Saw Blades

[Lynn Reid]

Hi...Id like to know how many different blades you guys use in your woodworking...excepting dado or other specialty blades. Do you use combination blades or use separate blades for ripping and crosscutting? Under what circumstances do you change blades (other than ripping and crosscutting)? Thanks!

Lynn

[Philip Rodriquez]

I'm lazy so I usually use a Forrest WWII combo blade. However, I do have blades for ripping and crosscutting... The cross cutting blade comes out for the nice sheet goods. This allows you to avoid tear-out.

[Erik Christensen]

table saw - ridge carbide rip and plywood blade - unless I am making something that I don't care about (jig parts, etc) I always change the blade

RAS - ridge carbide crosscut blade

[Victor Robinson]

I generally leave a 40 or 50T combo blade on the saw for just about everything. Usually it's a Freud. I also have a 40T WWII which comes out when I want the best possible cut quality.

For thick material (1.5" hardwood), I'll switch to a dedicated 24T for rips. When I want the absolute minimum tearout of plywood or veneer during crosscutting, I'll switch to a 80T.

Realistically, I could do most of what I need to do with a combo blade. But for some projects or particular woods, I need to take extra care to avoid chip-out and that's where the perfect blade for the job can make a difference. Believe it or not, end-grain cutting boards are an excellent stress test for your sawblade.

[dave toney]

Like Philip, I use a Forrest woodworker II combination blade for most work, it will crosscut plywood better than most plywood blades with almost no chipping, it cuts better dull than most blades will when brand new.
I had a hard time spending the money, but I have never regretted it.

[scott spencer]

I use combination blades most of the time, but do pull out a 60T or 80T Hi-ATB plywood blade for fine ply cuts, or ultrafine crosscuts in hardwood. I'll also use a 20T rip blade for heavy duty ripping jobs....the rip blade is more efficient but doesn't cut as cleanly as a good 40T or 50T combo blade. It really depends on how critical the cut is...most of the time the combo blades are "good nuff" and leave a glue ready edge, other times I want the benefit of a blade with less tearout.
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y203/hewood/Woodpic006-2.jpg

[glenn bradley]

Dado stack in its case, one on the saw and the rest just to the right of the saw in this silly rack that I made years ago.

191975

I fouled some real nice material once by trying to continue once a blade required sharpening. Now I keep at least two of each main-use blade on hand so that I always have one sharp and ready to go. 80T crosscut, 40T roughing and 24T rip blades plus a few special purpose. Keep spares and don't procrastinate when sharpening is required, stay happy :D

[Kyle Iwamoto]

I too have a Forrest WWII in my table saw most of the time. I also have a Freud Glue Line Rip and a BORG Freud cheapo blade for recycled wood. I personally have not regretted buying the Forrest, but there are many that say they are not worth the money.
Just my $0.02.

[Shawn Pixley]

I keep a WWII as the typical blade. But for ripping stock over 4/4 I use a specialized rip. For sheet goods (almost never) is use an 80 tooth ply blade. In addition to the dado, I have a crosscut on the SCMS, and special grind WWII for miter feathers.

[Ray Newman]

"Now I keep at least two of each main-use blade on hand so that I always have one sharp and ready to go. 80T crosscut, 40T roughing and 24T rip blades plus a few special purpose. Keep spares and don't procrastinate when sharpening is required, stay happy."
-- Glenn Bradley

BINGO!

[johnny means]

I'm a blade changer. Never met a combo blade I liked and I don't mind switching blades. My tooth counts, on my 10" blades, are all either in the 20s or higher than 80 ATBs. My slider blades 12' - 16" similar, but with higher tooth counts. I have a lot of blades but for descriptive purposes I only use two blades a rip blade and a crosscut cut.

[Dave Gaul]

In the table saw, I use a Freud 50T Combo for "rough" stock, a Freud 24T for ripping good stock, a Freud 80T for fine crosscuts & ply, a Freud 80T Melamine/Laminate blade, and the Ridgid 40T GP blade that came with my saw (R4511) that I use for "really rough" stuff.
In the miter saw, I generally use the Ryobi 24T blade that came with it, if I need a cleaner cut I use a Freud 60T blade.

I am anxious to try the Infinity Super General blade, but I will wait until some of the above blades wear out!

[Rod Sheridan]

As many have said, sharp blades are important, I have a spare for each of my blades.

- 24 tooth rip, one 10", one 12"

- 80 tooth crosscut

- 80 tooth TCG

- one cheap blade for when the neighbourhood kid comes over with his prized piece of plywood he found in a ditch, no spare

- one 80mm scoring blade, no spare

I normally buy FS Tools blades, made locally, exceptional quality and a great grinding service

regards, Rod.

[Mike Schuch]

For my RAS I have:
3 x Freud 15" ultimate cut off blades (Still using the 1st blade I bought 10 years ago but I scored a deal on them from ebay so I picked up a couple extras).
1 x Sysmatic general pupose blade (Never, ever gets used. Screams like a banchi!)

For my PM65 Table saw I have:
10" Freud glue line rip blade.
10" Fine tooth plywood/laminate blade.

For my PM 71 Table saw I have:
12" Dewalt combination blade.
(I just finished rebuilding this saw so I haven't invested in a proper ripping blade yet. The Dewalt is out of a chop saw and I have been using it for adjusting and testing the saw.)

I don't like changing blades but I like to use the right blade for the job and not some combination blade that is just pretty good for the job.

[Chris Tsutsui]

I just need two types of blades.

Ripping blade. I have a freud diablo standard kerf glue-line rip.

Combination blade. The standard benchmark blade everyone uses, the Woodworker II standard kerf. I think it's the 40T

I work a lot of with cheap ply for making big speakers and the ripping blade does just fine with plywood.

I do have some 60T generic carbide blade and the feedrate is too slow and it tends to burn wood. For safety reasons I would rather just spend the extra money on the better blades.

[Prashun Patel]

I have two: a 24T ripping blade and a 50T Combination blade. For most operations there's little difference between a 'Combination' blade and a 40T 'General Purpose' blade.

However, if like me, you like to make dados, splines, or box joints with your cross cutting blade instead of a dado stack, then you really should use a blade with a flat-bottom grind. Most 40T GP blades (like Freud's 72 series) have an ATB grind which'll leave a tiny little 'V' in the groove. The Combo blades (like Freud's 84 series) have an ATBR grind, which adds some raking flat teeth.

IMHO, these blades give you the best of all worlds: ok ripping power, good cross cutting without tearout, and smooth bottoms.

When ripping a bunch of stuff or going > 2", I still use a ripping blade. These are just so much easier to push stock thru, which makes me feel safer on those kinds of cuts.

[Jerome Hanby]

I use Freud crosscut and glueline rip blades. For sheet goods, I've got some thin kerf Freud Avanti (think that's the name) abpout which someone here posted a deal at HD. I've got a pretty high tooth count (60 I think) Freud on my Miter saw. It's entirely possible that I just like red saw blades (Avantis not withstanding)...