WW II Blades

[Harry Niemann]

Does anyone else notice excess vibration with WWII blades. Have a brand new 10" 40 Tooth 1/8" kerf blade which causes more vibration than my $20.00 Harbor Freight blade. I am using 2" diameter stiffeners with it.

[Kevin Stricker]

Remove the stiffeners, there is no reason to use them with a standard kerf blade. Mine cuts smooth as silk.

[Stephen Olson]

Mine is also super smooth. I have a set of stabilizers, but I don't need them with this blade.

[Doug Morgan]

Same here. The only time I use a stiffener is when its the thin kerf blade

[scott spencer]

That's not normal for a WWII.

[glenn bradley]

If it vibrates with the stiffeners off, contact Forrest. I got a poor WW-II and didn't know any better than to just blame the blade. Even the best companies sometimes let one through QA in error. I finally took it to my local sharpening service and it cuts as nice as any of my Freuds now. If the blade is questionable, contact them. They will stand behind it.

[Ted Baca]

I have a number ow Forrest blades and just replaced a WWII as my SawStop ate it. But I have never had an issue, however as Glenn states, Forrest will take care of you. Send it back to them after you get a RA# and they will fix or replace it, if it is new. Great blades I run no other brand on my TS or Mitre.

[Harry Niemann]

Forrest has admitted it could have sneaked past quality control. They are replacing it free including free return shipping.

[Paul Incognito]

Good to hear, Harry. I've been using the WWII in my miter saw and table saw and have not had any problems, but it's nice to hear about a company that will stand behind their products.
Paul

[Terry Beadle]

I've been using a 1/8 inch kurf WWII that I got at the show for $98 for two years. No vibration. Using one stiffener.

I'm sure the replacement from Forrest will correct the issue. They are great blades IMO. Very satisfied customer here and the dado blade set is also very good.

[Ted Baca]

Terry, do you really feel the stiffener is necessary on the 1/8" Blade? I have wrestled with this myself. I used to run thin kerf blades with a stiffener and when I bought my new saw, so I sold those all with the saw. So I switched back to the 1/8 kerf for reasons that I had more power, stiifer blade and the easier math(1/8 is easier than 3/32" for my little brain to work with). But I wonder if I would gain anything, have you noticed a difference with or with out and what differences can you share with me?

[Chris Fournier]

Blades are actually "tensioned" by the manufacturer to run true at specified RPM ranges. I bought some sour running 12" blades a while back and I returned them to be re-worked, they were certainly better but not 100% after they were re-tensioned. I have since changed tooling suppliers.

I use a single stiffener on all of my blades which are 1/8". I have tested stiffened and unstiffened cuts in various wooden materials as well as in plastic and aluminum. I am convinced that the quality of the cut is superior with the stiffener in most all instances.

[Harvey Pascoe]

I suppose that depends a lot on the individual blade. I've got two WWII and I've tested both with and without the stiffener, one seems to do better with and the other no change either way so obviously one blade is out a tad.

When checking this be sure there is no resin build up on the sides of the teeth. That is often the cause of rougher cuts.

[Terry Beadle]

I put the stiffener on the 1/8th blade out of habit more than need. The 1/8th blade would probably be fine by itself but I cut a lot of hardwood. My thinking is that the stiffener keeps the blade from following any grain variations in knarly wood pieces. It does limit the depth of cut a bit but I work around that on the rare occasions that's needed. I particularly like the stiffened blade for squaring the edge of thick stock. It barely needs any hand plane work for a great glue line and it's with in 2 thou of square even in tough stock.

Put me down as agreeing with Chris Fournier. I also use a stiffener on my Craftsman RAS which has a 3/32 WWII. Really great end grain cuts, most time better than I can put on with a LN LA Jack.

I think the most important thing is the sharpness of the teeth. The stiffener just aids it's work.

[scott spencer]

I suppose that depends a lot on the individual blade. I've got two WWII and I've tested both with and without the stiffener, one seems to do better with and the other no change either way so obviously one blade is out a tad.

When checking this be sure there is no resin build up on the sides of the teeth. That is often the cause of rougher cuts.

Agreed....it also depends a lot on the saw's runout and vibration. A saw that has very low runout should see less benefit from a stiffener than one that has noticeable vibration or runout issues. I've made several test cuts with and without the stiffener and could never seem to notice any significant differences. That's not saying that others who've noticed differences are incorrect, but I believe there are several variables in play that contribute to the overall results that may or may not be part of the discussion. A stiffener is something I generally don't recommend buying just because the manufacturer suggests it....wait until there's a need.

[Stephen Olson]

Terry, do you really feel the stiffener is necessary on the 1/8" Blade? I have wrestled with this myself. I used to run thin kerf blades with a stiffener and when I bought my new saw, so I sold those all with the saw. So I switched back to the 1/8 kerf for reasons that I had more power, stiifer blade and the easier math(1/8 is easier than 3/32" for my little brain to work with). But I wonder if I would gain anything, have you noticed a difference with or with out and what differences can you share with me?

I have run my thin kerf WWII both with and without the stabilizers, and I didn't notice any difference either way.

[Harry Niemann]

Forrest has replaced the blade and even paid shipping, New blade works great.

[Mark Engel]

Nice to know Forrest stands behind their products.

[ian maybury]

This is a general point and not a specific comment on Harry's situation. The presumption is always that the blade is at fault when we get vibration - but I guess if you were unlucky enough to have a saw spindle that was slightly under size this could cause major vibration too as a result of the blade mounting off centre. It wouldn't necessarily be even consistently so in that there could be some pot luck involved which would determine where the blade sat on the arbour.

The same applies in respect of stiffeners I guess. They sound like the sort of thing to not use unless they are needed to address a specific problem...

ian