Tenryu blades?

[Michael Drew]

I see these saw blades recommended on this site. Figured I'd get two or three for my new K3 slider. I have several 10" Forest blades that I plan to have bored to fit this new saw as well, so I can use the scoring blade, but I do see a need for the larger 12" cutting capacity as well. And seeing how this machine came with a cheap 10" blade, and it's the only blade I have to fit this saw, I need to get something ordered fairly soon.

Can someone knowledgeable with this brand school me on what to order? I figure I'd get a rip blade, a multi purpose blade, and one for clean crosscuts on hard wood. I have two 10" Forest blades that have seen very little use for sheet goods that I will send to Forest for re-boring to fit this slider.

I'm thinking one 28T, one 50T and one 100T blade, all 300mm. Before I surf Amazon, figured it would be wise to ask for more info to make sure I get the correct blades.

Thanks in advance for your time.

[Jim Becker]

I have not used the Tenryu blades myself, but folks have indeed spoken highly of them.

Now if you like your existing Forest blades, you can get 12" versions in Felder bore native. Silvers Mill is a good source. I run the 12" WW-II 48 T on my SCM Minimax saw at this point, although like you, I started out just using my existing 10" versions 'cause I owned them. The only difference here is that you need the bore done on the existing blades.

[Phillip Mitchell]

I like Tenryu blades and find they present a superb value for what they cost. I have bought *slightly* better blades for more $ - like GDP Guhdo - and seen a small percentage difference, but the top shelf Tenryu is very, very good. Search around the web by model number once you hone in on which exact blades you need and you can generally find prices differences - sometimes Amazon offers deeper discounts on particular blades, sometimes not.

Unrelated to a slider but I use Tenryu blades for my tracksaw as well and they are an improvement over Makita / Festool OEM options, IMO, in a size that doesn’t have a ton of top shelf options.

[Michael Drew]

Thanks for the help. I ordered three from Amazon. The 100T blade was just shy of $100. Seems like a great value to me. Worth a try at least.

Jim - I wanted a mix of 10 and 12 inch blades. I'll send my 10" Forest blades in for re-sizing to fit this saw.

Still deliberating whether or not to keep my table saw. I'd love to keep it, but don't really have room for both.

[Rob Sack]

I used Forrest blades exclusively for years. They were and still are terrific blades. The only issue I had was that no one locally could sharpen them properly and I would have to send them back to Forrest. This got to be quite expensive living in the Los Angeles area and paying for shipping a box of heavy sawblades for what amounted to about 6,000 miles roundtrip. At a trade show some years ago, a Tenryu rep gave me a couple of blades to try out. I have been using them exclusively ever since. There is a local sharpening service that is a Tenryu dealer and they do a great job sharpening my blades. Tenryu makes a 50 tooth combination blade with a black (Teflon?) that is unbelievably good and unbelievably inexpensive. I use this on all hardwoods and softwoods, both ripping and crosscutting. With a slower feed rate, it also can even work fairly well on veneer plywood. Their 80 and 100 tooth premium plywood blades produce perfectly smooth cuts with virtually no tear out on the bottom of the cut and is the closest thing I have found to the performance of a scoring saw using only a single blade.

[Jim Becker]

Rob, I've been using Dynamic Saw in Buffalo NY for sharpening my Forrest blades for sometime now. Less expensive than Forrest direct like I used to do and every bit as good. Early on, I suspect that the carbide Forest uses was more challenging for many sharpeners, but I think that changed over time. I suspect that other blade manufacturers went to similar carbide, too, for the same reasons Forest did.

[Rob Sack]

Rob, I've been using Dynamic Saw in Buffalo NY for sharpening my Forrest blades for sometime now. Less expensive than Forrest direct like I used to do and every bit as good. Early on, I suspect that the carbide Forest uses was more challenging for many sharpeners, but I think that changed over time. I suspect that other blade manufacturers went to similar carbide, too, for the same reasons Forest did.

On a previous trip to New York, I stopped by Forrest in Clifton, New Jersey and spent over an hour there. They were most gracious. They explained that their blades perform best when re-sharpened with whatever grind they use, which many sharpening services can't or won't perform. Evidently, Dynamic Saw is able to produce this optimal grind for Forrest blades. But frankly, shipping blades to Buffalo, NY as opposed to Clifton, NJ doesn't lower my shipping costs, which translates to my overall sharpening costs. I still feel Forrest blades are first class blades that produce stellar results. It just that it is not cost effective for me, using saw blades in a commercial setting, to continue to use them, especially when I get such great results using Tenryu blades.

[Frank Martin]

Hi Rob,
What is the name and location of the sharpening service you are using? I am in the greater Los Angeles area and would love to have closer to home options.


I used Forrest blades exclusively for years. They were and still are terrific blades. The only issue I had was that no one locally could sharpen them properly and I would have to send them back to Forrest. This got to be quite expensive living in the Los Angeles area and paying for shipping a box of heavy sawblades for what amounted to about 6,000 miles roundtrip. At a trade show some years ago, a Tenryu rep gave me a couple of blades to try out. I have been using them exclusively ever since. There is a local sharpening service that is a Tenryu dealer and they do a great job sharpening my blades. Tenryu makes a 50 tooth combination blade with a black (Teflon?) that is unbelievably good and unbelievably inexpensive. I use this on all hardwoods and softwoods, both ripping and crosscutting. With a slower feed rate, it also can even work fairly well on veneer plywood. Their 80 and 100 tooth premium plywood blades produce perfectly smooth cuts with virtually no tear out on the bottom of the cut and is the closest thing I have found to the performance of a scoring saw using only a single blade.

[Rob Sack]

Hi Rob,
What is the name and location of the sharpening service you are using? I am in the greater Los Angeles area and would love to have closer to home options.

California Carbide in Ventura.

[Jonathan Jung]

Some Tenryu's are made in China, some in Japan. You'll notice a price difference between them. I'd recommend the Japan-made units.

[Frank Martin]

California Carbide in Ventura.

Thank you!….

[Greg Quenneville]

Tenryu makes a 50 tooth combination blade with a black (Teflon?) that is unbelievably good and unbelievably inexpensive. I use this on all hardwoods and softwoods, both ripping and crosscutting. With a slower feed rate, it also can even work fairly well on veneer plywood. Their 80 and 100 tooth premium plywood blades produce perfectly smooth cuts with virtually no tear out on the bottom of the cut and is the closest thing I have found to the performance of a scoring saw using only a single blade.

Rob do you have a model number for the combo and plywood blades?

Greg

[Michael Drew]

Some Tenryu's are made in China, some in Japan. You'll notice a price difference between them. I'd recommend the Japan-made units.

How would a person know which ones are made in Japan verse China? I'm not finding that distinction on their web site.

It does appear that when looking for a Felder blade, you are limited to the IW line. At least that's what I found. I did not look at blades for any of my other machines or tool though.

[Warren Lake]

there were past posts on here on Kanafusa Blades. Andrew Coholic posted about them several times. Those made in Japan.

[Rob Sack]

Rob do you have a model number for the combo and plywood blades?

Greg

50 tooth - SL25550TC

80 tooth - IL25580HI

100 tooth - I can't read the part number but it is called the MelPro.

[Greg Quenneville]

Thanks Ron.

Greg