Do I really need a rip blade?

[Rich Engelhardt]

I have a Freud Glue Line Rip blade - two in fact since I bought them on sale for a price too good to pass up.
I also have a Frued 26 tooth thin kerf blade for anything over 4/4 or 5/4.

I spend a lot of time swapping out my rip blade for a 40 tooth combo blade.
Since i nearly always cut 3/4" stock, would I be better served just getting a good combination blade and leave that in the saw?

I don't mind the added time it takes to swap out the blades, but, it does seem a waste to spend more time swapping out the blade than actually making the cut a lot of the time when I only have a cut or two to make.

My saw is a Ridged TS 3660 contractor saw - and so far, it's been working just fine with the regular kerf GLR blade - but - I'd probably go with a thin kerf combo blade.

I'm also open to recommendations for a very good combination blade.
Is the Forrest WWII still considered "the best"?

[Steve Rozmiarek]

It's never a popular opinion when I say this, but you do not gain anything by switching blades between a good combo and a rip for normal use. Unless you are trying to rip something thick and fast (don't do this expecting a clean cut), there is no benefit in my opinion to a dedicated rip blade and the time wasted changing them is better devoted somewhere else. Further, I have yet to see a dedicated rip blade that does a better job than a good combo for cut quality. I personally would not use a thin kerf anything, the stiffer thicker sawplate is worth the extra kerf width in my opinion.

I have several WWII and they are good blade. There are several others who have blades of the same caliber now, arguably better.

[Rob Luter]

I use a dedicated rip blade only when I'm setting up to make a number of rip cuts, or when I'm cutting multiple flat bottom grooves for drawer bottoms or corner splines on mitered boxes. I have a good combo blade that will rip just fine, but the dedicated rip blade offers an easier cut and leaves a cleaner finish.

[Lee Schierer]

Your saw has a 1.5 hp motor, which is plenty of power for most cabinet making and hobby woodworking. If you are consistently cutting 5/4 and thicker stock you probably need to consider a bigger saw. I find on my 1 hp saw that I get superior cuts wit dedicated 60 tooth cross cuts and 30 tooth ripping blades. I use Freud blades almost exclusively. .

I change blades on my saw fairly often and it takes me less than 2 minutes each time. Try to think ahead and plan your cuts to some degree so that you make less frequent blade changes.

IMO compromise is a more appropriate name for a combination tool of any sort. It will get the job done, but not as well as a dedicated tool.

Woodworking is best done at a steady pace, rushing through a project leads to errors and possible injury.

[Rege Sullivan]

If I'm satisfied with the quality and speed of the cut I stick with a combo blade... if I'm getting any burning or the cut isn't smooth enough I'll switch to a ripping blade.

[Jim Becker]

It's never a popular opinion when I say this, but you do not gain anything by switching blades between a good combo and a rip for normal use.

I personally agree with this. I use one blade (12" WW-II 48T ATB) for pretty much everything unless there is a clear advantage to using my aggressive ripping blade. (WW-II 20T ripping 10") Now if I were going to be doing an all day "rip a thon", the time for the change could be justified by the slightly better results that are possible with an optimized blade, but switching back and forth for routine work...nope.

[Ron Selzer]

I keep a rip blade on the 5 hp SawStop and a crosscut on the Radial Arm Saws along with the panel saws
Switching out to a dado blade only when necessary

[David Lageman]

I use a dedicated rip blade only when I'm setting up to make a number of rip cuts, or when I'm cutting multiple flat bottom grooves for drawer bottoms or corner splines on mitered boxes. I have a good combo blade that will rip just fine, but the dedicated rip blade offers an easier cut and leaves a cleaner finish.

I shall simply say this is what I would have said!

[Jim Dwight]

My table saw is a 1.75hp PCS and it wears a 50 tooth combination blade or a 40 tooth combination blade, both Freud, most of the time. Sometimes I put in a 50 tooth Infinity combination blade. The Freuds are thin kerf and the Infinity is full kerf. The 50 tooth blades have 10 flat top raker teeth so they work fine for something like a dado in drawers for the bottom. The need for the ripping blade depends on the wood. For me, it is both the thickness and the straightness. If the wood keeps trying to close on the blade, it consumes power and makes the ripping blade more necessary. Sometimes I even have to jamb a wedge into the kerf. But 8 quarter hardwood means ripping blade and probably the thin kerf one (Freud). I also have both riving knives and the thin one SawStop offers works far better for thin kerf blades - it is also not expansive (a pleasant surprise for this brand).

Unless the wood is problematic, a full kerf combination blade works fine for 4 quarter stock in my saw. I built an entire dresser, for instance, with 10 drawers mostly out of cherry and used nothing but my full kerf infinity combination blade. Ripping blade in my shop is purely for problematic wood or really thick wood. Normally 1.5 inch thick wood is still very doable for the combination blade.

I've been making furniture for about 50 years now and have never had a 220V table saw. I work with any thickness of any wood my project needs. I have to change blades sometimes when I wouldn't with a 3hp or 5hp saw but 110V table saws will make any project the "big" saws will. They just are not as tolerant of using the "wrong" blade or a dirty or dull blade. I am specifically saying that 3+ inch deep rips in hardwood are completely possible and not even at all dramatic with my saw, I just have to use a thin kerf ripping blade that is clean and fairly sharp. Feed rate can be normal. I have no problem with people wanting more hp but I do have a problem with any suggestion that it is necessary to get the work done. I have too much experience in the other direction to accept that conclusion.

[John TenEyck]

Curious, I've never found a combination blade to be much good for anything on my 1 or 1.5 hp saws. They don't crosscut as cleanly as a crosscut blade nor rip as well as a ripping blade. Sort of like all season tires compared to real summer and winter tires. They get the job done but not nearly as well as ones designed for that specific task. Changing blades is just the price of admission for quality cuts.

John

[ChrisA Edwards]

My experience, I have a 3HP SawStop PCS. I generally use a Forrest WWII Combo blade.

Usually at the start of a project, I go through the ripping phase. At this point I put on a Forrest Thin Kerf 20T rip blade, 2 minutes change over.

The rip blade cuts so much better/easier than the 40T Combo blade, especially on hard maple and Purpleheart. It leaves fewer burn marks and at times, it's tough to feel the difference between the jointed and the newly sawn edge.

I would not be without this rip blade.

[Peter Kelly]

As most of my blades were badly in need of a sharpening, I bought one of Infinity's Super General Combination blades to fill in while everything was at Dynamic Saw. I was never a fan of combination blades in the past but this one is amazing. I'll still switch out to an 80 or 60 tooth TCG for plywood but will definitely be leaving the Infinity one on the saw for the mean time, cut quality is awesome in solid woods.

[Jim Becker]

Curious, I've never found a combination blade to be much good for anything on my 1 or 1.5 hp saws. They don't crosscut as cleanly as a crosscut blade nor rip as well as a ripping blade. Sort of like all season tires compared to real summer and winter tires. They get the job done but not nearly as well as ones designed for that specific task. Changing blades is just the price of admission for quality cuts.

There are differences between various "combo" blades which shouldn't be surprising. Some do better than others but it certainly is true that there is always a compromise with something that's "all purpose". It comes down to a subjective decision about what's acceptable to the individual. For the blades I use, I'm genuinely happy with the results I get, but in the early days of my woodworking when I thought even a 50 blade was uber expensive, the results were not even close to current. Some of that is likely technique, but again, different blades perform better or worse.

What would be super nice would be to have a shop large enough to have multiple machines that are dedicated to specific kinds of cuts. But that ain't gonna happen for me for sure...

[Mel Fulks]

In one employment guys would fill the place with smoke by trying to rip 8/4 rough lumber with an 80 tooth saw. Took more time ...but
saved labor ! The foreman seldom left his desk , a pretty smoke proof place with a glass front.

[glenn bradley]

So much depends on what you are doing. I have combo blades and use them to break things down. I rarely use them for final cuts on things. Many folks never use an edge or surface right off a machine so the quality of that cut becomes a work-saver of varying degrees.

I do have a set of dedicated purpose blades that I use as the job requires. Since it takes less time to swap a blade than to wash your hands I tend to do it without much remorse. I am also set up to do it. My tools and blades are at hand.

To rip thick stock I use a rip blade. To crosscut a show face on fibrous woods I will grab an 80 tooth cutter. I use a combo blade . . . a lot. I also have 24, 30, 50, 55, 60 and 80 tooth cutters in the quiver. In the end, what works for you is correct and I am always interested in hearing what other do.

[Mark Carlson]

90% of my cuts are rip cuts and the other 10% are plywood cross cuts. So given that I mostly use a rip blade and put in a plywood crosscut blade when necessary. The majority of my cross cuts are done on a festool kapex. I started out using combo blades and have most brands. I just dont use them anymore and prefer the blade designed for the operation.

[Jeff Roltgen]

I'm in the rip blade camp. Favorite as of late is 24T Freud thin kerf. 1.75HP Jet supersaw - like close to 20 yrs old( yes, a saw-stop is near top of wish list!). It struggled in previous location, as they had installed a 208V commercial transformer on that building. You wouldn't believe how your tools suffer from that seemingly minor amount of power reduction, but boy was it evident ripping hardwoods.

Combo blade- haven't bought one or used one in years. Since getting a CNC almost 10 yrs ago, TS almost never cuts sheet goods = it's 90% ripping hardwoods = rip blade stays on most of the time.
I do have a miter sled that's used fairly regularly on the TS, and I chuck up a Makita 80 tooth miter saw blade and enjoy dang-near perfection with it on those cuts.

Not knocking combos - just fortunate to have the variety of tools that the table saw just doesn't need to be the jack of all trades it was when I started woodworking.

[Mike Kees]

I have two dedicated rip blades. That being said they only come out when I have 10 or more pieces (whole lift of lumber) usually thicker stuff to rip. More lately they just collect dust as my big bandsaw is a lumber ripping beast with less material "consumed with the smaller kerf.

[Eric Arnsdorff]

I actually agree with both sides if that’s possible. But I’ll throw in another factor that amazed me and that’s the table saw itself.
I’m a hobbyist and used an old Craftsman contractor saw (1.5-2 hp ... I don’t recall exactly) that I bought new 25+ years ago. With it the thin kerf rip blades were a necessity for thicker hardwoods and even thick softwood. I could get good crosscuts with a higher tooth crosscut blade and would overuse it on rips. A combo blade was also used often to avoid blade changes but it was thin kerf as well. And granted this was when I thought there was no point in paying for an expensive blade. Also, over the years and use my table saw bearings allowed some movement/vibration along with other areas of out of square and such (not badly - it was and still is a very good saw for someone).

Then I bought my 5 hp industrial Unisaw running at a higher rpm as well as the increased hp. Wow what a difference that made! Then I bought a high end combination blade from Ridge Carbide. The power, speed and precision made nearly perfect cuts as long as I could feed the wood straight through (then I bought the JessEm guides and other items to help with that). It has enough power and speed that it could rip thick hardwoods with the combination blade and literally was like cutting butter. It cut so easily it really took a bit to get over the fear of the power it has (I use the blade guard when possible and other safety items). If I have a lot of rough thicker hardwood to break down I will put a thin kerf rip blade on just to save my combo blade. But the saw itself has no problem with the full kerf combo blade ripping 2-3” hardwoods.

So my take on it is the lower the power and speed the bigger factor the saw blades become as well as the necessity to change blades. I’ll also agree the better blades do make a difference as well with minimal runout and proper tooth grinds as well as big pieces of carbide to resharpen and keep for life (I now have a couple of ridge carbide blades to send one for resharpening).

[Jacob Mac]

I just built another Roubo bench made out of rough 8/4 soft maple. I got better results with a dedicated rip blade. The quality of the cut was noticeably better/easier than the first bench I made when I used a combination blade

[Frank Pratt]

The Freud Premier Fusion is an excellent combo blade. Even in 8/4 hardwood it cuts almost as well as either of my rip blades. And the cut is extremely smooth. Very good value too. So call me a philistine, but that combo blade probably does 95% of the cutting on my saw.

[Curt Putnam]

When I had a Ridgid TS, I had and used a Freud 30T ripper for anything over 4/4. Now that I have a 3hp SS PCS and a Grizzly BS, I try to do the major ripping on the BS and a "finish" cut on the TS with a WW II combo blade.

[johnny means]

It's worth mentioning that any blade makes any cut well when it's fresh out of the packaging. The real test only comes when the teeth stop being razor sharp and the blades design starts carrying the weight.

[Mel Fulks]

I don’t think it’s been mentioned here that ripping without a rip saw can make heat. That can cause the wood to pinch the saw, then the
saw will propel the wood forward and above saw table. That will startle even the experienced, and it’s not always the operator who takes the
hit.

[Mike Henderson]

I use a good quality combination blade for most of my work, switching to a rip blade only when I need to rip big stuff. I take boards that will be glued to the jointer after I cut it and before gluing up a panel.

Mike

[Dave Zellers]

So...
The consensus to Rich's question is yes.
Or no.
Or maybe.

My answer is yes. They rip wood like a hot knife through buttah. If you will then joint that edge, as so many here do, then yes, if you can afford one, get one. And if you do have a jointer, there is no need to spend extra on a 'glue line rip' blade since you will clean up that edge after ripping. But yeah, a good rip blade will cut through 5 or 6 or even 8 quarter hardwood without even blinking.

[andy bessette]

I never change blades. Instead I have 1 Unisaw setup with a carbide rip blade and a 2nd Unisaw setup with a carbide combination blade. The rip blade is noticeably faster at ripping than the combination blade, which I often rip with. Also have a contractors saw setup with a carbide 1/2" dado stack that I use for rabbeting.

[Rich Engelhardt]

So...
The consensus to Rich's question is yes.
Or no.
Or maybe.
Yep the good old "depends" :D :D .

Since my favorite wood is Cherry - I suppose the best practice would be to continue on using my Glue Line Rip blades - until they dull and begin burning.

I do believe I'll also invest in a decent combination blade. (I'll start a new thread for that one since it's been some time since there's been a thread about that)

[Jason White]

I use my Forrest WWII combination blade for almost everything, but I switch to my glue line rip if I'm going to be ripping a lot of hardwood and want an (almost) glue-ready edge.

[Mike Wilkins]

I would still recommend a glue line rip blade dedicated to nothing but ripping. They do give you a glue ready surface as long as your saw is set up properly. I get surfaces ready for the glue all the time, so for me it is worth the time to change over. I use a full kerf (1/8" kerf) blade which I prefer.
I also use this full kerf blade for grooving.

[Charles Coolidge]

Define glue ready surface from a glue line rip blade? I have always used a combo blade for everything, RC TS2000, WW but always seem to get a bit of burning on maple. Picked up a Freud glue line rip blade recently but haven't tried it. The RC TS2000 produces a glossy smooth finish, how will the rip blade compare?

[Rich Aldrich]

Combination blades lived on my saw for nearly 20 years. I had a project for work that involved ripping 300 bdft of rough sawn hard maple so they bought me a few blades for my efforts.
I picked up a Freud 24 tooth glue line rip. I am so impressed that I don’t plan on using my combination blades again.
It proved to me that combination blades are a compromise. The gullet is sized to handle the wood waste without burning.
I have an Freud 80 tooth cross cut blade that works very well for for plywood and limber.