the number of tooth cuts per minute. With a large blade, and many cuts per minute you can feed your stock rapidly and smoothly, while getting a certain number of cuts per inch.

The engineering of the saw is usually such that the blade is spinning so fast that you probably won't be able to feed the stock fast enough by hand to get a bad cut. With a smaller blade you can feed your stock just as smoothly (same number of cuts per inch) if you just feed it slower. Even if the smaller blade gives you half the cuts per second, and you feed the stock at half the MAXIMUM speed of the 10 inch blade, you are still going to be moving that stock through the saw at a rapid clip. Besides, if you go a bit slower you might do things safer. There is no reason to race here.

Overall the difference in time for cutting 50 strips is probably no more than 5 or 10 minutes, which is something like 20 seconds extra per strip. Compare the prices on the bigger and the smaller blades and decide if it is worth it. Paul Jacobson