Table saw ripping blades

[Ray Turney]

I need a good ripping blade to rip small strips of Maple,Walnut,White Oak, Red Oak etc. The pieces I will be ripping will be about 3/4 to 7/8 thick and about 1/4 to 7/8 wide for some inlay work I will be doing. I'd like to get a smooth cut as the pieces will be to narrow after the cut to joint. Any suggestions? Thanks Ray Turney in central Kentucky

[CPeter James]

Forrest WWII or Ridge Carbide TS2000. I use both and they work great. I also have a Freud rip blade that works good, but I like the Ridge best. I do a lot of red oak and white pind and get great results. I use a splitter that is .005" thicker than the blade and it eliminates burn and blade marks.

CPeterhttp://members.localnet.com/~cpjvkj/splitter.jpg

[scott spencer]

Hi Ray - Lots of blades should be able to provide the results you need given your criteria. I have a 40T WWII on hand that I would use for that, and I'll second the quality of the Ridge Carbide. I also have a Freud LU86 and LU88 that would both be up to the task. I don't think you'll want to go with a conventional 24T ripping blade for that application...the cuts will be too rough and the stock isnt' thick enough that you have to give up the clean cut, although a 30T glueline ripper might work well.

[Jim Becker]

For stock that thin, I'd likely just leave the WW-II 40t general purpose blade that is always on my saw...on the saw. But if I were going to be ripping "a lot", especially thicker and rougher, I put on a "custom grind" Forrest 20t WW-II ripping blade I picked up awhile back. Like butter...

[Russ Massery]

Like Jim, I use a 40t Forrest and a 30t forrest for stock thicker than 1".

[Tom Jones III]

Freud's glue line rip is the only dedicated rip blade that I have used and I couldn't be happier.

[Greg Narozniak]

Freud's glue line rip is the only dedicated rip blade that I have used and I couldn't be happier.

Ditto! Like a spoon through soup!