Recommend A 12" Rip Blade

[Joe Wood]

Folks! I need to rip a Bunch of 1x6 red balau / batu and I'd like some recommendations for a good 12" blade. I'm used to working softwoods mainly so need advice on this one!

[Michael Schuch]

Freud hairline rip blades are my standard blade for ripping. The thick kerf version will usually leave a finish so smooth it is almost mirror like on dense hardwood. The thin kerf version also leaves an excellent cut and takes less power and results in more board, less sawdust. I use a 12" thick kerf Freud hairline rip blade on my Powermatic 71 cabinet saw. It has a 5hp 3ph motor which handles full thickness cuts with the thick kerf rip blade easily on the hardest woods.

Both the Freud hairline Rip blade in thin and thick kerf will easily handle very hard wood and they do an excellent job on soft wood too. I use a fair amount of Ipe' which is another VERY dense hardwood that looks to have characteristics similar to red balau / batu and both my thin kerf 10" and thick kerf 12" Freud hairline rip blades handle the Ipe very well. These incredibly hard woods produce a VERY fine dust... a good real respirator is not optional no matter how good your dust collection is.

A well tuned and aligned saw will produce the best results... obviously! :)

[Rob Luter]

I went with the 10" version of this: https://www.freudtools.com/products/LM72R012 and have been very pleased. I was looking for the added utility of a FTG to make spline grooves and such but it still zips through 4/4 oak like a knife through butter.

[Michael Drew]

Folks! I need to rip a Bunch of 1x6 red balau / batu and I'd like some recommendations for a good 12" blade. I'm used to working softwoods mainly so need advice on this one!

12"? Do you have a slider that uses Felder type arbor holes? If so, your choices get narrower.

[Patrick Kane]

Hey Joe,

For my Powermatic 72 I splurged for the ridge carbide ripping blade. I want to say it was $150+ at the time. Superb looking blade and cut well. I sold that machine and last year refurbished an oliver 232, which is also a 12” saw. I didn’t care to spend the same amount on the RC/Forrest blade, so I went with a Freud Industrial heavy duty 30t rip blade. I want to say it was maybe $80ish. I don’t think there’s an appreciable difference between the two. For a rip blade, I’d save the money and go Freud. I rarely glue straight off the saw, which makes it even more of a moot point for me.

[johnny means]

I stick with Amana. They're AGE line is affordable and excellent quality.

[Rod Sheridan]

12"? Do you have a slider that uses Felder type arbor holes? If so, your choices get narrower.

Hi Michael, any tooling service will provide any blade in the configuration to fit a Felder saw.

I normally use FS Tools, and have had many blades, even used blades bored to fitÂ…..Regards, Rod