Anyone tried the Irwin Marples saw blades?

[John Donofrio]

Thoughts if you have? Are they as good, similar or better than Freud?

[Will Boulware]

I bought one recently to hold me over until I could get my Freud Fusion sharpened. Paid $37 and change for the combination blade. Caveat - I've never used a Forrest or Tenryu or anything aside from BORG junk and the aforementioned Freud Fusion.

On to the Marples. First and foremost, it is NOT the equal of a Freud. To this day, I'm amazed at the cut quality Freud manages, and I'm sure the other high end makers have a similar offering that is just as awe-inspiring. However, the marples is about 85% as clean as the freud, and it's less than half the price. I do a lot of hand tool work and don't consider a table saw cut to be glue-ready, etc. so I hit everything with a plane after sawing it anyway. Given these parameters, it does a fantastic job for my purposes, and I'd happily recommend it to anyone. The teeth have a lot of carbide on them, and it crosscuts and rips without leaving very noticable tool marks on the board. My next few blades will probably come from Carbide Processors as they've got some interesting things I want to try, but if you're looking for a good everyday blade and don't expect glue joints from a tablesaw, it's a great option at a great price.

[John Donofrio]

Thanks for the info Will. I may pick one up to use as a utility blade for roughing out stock just to give it a try.

Thanks again.

[Bill White]

I'm not one to experiment with blades. Freud, Forrest, and Infinity are in my arsenal. Each has a specific application, and I'm well pleased with the choices.
I did buy some Onsrud blades while they were on the Bay. Wish I had a complete set of these over-the-top quality blades.
Just remember that the borgs are selling price-point items for hobby shop users.. I'll stick with the pro shop blades.
Bill

[Gus Dundon]

No. I'd never tried Irwin though my first impression was they have pretty saws.

[Lewis Ehrhardt]

I bought the 50-tooth blade with raker. I've been using the Diablo blades. The Marples seems to be about the same as them. I'd buy one again.

[scott spencer]

I've yet to try the Irwin Marples line, but they look well made, and I'm hearing good things from users. It's worth noting that the Marples "Woodworking" line appears to be a big departure from the junk they sell in the Irwin Marathon and Classic series. Years ago Irwin sold a very good "Woodworker" series of blades that was made by Leitz in Germany, but they were discontinued....nice to see them resurrect that line.

Will, in my experience, there will be precious few general purpose or combo blades that cut as cleanly as the Freud Fusion blade....the Infinity Super General is very similar, and both have the upper hand in cut quality over most premium 40T blades like the WWII 40T, TS2000, and Gold Medal (as good as they are). I haven't tried Forrests new 48T WWII, but that one should fare pretty well against the Fusion and SG.

[Lee Abter]

Lumberjocks has a well done review, comparing the Marples 50T ATBR (model 1838183) with the Freud D1050x. Marples came out on top. BUT the big box store known for carrying Irwin stuff has 19 comments on the Marples. I noticed something very disturbing: All the customer comments from 2013 were 5 star, best-in-class raves (Lumberjocks was a 2012 review). But ALL the later comments (2014-2015) were one star, total garbage, save your money, run away fast. This makes me wonder if Irwin changed something? I have no horse in this game…just a DIYer looking for a blade with good quality/price combination.

[Bob Bouis]

I have the 24-tooth rip blade on my table saw and it's done very well for me. Stayed sharp through a lot of cutting. And at like $30 each (can be had cheaper) they're almost cheaper than having a blade sharpened.

If you look closely at the negative reviews at the big box store site, there's actually only a couple of them, and a few don't sound like they know what they're doing. Table saws are tricky and blades can be blamed for all sorts of problems that aren't their fault.