Blade selection for new Sawstop PCS - Ridge Carbide

[Matthew Eason]

Hi all,

I just graduated to a Sawstop PCS 3HP from working on a Dewalt jobsite for a few years. New to me, not new but you'd be hard pressed to tell. I'm all caught up on the constraints of blade selection for the brake cartridge. I've never had 'premium' blades before having always used Freud and been happy with them. Most if not all of Freud blades have the shoulders on them that don't jive well with the brake system.

I would like to stay within one family of blade for consistency (sharpening, diameter, kerf, etc). I'm looking solely at full kerf to avoid having to fuss with riving life alignment or swapping to a 2.0mm riving knife.

I was all set to go Forrest and get a 40T combination ATB-R to use for most stuff but they don't seem to offer a 24T FTG for joinery. Then I got to looking at Ridge Carbide. They have 40T ATB-R, a 24T FTG, and a box joint set with FTG that you flip the blades to make either 1/4 or 3/8. I had a set like this from Freud and liked it. The Freud, again, has shoulders, so it's out.

As this is a pretty hefty one time investment I wanted a sanity check on my thoughts for the two main blades I'd be using. My workflow has never centered around the table saw but I'm looking to grow into that. In the past I'd use a combination of Festool, miter saw, shooting boards, and MFT setups to do what I wanted. I do everything from cabinetry (but will continue using track saw for sheet good large breakdown to final sizing), to some furniture, to my latest pursuit of hand cut joinery. Not opposed to doing some joinery on the table saw for larger scale work.

Thanks,
Matt

[Jim Becker]

Ridge Carbide has a good reputation as does Forrest. (I buy the latter from Silvers Mill at great prices) I think that your thought of staying within a family is sound. I've done that with Forrest because I want the exact same kerf width regardless and there's a lot of variability with that out there when you try and mix and match brands. Being consistent means any fixtures are accurate regardless of what blade is on there...even though one might have a preferred blade for particular cuts, sometimes the blade in the saw gets the node for that "one quick cut". 95% of the time, I'm using the same general purpose blade in my saw. That would be a 48T WW-II (my slider uses a 12" blade, so that's the equivalent of a 40T WW-II or the equivalent from Ridge Carbide) and only pull out a "wicked" ripping blade when it's necessary for thick and rough stock.

At any rate, you can't go wrong with buying quality blades, IMHO. They last a lot longer because they have beefier carbide and can be re-sharpened more times. Because of that the "more expensive" blades can be less expensive in the long run if you take care of them. Again, IMHO.

[John Kananis]

I have both forrest and ridge Carbide blades (I'm partial to the latter). Sometimes, you have a need that your favorite manufacturer can't fill so must look elsewhere. You're not making a bad call with either company...I would imagine that forrest does the same but my personal experience with ridge is that they go way above and beyond to make you happy.

[Jack Frederick]

I have gone to Ridge as my primary blade on my SS. A word of caution as a new SS operator. I use my own introduction to the saw as an example. Within about 15 minutes of firing up my saw I trigger the cartridge. $75 and a blade shot. I had the bar on my Accumiter to close to the blade and boom. Cartridges are $100 now and my blade is $150. I have learned to be very careful not only of my fingers, but wood moisture levels (another blade/cartridge), etc. It might be worthwhile to go with a lower cost blade at first or the alternative. Don’t be like me!

[Larry Frank]

I do not understand the issue with Freud blades not jiving with the Sawstop brake system. I use Freud blades almost exclusively and have not had a problem.

[Michael Dean]

For a less expensive option, I've had good luck with the house blades offered by Klingspor woodworking, https://www.woodworkingshop.com/. I was told they are made by Dimar in Germany. Another option would be from Whiteside who are better known for their router bits. The Whiteside stuff is labeled Dimar. An easy way to get Whiteside blades is through amazon https://www.amazon.com/Whiteside-Dimar-Standard-Ripping-Table/dp/B087YZMQFP. In fairness, I don't have the Dimar made rip blade yet, but keep the Klingspor combo blade on my 3hp PCS for the majority of my work.

[Curt Harms]

I do not understand the issue with Freud blades not jiving with the Sawstop brake system. I use Freud blades almost exclusively and have not had a problem.

I'm curious about that as well. I'd probably call Sawstop and see if their vaunted customer service reputation is justified.

[George Yetka]

I am a ridge guy. Mostly because he comes to the woodworking shows. I have about 6 of them and only 1 Forrest(dado set)

Id leave the supplied blade in the saw for a bit to get past any brake issues. It is a $30-40 blade so that and a $70 brake will keep any firing of the brake cheaper. Im 9 years into my SS without firing once. Watch out for wet wood(roughing lumber included). aftermarket crosscut sleds, and obviously your phalanges. There is an off switch for the brake if you need to cut aluminum/wet wood.

Do an occasional(with saw off) finger on the blade check. there is a light on the front that will prove its working.

[Matthew Eason]

I ordered the Ridge 40T and 24T. It bothered me you can't get the Forrest Rip in a flat grind. Ridge owner replied to an e-mail about shipping almost immediately and refunded an error with their website within 5 min of the order going through.

To the others: Freud blades have shoulders that inhibit the braking system on SawStop.

[Jim Becker]

My 20T Forrest WW-II Fast Rip blade does have the flat raker on it. The current listing for it also indicates that to be true. No matter...you ordered some great blades and will enjoy using them. One thing...you may find it advantageous to have a second unit of the blade you use the most so you have one to use while the other is out for sharpening. I did that long ago and have no regrets about it.

[George Yetka]

Agree with Jim on the 2nd combo blade. I would wait a while till your close to ready for sharpening and order that way the cost is spread out. An alternative is put factory combo back on while you wait for yours to come back. You may get a few years out of doing this. Also with ridge and sliver mills you get a coupon for sharpening when you order a blade

[glenn bradley]

I take concerns about coatings and depth shoulders with a grain of salt. More of a CYA than anything IMHO. I have never seen any extensive testing with millisecond results tables published for coated vs. bare or shouldered vs. not; maybe they exist. I run Carbide Processors but Ridge, Forrest and many others make good quality blades. I run a Freud (with coating) as my 40T general purpose blade on my PCS. The prices at Silvers Mills on Forrest certainly make them competitive.

If you are looking for a "get this" answer you may be dissatisfied. We all tend to gravitate to the things that work well for us. You will certainly get a short list of makers to choose from and you don't have to get all blades from one source. I run a lot of jigs and use the tablesaw as a joinery machine quite a bit. This led me to have my blades made to .125" kerf if they weren't already. This was simply to avoid having to reset things when changing from rip to crosscut, etc.

An important thing to remember is that cutters are wear parts like the brakes on your car. At some point they need attention or replacement. I have a couple of rip, general, and crosscut but acquired the duplicates over the years. Quality blades can be re-sharpened many times. The way I look at it is that for $20 I get a "new" $100 blade about a half a dozen times. Makes the high price level out pretty quick.

[Cliff Polubinsky]

I believe I've seen Sawstop say there is no problem with coated blades. I can understand the issue with shoulders since they could limit how far the teeth penetrate the brake and therefore how quickly it stops. Which would result in more injury to the hand.

Cliff

[Holmes Anderson]

At the risk of stirring the pot, why the obsession with high-end combo and rip blades? I understand the need for a high quality laminate blade because that is the last cut before banding, but solid wood rip surfaces require hand planing or sanding anyway so why not use a combo or rip blade that leaves a surface just good enough to be easily hand-planed or sanded? I used WW2 for years but started using a CMT combo blade while a Forrest was being sharpened and realized I wasn't really benefiting from the WW2 because I was finishing with a hand plane anyway.

And while we're on the subject of blades, I've noticed that many contributors favor a table saw over a miter saw for crosscuts but for me the crosscut blade on the miter saw cuts much cleaner than a combo blade (including a WW2) on a table saw so I favor my non-sliding miter with a proper crosscut blade. A crosscut or laminate blade in the table saw would leave a clean cut but wouldn't justify the effort of a blade change if the miter saw could do the same cut.

[Michael Burnside]

I use my crosscut and rip blades 80% of the time, flat tooth ground blade 10% and all others, including a combo blade the other 10%. All are Ridge Carbide blades. Changing to a proper blade is trivial.

[Jim Becker]

At the risk of stirring the pot, why the obsession with high-end combo and rip blades? I understand the need for a high quality laminate blade because that is the last cut before banding, but solid wood rip surfaces require hand planing or sanding anyway so why not use a combo or rip blade that leaves a surface just good enough to be easily hand-planed or sanded? I used WW2 for years but started using a CMT combo blade while a Forrest was being sharpened and realized I wasn't really benefiting from the WW2 because I was finishing with a hand plane anyway.

It comes down to "different strokes for different folks", Holmes. I happen to like that my original two WW-II blades were still going strong after nearly 20 years and are still going strong with their new owner a few years after that. The only reason I sold them was they were replaced with 12" versions which were more appropriate for my saw. It's not just about quality of cut, but also long term value for the particular individual. But around cut quality, you'll likely find that most folks are not pulling out hand planes, either because they don't enjoy it or because they don't even own them. (I don't use my CMS in the shop for critical crosscutting as I do that on my sliding table saw)

[Michael Burnside]

As far as CMS vs. tablesaw, I'm with Jim in that I prefer the table saw for accurate crosscuts (well sort of LOL since I don't use a slider - I'm not nearly as cool as Jim ;)). I use the CMS or jigsaw for rough dimensioning and then tablesaw for everything else, which is why I spend the 30 seconds it takes to install a high-tooth count crosscut or ripping blade and rarely use my combo for anything other than rough rips or "shop" furniture stuff where I don't want to wear my two main blades. IMHO the tablesaw produces a better cut and I've got my saw dialed in to perfection so it's my main go-to.

[James Jayko]

I do not understand the issue with Freud blades not jiving with the Sawstop brake system. I use Freud blades almost exclusively and have not had a problem.

I agree. 3HP PCS here, I have and love the Freud Fusion...slightly lower cost than the Ridge or WWII, but an excellent performer for me. I'd give it a look.

Regarding the full vs thin kerf, go full kerf all day. I used the thin kerf and it just wasn't worth saving 1/32 of an inch when you have 3HP to spin the blade, especially given the hassle with the riving knife which is full kerf width. The jamming up etc seemed to make it feel pretty dangerous with the thin kerf.

[Randy Heinemann]

I have a Ridge Carbide combo blade and the boxjoint set (which I bought for a particular project). They are great blades. I would say, though, that Sawstop's own combination blade is a good blade for the price. My saw had a Sawstop blade on when I bought it (of course) and I just used it. It does a great job. I've been able to crosscut and rip 8/4 with the combination blade, but it's tough. However, it does a great job on 4/4 and plywood with very few saw marks. For me, it was worth it to keep the price down for everyday type work.

[Cliff Polubinsky]

I do not understand the issue with Freud blades not jiving with the Sawstop brake system. I use Freud blades almost exclusively and have not had a problem.

Larry,

You won't see any problem with Freud shouldered blades in everyday use. It's not until the brake is triggered that the shoulders become a problem, slowing the time to stop the blade. If the trigger is your miter gauge, no big deal. If it's your finger, that's another story. Is that the time you want to find out why Sawstop doesn't recommend blades with anti-kickback shouldes? After spending the cost of a Sawstop as insurance to save your fingers, why would you ignore the advice of the people who made the saw?

Cliff

[Michael Burnside]

I would call SawStop if you have questions, not posts by users on forums. Or request links to SawStop FAQ for reference. IMHO anyway.