Kapex blade alternative

[Sam Beagle]

Have a kapex for a couple years now. I have gone through 3 kapex blades now. There not cheap. I only use the saw for cutting hardwood flooring. Oak, hickory, Brazilian cherry,walnut, mostly.
The cut quality of the kapex blade is good. But I would like to get more out of them. The Festool uses a different size arbor. Any thoughts.

[Mike Henderson]

Do you have the Kapex blade sharpened when it gets dull?

Mike

[Sam Beagle]

No. never have. I was under the assumption that they couldn't be sharpened

[Darcy Warner]

Had my factory blade sharpened 20 times at least.

[Van Huskey]

While there are plenty of brands that sell 260mm 30mm arbor blades if you have three blades to sharpen based on 3 blades in 2 years use just get them sharpened and you won't have to buy a new blade for over a decade.

[mreza Salav]

What is special about them that you didn't get them sharpened? I have sharpened my Festool blade at least 3 times and plenty still left to go.

[Patrick Walsh]

My local sharpering shop sharpens my original Kapex blade. I will admit it is not anywhere near as good as it was new but still pretty darn good.

Tenru make three Kapex blades. Only one of them i think the "80 tooth miter pro" is near the quality of a new Kapex blade. I have yet to try it but that is what i read and what my saw sharpener tells me his clients say.

I have a 72 tooth Tenry silencer on my job site saw and its ok but only Ok. My Forrest Woodworker is much better.

Contrast that to the Tenru 40t Gold Medal blade i just put on my table saw and it impresses me more than any blade i have used to date. Tenru overall has kinda impresed me.

The two pack Festool sells seem to be the deal to me. Doing hardewood flooring upyou may not have much interest ina 80t blade though?

[Van Huskey]

^ Tenryu. .

[Patrick Walsh]

My bad,

Im king of the typo. Combine not really being able to spell with always being in a rush when posting you get Tenru instead if Tenryu..

What you gonna do......... .


^ Tenryu. .

[Van Huskey]

My bad,

Im king of the typo. Combine not really being able to spell with always being in a rush when posting you get Tenru instead if Tenryu..

What you gonna do......... .


I probably have you beat I am at least a prince of typos, the only reason I added the correction was if someone wanted to search for them.

[Patrick Walsh]

I will admit a first i thought you were handing out to me. Maybe im a tad on defence as it clear most dont care much for my woodpeckers DP table stance.

Half way through my response i did think maybe Van is just making the correction for the OP.

Either way non of it is a big deal.

Tenryu blades are pretty sweet..


I probably have you beat I am at least a prince of typos, the only reason I added the correction was if someone wanted to search for them.

[Rich Riddle]

Do yourself a favor and find a good sharpening service in your area. That said, I do like the Tenryu blades and have them on several saws in the shop.

[peter gagliardi]

I have used Tenryu blades in the past and they have been excellent. However I have bought a couple different Tenryu options for the Kapex from Carbide Processors. I am a lot less than impressed with the cut quality of the Tenryus on a Kapex- marginal to poor. And I have sent one or two back to CP thinking I got a bad blade, but its just not a good fit for that saw. I'm not overly impressed with the stock kapex blade, but its better than any of the tenryus i have.

[Sam Beagle]

Great info. Thanks all. Our local place told me that he couldn't sharpen the Festool blade for some odd reason.

[Edwin Santos]

My local sharpering shop sharpens my original Kapex blade. I will admit it is not anywhere near as good as it was new but still pretty darn good.

Tenru make three Kapex blades. Only one of them i think the "80 tooth miter pro" is near the quality of a new Kapex blade. I have yet to try it but that is what i read and what my saw sharpener tells me his clients say.

I have a 72 tooth Tenry silencer on my job site saw and its ok but only Ok. My Forrest Woodworker is much better.

Contrast that to the Tenru 40t Gold Medal blade i just put on my table saw and it impresses me more than any blade i have used to date. Tenru overall has kinda impresed me.

The two pack Festool sells seem to be the deal to me. Doing hardewood flooring upyou may not have much interest ina 80t blade though?

Another vote here for Tenryu blades. I'd have to remain silent on the Silencer series never having used one, but I have a Miter Pro in the miter saw and just bought a 60 tooth PR series crosscut blade which cuts beautifully, amazingly quiet. I don't know if this means anything, but I have noticed around here that you will see Forrest blades more among the hobbyists and maybe a few artisan woodworkers, but I tend to see Tenryu and Leitz blades in the commercial shops.

[Van Huskey]

Great info. Thanks all. Our local place told me that he couldn't sharpen the Festool blade for some odd reason.

A couple of years ago Forrest started refusing to sharpen Festool blades, can't remember the reason and don't know if they ever started again. I think most high tech places can sharpen them but the one that keeps popping up on FOG that people love is LA Grinding http://www.lagrinding.com/ I imagine the vast majority of the major sharpeners probably do them too, Ridge, Cooks, Burns, etc.

BTW Leitz makes the OEM Festool blades, not sure if they have blades for them under their own name.

[Curt Harms]

Great info. Thanks all. Our local place told me that he couldn't sharpen the Festool blade for some odd reason.

If it were me, I'd talk to dynamic saw in Buffalo, They appear to have pretty sophisticated grinding gear.

[Van Huskey]

If it were me, I'd talk to dynamic saw in Buffalo, They appear to have pretty sophisticated grinding gear.

Dynamic is excellent and indeed on the high tech end. You want to see equipent like in the link below where they sharpen your blades.

http://www.cookssharpening.com/id3.html