Adrian
Even though the books seem to suggest that I should have a collection of blades and be willing to switch blades all the time, the reality is that I just use the blade that's already on the saw. The current blade is a cheap 1/2" 3 tpi blade that's been on the saw for about 7 years, so I suspect I can get better performance with a new blade. This blade size has been mostly OK. Occasionally I run into the turning radius limit, but not much. Note also that I do not have a table saw, so the bandsaw is it.

So I'm looking for a blade that I can use for cutting materials usually 1/2" - 2" thick, but with occasional resawing up to 10". I've done all these things with the current blade. It would be nice if blade lead was reduced so that the slot on the table was usable. (I read in one of the bandsaw books that carbide blades eliminate blade lead. I also read of somebody decreasing lead by adjusting the tracking on his saw. I have a significant amount of lead.)

In old posts on this forum somebody said that on Lonnie Bird's recommendation he was using the carbide tipped Lennox Trimaster 3/8" 3/4 tpi variable blade as a general purpose blade and it was fantastic. However, this blade has a thickness of 0.035" and Duginske says that running such a thick band on a 14" saw will lead to premature failure of the band---something I really don't want to encounter if I shell out for that expensive blade. Any thoughts on this? I couldn't figure out the size of the kerf for this thing. Is it huge? Can I resaw with this 3/8" blade? People talk about the trimaster blades producing a smooth finish. Can it produce a smooth finish for cutting curves?

Are there any other carbide blades that might be better suited to general purpose use on a 14" saw? The trimaster 1/2" is thinner (0.025") but doesn't come with the variable teeth. I have read that carbide blades require more tension, which seems odd---I don't want something beyond the capacity of my Grizzly G0555.

If I don't go with carbide I think I want bimetal so that I don't have to worry about rapid dulling. Any comments on a general purpose bimetal blade?

What's your favorite general purpose blade?