Am I using the correct blade?

[Sean Troy]

I'm using a 40 tooth Forrest WWII blade. Should I be using something different for ripping hardwoods? thanks, Sean

[Harold Burrell]

I'm using a 40 tooth Forrest WWII blade. Should I be using something different for ripping hardwoods? thanks, Sean

I am guessing that you are doing this ripping on a 10" tablesaw? If so, then you would want to rip with something more like a 24 tooth.

Around these here parts, we ain't got too much use fer no "combo blade"...;)

[Nathan Allen]

The WWII is a combination blade, albeit one of the best.

I'm going to say that as the everyday blade on your machine it is great, but if you're setting up one particular cut through you may want to go with a lower teeth dedicated ripping blade or a cross cut blade. A high quality, but still cheaper version of those blades will do a slightly better job at their dedicated task.

[Sean Troy]

Is there a ripping blade that I can still go straight to gluing?

[Jerome Hanby]

Is there a ripping blade that I can still go straight to gluing?

I use a Feud Glue Line Rip blade for all my "non-junk" ripping. I love it. I've got some junky combo blades that I use for cutting MDF and plywood.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

+1 for the Glue line rip. Good ripping blade. If I have a lot to rip, I change out the WW II. Not that you couldn't do the same with the WW II. I think it's a pretty good combo blade. Okay get your flame throwers out.

[Tom Esh]

Hard to beat a good dedicated rip blade but at the risk of sounding like a broken record, Forrest's 30-tooth WWII is much better at ripping and makes nearly as smooth xcuts as the 40 tooth. I started with their 40-tooth but these days it rarely gets used much except maybe for finish cuts on thin (~1/2" or less) stock. Otherwise the 30-tooth practically lives on my saw.

[Paul McGaha]

+2 on the Freud Glue Line Blade. I think there are some limits to the thickness of the stock though. I think it's not more than 1 1/4".

I use my table saw mainly for ripping and dado work and keep a glue line rip blade in it almost all the time.

PHM

[Chris Padilla]

I have Freud and CMT 24 tooth ripping blades. They both do well but there will also be some technique on your part for feeding your stock through a ripping blade.

I've found that you want to go a little bit faster than you might be used to. If you're burning the wood while ripping, speed up the feed rate. If your cut isn't as smooth as you think it should be, also try speeding up your feed rate. If speeding up the feed rate doesn't help either situation, get your blade sharpened or try another brand.

[glenn bradley]

As many opinions as there are woodworkers on this one ;-) I use 24T to rip, 80T to crosscut and 40T for when I am just making something smaller; not making a final cut. Feed rate and stock control will effect any cut so what you do during the cut will also change the outcome.

[Joe Spear]

A 40-tooth WWII works very well when I use it up to one inch thickness. I get glue-ready rips. For thicker wood, a 30-tooth WWII or 24-tooth glue line rip blade would be better.

[Sean Troy]

Thanks for the help. I'll start shopping:)

[Myk Rian]

Glue line rip up to 1", Avanti 50t combo for most everything else, a Diablo 24t for the heavier ripping, and a cabinetmaker for the fine crosscuts. All Freud.
The 24 tooth that came with my saw is for the nasty wood rips.

[Will Overton]

The Freud glue line rip blade is on my table saw 90 % of the time, since that is pretty much all I use my table saw for. I have several combo blades that I use while the rip blade is out for sharpening. I got a new saw today and I think I'll buy it a new rip blade. :)

I just ordered the full kerf 'red' version from Amazon for $58.99. According to Frozen Warrior that is Amazon's best price ever on that blade.

[Matt Kestenbaum]

I have an Amana 24T Rip Blade that does a great job...I recently cut legs for two bedside tables out of 8/4 cherry...a thick rip of a wood prone to burning. The faces were both pretty clean, but they were skimmed through the jointer and then planer for final dimensioning. If they were glueing up...might still have jointed the edge before glue-up.

I tend to think of a true rip blade in terms of the safety...those big gullets mean much less effort during the cut. That is both safer and makes for a cleaner cut. And no risk of bogging down the saw (3hp SS PCS).

During a bench building class a few weeks ago, we used an 18T monster to rip 2 5/8 Hard Maple...some of those were clean enough to glue up, others needing a skim on the jointer. Still nearly stalled a 5 HP SS ICS!

[Peter Quinn]

I use an amana eurorip for most of my ripping over 1". Less than 1" I may leave a combo blade on. Ripping with a dedicated blade made for the purpose makes things go a lot smoother. Well worth the money, and your combo blade will go a lot further between sharpenings too. Lots of good rip blades to choose from, Amana euro rip is my personal favorite.

[scott spencer]

... For thicker wood, a 30-tooth WWII or 24-tooth glue line rip blade would be better.

The 30T WWII will give really cleans rips up to about full blade height (depending on the saw and the material)....cuts nearly as cleanly as the 40T, but is notably more efficient in thick ripping. For really heavy duty thick ripping a 24T is a better choice for the saw, though not necessarily as clean cutting... the better 24T FTG rippers will still give glue ready edges...Freud Industrial LM72, Infinity 010-024/124, CMT 201.024.10/202.024.10, etc.

[Barry Lyndon]

I use a Feud Glue Line Rip blade for all my "non-junk" ripping. I love it. I've got some junky combo blades that I use for cutting MDF and plywood.

Man, do you guys really switch your table saw blade everytime you need to cut a different wood product? Or rip vs. crosscut? I must be a lazy wood worker but that seems like a huge pain. Out of curiosity, when should I be changing blades? Hardwood vs. softwood? Rip vs. Crosscut? Solid woods vs. ply or mdf?

[David Winer]

I guess I will wade into this. Definitely not an expert, but because of that I recently discussed "number of teeth" with an expert at Infinity. The gist of the selection process is thickness of the wood to be cut. Thin stuff needs a lot of teeth, thick stuff is better with few teeth. And in between...

I mentioned that woodworkers familiar with band saw blades advise a certain correct number of teeth in the wood. He seemed to agree that this is a similar situation. Unfortunately, I can't find the notes I took during the conversation but it seems like three or four teeth in the wood while cutting was about right. Perhaps someone can elaborate.

[Van Huskey]

I use the Frued LM74 for 6/4 and thinner, thicker I put on the Forrest 20T WWII which I call the gullet monster.

[Steve Schoene]

You can get glue joints that will hold together straight from the saw with a good blade and good technique, but you can't consistently get a GOOD glue joint, where the glue line disappears, leaving only a boundery where grain lines mysteriously start and stop. That requires a jointer (either machine or hand plane) and good technique to accomplish.

[Sean Troy]

You can get glue joints that will hold together straight from the saw with a good blade and good technique, but you can't consistently get a GOOD glue joint, where the glue line disappears, leaving only a boundery where grain lines mysteriously start and stop. That requires a jointer (either machine or hand plane) and good technique to accomplish.
I use a jointer most of the time but have just started practicing with a hand plane. Hand planes are very satisfying when the job comes out well.

[scott spencer]

I guess I will wade into this. Definitely not an expert, but because of that I recently discussed "number of teeth" with an expert at Infinity. The gist of the selection process is thickness of the wood to be cut. Thin stuff needs a lot of teeth, thick stuff is better with few teeth. And in between...

I mentioned that woodworkers familiar with band saw blades advise a certain correct number of teeth in the wood. He seemed to agree that this is a similar situation. Unfortunately, I can't find the notes I took during the conversation but it seems like three or four teeth in the wood while cutting was about right. Perhaps someone can elaborate.

Number of teeth is a pretty important parameter to cut quality, but so are the tooth grind and side grind geometries. IIRC, the rule of thumb is 3-5 teeth in the workpiece for ripping, and 5-7 in the piece for crosscutting. The higher end of that range should give the cleanest cut, but will also more prone to burning....feedrate is a variable that offset incorrect tooth count or side grind a bit, but it's less effective at offsetting the wrong grind.

[Jerome Hanby]

+2 on the Freud Glue Line Blade. I think there are some limits to the thickness of the stock though. I think it's not more than 1 1/4".

That could be. I've never had a pause with anything thinner than 5/4, but it did bog down a bit cutting 8/4 hard maple. I attributed that to my wimpy 1.5 HP Craftsman saw, but maybe I should have used a different blade, maybe a thin kerf rip blade?

I don't swap blades often. MY Freud Glue Line Rip is almost always on the table saw, I even crosscut with it if it's for a shop project. I do swap to a cheapo Irwin I got on sale for nasty stuff like MDF. For real projects, I will switch to a Freud 80t for crosscuts. Hoping once I get my RAS tuned up, it will be doing most of my crosscuts. Will have to find a good crosscut blade with negative hook for that..

[Will Overton]

Will have to find a good crosscut blade with negative hook for that..

Take a look at the Forrest Chopmaster.

[glenn bradley]

Is there a ripping blade that I can still go straight to gluing?

Told you there would be a lot of response on this thread :). I run a 24T Freud and a 24T Lietz. Either one will go straight to glue up. Most times the saw setup is the issue with poor surface results as opposed to the blade. Make sure your saw is aligned and many "decent" blades will suddenly cut like glass.