Is the WWII Really This Good?

[Jeff Cord]

Last weekend I was at the woodworking show in Pomona and was watching a demo of the WWII blade. Don't know exactly which tooth count/style if that matters.
During the short demo I watch the demo'er start ripping a "paper thin" strip off what looked to be a 2" thick piece of wood.
Midway through the rip he stopped moving the wood and started talking about the benefits of the blade (meanwhile the blade was still spinning in the wood).
Finally he completed the cut and he mentioned that, with another blade, you would expect to see burn marks/smoke from leaving the wood still for that amount of time.
He then moved to a miter saw and cut a 45-degree angle and then showed the edges from both the rip and the miter.
The edges looked like glass.
Now I do trade-shows for computer software and I know that I can set up a demo (and to be truthful I do) in a show environment to make the software look much easier than it typically is.
Was I seeing a typical cut from a WWII or was I seeing a cut with an absolutely perfect blade on a perfect motor (no wobble) on a perfectly aligned rip fence and miter slot where you cannot expect to see that type of cut in real life?
Just curious.
Jeff

[Bruce Page]

Jeff, no doubt his blade and TS were perfectly setup. That said, out of the 5 or 6 different brands that I have used over the years, the WWII is easily the best.

[Mark Carlson]

I've seen that demo. I have a WWII and its a really nice blade. Its my 2nd favorite. The gold series Tenryu (sp?) combination blade is my favorite. It cuts just as well or better and is really quiet. Quietness might be a odd thing to some but I live in CA where the houses are really close together.

I have to admit I've never tried to duplicate that demo with either blade.

~mark

[Chris Rosenberger]

Is the WWII Really This Good?

Yes they are.

[Art Davies]

Jeff, no doubt his blade and TS were perfectly setup. That said, out of the 5 or 6 different brands that I have used over the years, the WWII is easily the best.

Dito, Dito, yes the have a wonderful cut.

Art

[CPeter James]

Yes they are and I have two, but I think that the Ridge Carbide TS2000 is just as good if not better. I use it more than my WWIIs. Their sharpening service is great, too.

CPeter

[Ken Salisbury]

Is the WWII Really This Good?


You bet it is ! ! !

[tod evans]

jeff, if you want a combination blade the ww-2 is probably the best on the market.......i don`t like combo blades....02 tod

[scott spencer]

I've tried 19 other blades in the past couple of years (most of them high quality), and the WWII is the one that I spin most of the time. It's does a great job on alot of materials, and it seems to keep an edge well. To do better, you have to give something up. You could get cleaner crosscuts from an excellent 80T blade like the Forrest Duraline or Freud LU80, but they don't rip worth a hoot so you have to change blades frequently. A good 24T ripper will rip faster in thick stock than the WWII but it's not as clean, although I still use a ripper for bulk ripping to save the teeth on my WWII. Very nice blade IMHO.

I've also been impressed by the Ridge Carbide TS2000TK 40T, DeWalt DW7657 40T, and the Freud LU88 60T but that doesn't rip as well as the others....so there are other good blades, but none I like better. Haven't tried a Tenryu Gold Medal or Freud F410 yet.

[Craig Zettle]

For the money, absolutely, positively NOT! It is the most overrated blade on the market! All the so called "good blades" cut "like glass" when new and sharp. I have a dull WW2 that I can't justify getting sharpened because I can (and did) buy a Freud Avanti 40 tooth for the price of sharpening the WW2. My slightly dull WW2 burns like crazy after I cut some laminate flooring with it, and since I can buy 3 brand new, razor sharp Freuds or (insert the name of several other good blades here), it will sit and gather dust.
There is more to a good cut than the quality of the blade, and I found nothing about the WW2 to justify the inflated price. They even got me to bite on what I consider to be about the stupidist thing I ever bought for woodworking, a stabilizer for the WW2. Yes, our blades are the best. But they can be even BETTER with a stabilizer! Pure bunk. But great marketing though. Sucked me in for another 25 or so, that I could have used for another blade.

[Scott Fernald]

I watched the same demo at the VA woodworking show and was very impressed. Then I wandered over a few booths and watched the exact same demo (and same high performance results) at the DeWalt booth (slicing a piece of paper thin veneer, pausing mid-cut on a 2" chunk of cherry without burning, etc.) using their new combo blade.

I don't own either blade, but it got me thinking that they were both very nice blades...

It also got me thinking that the salesmen working these shows know how to show us EXACTLY what they want us to see...:)

A friend of mine who manages a local woodworking supply store, and always has a booth at the local show, told me a funny story about the guys selling those "superduper impossibly tough" drill bits. After the nightly show close and everyone is getting squared away for the next day's show, those guys pull out 5 gallon buckets of mangled drill bits from under the tables and dump them in the trash. Basically all day long the guys working in the booth are quietly putting fresh drill bits out on the table and into their drills - and leaving the occasional broken one out as proof that you are seeing a real demo - while literally filling buckets hidden under the table with worn, bent, dull, tired bits.

[Ken Werner]

If I can jump in, I've had a WWII for a few years. It cuts better than any blade I've had, but does cause some burning. I can't imagine my blade doing what was described above in the demo.

But it is expensive, and I think Craig's comments are worth considering. I too spent the extra $25 for the stabilizer. I haven't run comparison cuts to see if it does really make a difference.

2 more points:
On my PM 63 Artisan saw, running on 220, there is a profound difference in ripping treated 2x4s on the WWII vs a decent Freud 50T combo. Cut noticeably slower, and the motor got quite hot.

I try to recycle my materials. Cutting a used board, I hit a sheetrock screw, and had to spend about $90 for Forrest to fix the blade. [I know I know, I coulda bought a new one for a few bucks more, but I didn't want to trash the blade.] They said it would be as good as new, but it doesn't cut as well as it did before. Expensive lesson.

Good thread. Thanks.

[Brian Hale]

I've also seen that demo at WW shows and it's quite impressive! After he was finished, i picked up one and asked him to do the same demo with that blade. He wouldn't. I asked if i could buy the blade he was using and he wouldn't sell it to me.

I eventually bought one from Woodcraft using a gift card and i've had it for about a year now. It does a fine job in both rip and crosscuts and burning is minimal as long as i keep it clean. I call it my lazy blade. If im just chopping up some wood for jigs and fixtures and such i'll put it in the saw but in general it stays in the rack. I much perfer using a dedicated rip and crosscut blade for quality work and i always reach for my 24t and 80t Freud blades which together cost less than the WWII. I've also tried a CMT rip blade and it's ok but not all that impressive. I have one thin kerf Dewalt 3114 (40t ATB) i picked up for $30 that does a surprisingly good job as a general purpose blade, almost as good as a WWII.

Another feature of dedicated blades...... a rip blade has a flat tooth grind which is real handy for quick flat bottom "dado" cuts if you don't feel like setting your stack dado.

If i had to start all over again i'd skip the WWII. It's a qualty blade but not worth the money IMHO.

Brian :)

[Richard Wolf]

Sure the blade is great, but so are alot of others. The key to these demo's is the saw. Even if they look like old beater table saws, they have been "tricked out" . Tured arbors and great bearings, and rip fences set to exact standards go a long way to impress most people.
I was at a show when Ridged turned off his saw, it run for minutes without stopping, and so smoothly, it was hard to tell it was running. I've never seen an off the shelf saw run like that, have you.

Richard

[Russ Massery]

I think it is. Here's a link on some good deals on them. I use there 40 tooth for almost everything. And a 30 tooth for ripping thick stock. http://www.forrestsawbladesonline.com/index.html

[Jim Becker]

Yes, it's a great blade. I pretty much run Forrest blades exclusively at this point...WW-II 40t is on the saw most of the time; WW-II 20t ripping blade (yes twenty teeth...nasty looking but really cuts!) for that purpose and DadoKing for, umm...appropriate uses. I've always been satisfied with both the blades and the sharpening service.

[Brad Hume]

My slightly dull WW2 burns like crazy after I cut some laminate flooring with it...

Craig,
Laminate flooring, with its thin ceramic coating, is brutal on carbide toothed blades. There are a few designed to minimize the effects, but the WW2 isn't one of them, and yours is now past "slightly dull". You might want to get it sharpened and give it another spin. If not, head on over to the classified ad section and you can get most of your money back...


--Brad

[Brad Hume]

Last weekend I was at the woodworking show in Pomona and was watching a demo of the WWII blade.
(... deleted ...)
He then moved to a miter saw and cut a 45-degree angle and then showed the edges from both the rip and the miter.

I haven't seen the demo, but would guess the blade in the miter saw was not a WW2, but a Forrest Chopmaster. Miter saw and table saw blades have different tooth configurations, and interchanging them isn't recommended. I doubt the rep would have misused his own balde, but you never know.

--Brad

[Chris Fite]

I say that the WW2 is that good. I have two that I have been using for about 15 years. It was so much better than the competition then, that I have not tried anything else since. I have had one of them rebuilt, but not because of the blades performance. Some teeth were broken when I moved here. I do send them to Forest for sharpening. I have had blades sharpened locally before and did not like the results. I never cut recycled wood with them. I have an old ten inch steel blade for that.


If I get to where one needs replacing, I may try some of the others out there now.

[Jim Bell]

If you have burning issues with a WW@ you really need to set up your saw properly. It is more an issue of safety than a little black wood that can easily be sanded.
Jim:)

[Dev Emch]

Was that a demo? You betcha. I have seen that demo and I have actually done that very thing at my place. A couple of observations however are in order.

1). The forrest blades are an excellent combination service blade. I almost use them exclusively. That is not to say that there are not better blades out there. There are. But often you need an engineering degree to understand all the variations and options you have available. Forrest makes the selection virtually brain dead.

2). If this is the demo at the woodworking shows, tread on thin ice here. What did that table saw look like? The one I saw was a rebuilt vintage Delta which is somewhat rare. This was an early contractor type saw which was more a chopped down, direct drive table saw than a true contractor. The bearings had been replaced with ABEC 7 bearings and every moving part was dynamically balanced on a balanceing machine. That guy had a fence accurate to 1 thou and arbor runnout in the sub tenths! Dont let the old lady and her gray paint fool you.... your not going to do this trick with ease using a modern, turn key, out of the box table saw. By the way, the saw I use to do this is a vintage Martin T-17. Nuff Said!

[Deirdre Saoirse Moen]

If I can jump in, I've had a WWII for a few years. It cuts better than any blade I've had, but does cause some burning. I can't imagine my blade doing what was described above in the demo.

It's all in the tuning of the saw. If your blade is PERFECTLY perpendicular and the fence is perfectly parallel to the blade, you'd get significantly less burning with any blade.

[Craig Zettle]

This is like walking in to a Catholic church and asking the congregation to consider becoming Lutherens. (you church history scholars will get that one). After I made a few (and I mean a few) cuts with the Forrest with that laminate flooring and somewhat, no I mean really, really dulled the blade to the dullness of a butterknife, (note sarcasm there, since I love being told the condition of my equipment) the blade became the pyro blade it is today. Nothing to do with tuning the saw, as a change of blades proved. (read: no burning) Asking me to sell the blade if I don't want it, implying that I don't know what a wonderful blade it is, so let some much more informed consumer adopt it is condecending at the least. I agree with an opinion in another thread (the MM16 one) about this being wood that we are cutting, and it will change, move, whatever no matter what we do to it. I am to a point in my life where I know what works for me, and if you ask me what I think, you got it. If it doesn't work for you, well, I won't say you are wrong, I just look at it differently. I was so dissapointed in the cut of a brand new Forrest blade, mainly because I bought in to the hype. But no more.

[Chris Rosenberger]

This is like walking in to a Catholic church and asking the congregation to consider becoming Lutherens. (you church history scholars will get that one). After I made a few (and I mean a few) cuts with the Forrest with that laminate flooring and somewhat, no I mean really, really dulled the blade to the dullness of a butterknife, (note sarcasm there, since I love being told the condition of my equipment) the blade became the pyro blade it is today. Nothing to do with tuning the saw, as a change of blades proved. (read: no burning) Asking me to sell the blade if I don't want it, implying that I don't know what a wonderful blade it is, so let some much more informed consumer adopt it is condecending at the least. I agree with an opinion in another thread (the MM16 one) about this being wood that we are cutting, and it will change, move, whatever no matter what we do to it. I am to a point in my life where I know what works for me, and if you ask me what I think, you got it. If it doesn't work for you, well, I won't say you are wrong, I just look at it differently. I was so dissapointed in the cut of a brand new Forrest blade, mainly because I bought in to the hype. But no more.


AAAAmen:)


Chris

[Matt Meiser]

I love mine. I rarely take it off unless I'm putting on my Forrest plywood blade or a Freud ripping blade if I'm going to be ripping a lot of stuff as it is faster (but the WWII gives a slightly better finish) I also keep around my original Delta blade for use in construction material or if I'm cutting something questionable. I don't notice any difference in burning between it and my other blades. My experience has been that if a blade is burning prematurely, cleaning will fix it.

[Jim Becker]

After I made a few (and I mean a few) cuts with the Forrest with that laminate flooring and somewhat, no I mean really, really dulled the blade to the dullness of a butterknife, (note sarcasm there, since I love being told the condition of my equipment) the blade became the pyro blade it is today.

Umm...Laminate flooring is about the worst stuff to cut with any blade. It only takes a few cuts to dull anybody's carbide with that stuff. In fact, I went through three blades on the miter saw that I used to do a single floor with laminate in my previous residence. Nasty stuff...and the blade is not at fault, no matter who made it... ;)

[Craig Zettle]

As a point of clarification only, I mentioned the dulling issue with the laminate in my first post to compare the cost to get the Forrest sharpened as opposed to buying a new blade at the same price. The original post was not meant to imply that only Forrest blades dull when cutting laminate. Reading Jim's post made me think how that interpretation could be read in to the comment. (I should have taken Superblade off, and put some lowely Freud on to do the grunt work!)
Sorry, I just could not resist. :) :D :p

[Jim Becker]

I figured that, Craig, but wanted to make sure that newbies understood that laminate is nasty stuff to cut!

[Alan DuBoff]

I have 2 Forrest blades, one WWII and one Chopmaster.

I've recentely been using some Leitz blades and for the price I find them to be quite a better value than the Forrest blades. In fact, since Forrest raised the prices not long ago, I don't know that I'll buy anymore Forrest blades, there's other choices that are good these days for a fraction of the price. I have a Leitz 24T rip blade I've been using on my table saw, which is being left on their mostly, since I use a SCMS for most of the crosscutting I do.

[Jim Becker]

Alan, you reminded me...I also have the ChopMaster on my CMS.

[Dev Emch]

Umm...Laminate flooring is about the worst stuff to cut with any blade. It only takes a few cuts to dull anybody's carbide with that stuff. In fact, I went through three blades on the miter saw that I used to do a single floor with laminate in my previous residence. Nasty stuff...and the blade is not at fault, no matter who made it... ;)

So when you guys talk about laminate flooring, are you talking about that stuff made from MDF with printed melamine like top and bottom skins? Stuff like printed pattern Pergo? Or are you talking about the stuff made from three layers of 1/8 th wood finishised with the super plastic? I know that prefinished flooring products often contain aluminum in the finish. Most likely some form of aluminum oxide ceramic which is how flooring products like Bruce flooring and Bella wood can get those 50 kajillion year warranties.

So educate us as to what material is tortureing the carbide..... Thanks.

[Chris Rosenberger]

It is the Pergo type flooring. It is the mdf core that is the problem.

[Dev Emch]

It is the Pergo type flooring. It is the mdf core that is the problem.

I find it hard to believe that MDF can trash a carbide blade given that carbide can quickly slice aluminum. Remember many olivers were used to machine parts for the aerospace industry. Are you sure its not something in the top purdy purdy layers that may be doing this? Somehow I suspect that there is some form of glass entrained in this junk.

[Matt Meiser]

I went through three blades on the miter saw that I used to do a single floor with laminate in my previous residence. Nasty stuff...and the blade is not at fault, no matter who made it... ;)

Explains why my good Dewalt blade for my CMS didn't last very long. I installed Laminate floor in the office of my shop and then I noticed that my blade wasn't cutting worth a darn. That probably explains it.

[Chris Rosenberger]

I find it hard to believe that MDF can trash a carbide blade given that carbide can quickly slice aluminum. Remember many olivers were used to machine parts for the aerospace industry. Are you sure its not something in the top purdy purdy layers that may be doing this? Somehow I suspect that there is some form of glass entrained in this junk.

It is the MDF core. I have run into this several times over the years. I do not know what is in the stuff, but it is alot tuffer than aluminum & the dust feels gritty.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

I did a laminate flooring job last year on the entire 1st floor of a home which was about 1,400 sqft. That stuff kills blades! The laminate is backed to an epoxy impregnated composite material; not mdf. It's almost like cutting very thick (1/8") Formica!

I recently purchase a Freud F40 blade for about $75 including shipping. I understand that this blade is in the same category as the Wood Worker II. In fact, they look very similiar in regards to tooth design. It works really well at about 25% cheaper. When searching for a new blade, I found many folks that claimed the blade was either equivalent or slightly better than the Wood Worker II. However, I have no experience to support that claim.

I am very happy with the Freud F40. :)
-Jeff

[Brad Kimbrell]

I concur with the "great setup" for saws and the blades they use. I won't mention the name of the vendor, but one of those sled guys has an old Craftsman table saw that is also "tricked out". Probably as well as a balanced and blueprinted race car engine!

I know some of the other reps and they say he spends an inordinate amount of time with his alignment fixtures every evening during the shows.

Most of those "no burn" blade demos are done with the blade ALL THE WAY UP, where only 2 or 3 teeth are actually in the wood at one time. Ask 'em to lower the blade to just clear the top of the piece of wood (where maybe 6-7 teeth are in the wood) and they will ignore you.

All that said, I happen to have the sled mentioned above and love it and also love my WWII blade.

[Dev Emch]

I concur with the "great setup" for saws and the blades they use. I won't mention the name of the vendor, but one of those sled guys has an old Craftsman table saw that is also "tricked out". Probably as well as a balanced and blueprinted race car engine!

I know some of the other reps and they say he spends an inordinate amount of time with his alignment fixtures every evening during the shows.

Most of those "no burn" blade demos are done with the blade ALL THE WAY UP, where only 2 or 3 teeth are actually in the wood at one time. Ask 'em to lower the blade to just clear the top of the piece of wood (where maybe 6-7 teeth are in the wood) and they will ignore you.

All that said, I happen to have the sled mentioned above and love it and also love my WWII blade.

That would not be the infamous dubby or double dubby would it?

Yes, these machines are tricked out including dubby's craftsman table saw. But so what. The old iron guys who lovingly restore these old woodworking machines to like new are also tricking these out. I am currently using a dentil pick to remove bits of old paint in hard to reach areas and checking every moving part and every oiler and every bearing. Each part of this jointer is getting painted independently from the rest. Even northfield does not do that. they paint the machine as a complete assembly. Its the guys tricking these out that take the time to ensure every detail is complete and the I's are dotted and T's crossed.

[Phil Ordway]

It also got me thinking that the salesmen working these shows know how to show us EXACTLY what they want us to see...:)

A friend of mine who manages a local woodworking supply store, and always has a booth at the local show, told me a funny story about the guys selling those "superduper impossibly tough" drill bits. After the nightly show close and everyone is getting squared away for the next day's show, those guys pull out 5 gallon buckets of mangled drill bits from under the tables and dump them in the trash. Basically all day long the guys working in the booth are quietly putting fresh drill bits out on the table and into their drills - and leaving the occasional broken one out as proof that you are seeing a real demo - while literally filling buckets hidden under the table with worn, bent, dull, tired bits.[/quote]

I bought the Bulldog bits. I've toasted a couple of 1/8" bits on mild steel using cutting fluid. The wood bits I've used are nowhere near the size they are supposed to be but... when I need to bore holes in my files or I don't care what size hole I'm drilling in wood, I have just the thing.
I have a WWII which I like, but my favorite blade is a Makita I have on my DW708 slider. Sorry, I'm a long way from my tools for another couple of months so I don't know just what blade that is.

[Alan DuBoff]

Explains why my good Dewalt blade for my CMS didn't last very long. I installed Laminate floor in the office of my shop and then I noticed that my blade wasn't cutting worth a darn. That probably explains it.There are specific laminate/melamine blades, I have one which I have used a couple times, but I don't use much laminate, it is good for plastics also. A plywood blade would work also, I believe, it's a very simlar fine tooth pattern.

A non-laminate blade will go south in a hurry.

I got a Leitz blade for $25 or $29 for laminate, it's a no brainer at that price. When you're paying $125 for a Forrest blade, I ponder a lot longer before getting a specialized blade for laminates. That's why I will most likely not buy more Forrest blades, too much premium these days. They certainly are fine blades, both my WWII and my Chopmaster leave a nice surface, no complaints.

[Matt Meiser]

A non-laminate blade will go south in a hurry.

Does this apply to Formica and similar laminates? I don't use them much, but I've been cutting them on my TS when I do with my WWII? Am I going to prematurely wear it (or any other blade) out doing this occasionally?

[Art Davis]

Yes, it's a great blade and---yes---I get the glassy smooth cut on thin ripped strips. HOWEVER, I recently had very bad burning when ripping one inch thick strips of three or four inches width in red oak.

[Alan DuBoff]

Does this apply to Formica and similar laminates? I don't use them much, but I've been cutting them on my TS when I do with my WWII? Am I going to prematurely wear it (or any other blade) out doing this occasionally?Matt, AFAIK, it's the plastic that heats up while cutting, and it's all laminates, melamine, and even if you wanted to cut regular sheets of plastic.

Here are Forrest blades for plastic and laminates:

http://www.forrestblades.com/nomelt.htm

http://www.forrestblades.com/hiat.htm

For me it was hard to justify and I could get a Leitz for a fraction of the price.

Oliver, I've had the WWII burn also, but there's a lot of factors and the majority of the time it's been a wonderful blade, it's just pricey. I use a 24T rip blade in my table mostly these days since I do most crosscutting on my SCMS (for power tool use).

[Mark Pruitt]

I find it hard to believe that MDF can trash a carbide blade given that carbide can quickly slice aluminum. Remember many olivers were used to machine parts for the aerospace industry. Are you sure its not something in the top purdy purdy layers that may be doing this? Somehow I suspect that there is some form of glass entrained in this junk.
i found this little tidbit of info on MDF; not really surprising when you think about what the stuff is made from. A key quote is "Due to the fact that MDF contains a great deal of glue the cutting edges of your tools will blunt very quickly." HERE (http://www.design-technology.org/mdf.htm) is where I found this.

[Ken Garlock]

I installed a brand new WWII, 40 tooth, 10" blade last week. Yesterday I used it to cut Wisonart laminate cleanly. There was absolutely NO chip out, it was ready to use. I set the blade depth low so that the blade just barely cut through the laminate.

Last week I also sent my old WWII blade back for sharpening, and asked them to check it for wobble. I got a call this morning from Douglas at Forrest telling me that the blade was warped and they could indeed fix it for $20 over and above the sharpening cost. For a little over $40 I should get a good as new blade back, I hop.

[John Shuk]

I think so. Even if the demo saw is a well tuned machine it shows that the weakest link is not the blade.

[CPeter James]

For the money, absolutely, positively NOT! It is the most overrated blade on the market! All the so called "good blades" cut "like glass" when new and sharp. I have a dull WW2 that I can't justify getting sharpened because I can (and did) buy a Freud Avanti 40 tooth for the price of sharpening the WW2. My slightly dull WW2 burns like crazy after I cut some laminate flooring with it, and since I can buy 3 brand new, razor sharp Freuds or (insert the name of several other good blades here), it will sit and gather dust.
There is more to a good cut than the quality of the blade, and I found nothing about the WW2 to justify the inflated price. They even got me to bite on what I consider to be about the stupidist thing I ever bought for woodworking, a stabilizer for the WW2. Yes, our blades are the best. But they can be even BETTER with a stabilizer! Pure bunk. But great marketing though. Sucked me in for another 25 or so, that I could have used for another blade.



Is yours for sale? At the right price it might be worth getting sharpened by Forrest if you did not take all the teeth off it.

CPeter

[Dennis Peacock]

This dawg is stayin on the front porch on this topic. :rolleyes: :D

[Dev Emch]

i found this little tidbit of info on MDF; not really surprising when you think about what the stuff is made from. A key quote is "Due to the fact that MDF contains a great deal of glue the cutting edges of your tools will blunt very quickly." HERE (http://www.design-technology.org/mdf.htm) is where I found this.

Thanks Mark. Yet another reason to avoid using this stuff!

[Alan DuBoff]

I installed a brand new WWII, 40 tooth, 10" blade last week. Yesterday I used it to cut Wisonart laminate cleanly. There was absolutely NO chip out, it was ready to use. I set the blade depth low so that the blade just barely cut through the laminate.Wow, that's gutsy for a $125 blade, IMO. :eek: Certainly wouldn't reccomend that to folks, IMO, as laminate is not good on those blades.

Last week I also sent my old WWII blade back for sharpening, and asked them to check it for wobble. I got a call this morning from Douglas at Forrest telling me that the blade was warped and they could indeed fix it for $20 over and above the sharpening cost. For a little over $40 I should get a good as new blade back, I hop.Yeah, but it's sure funny how many times folks send their blades in and they're either warped, or need one or more teeth fixed, "at an additional cost". :(

Forrest makes a good product, but they also have a good business going by itself for resharpening. And isn't the entire, "if you want your blade resharpened correctly, get it done at Forrest" a little over emphasized?

[Tom Araya]

Another vote for WWII.



The blade, not the war :p

[Greg Narozniak]

This dawg is stayin on the front porch on this topic. :rolleyes: :D

:) Ditto! :)

[Steve Clardy]

I never felt spending that kind of money for a saw blade was worth it.
My 50-60 dollar freuds do just fine. Cutting almost daily in my cabinet shop.

[Loren Hedahl]

Dev -- ABEC 7 bearings?

I googled ABEC 7 bearings and the first 10 pages showed only scateboard applications. Is ABEC 7 a particular size, type, company, application?

Or is it a premium style of bearing that the scateboarders just happen to use?

If so where might one obtain them for use on a table saw motor and arbor?

[Greg Koch]

Loren,

Here's some info on ABEC bearing ratings... I lot of fishermen change reel bearings to ABEC rated...a lot to "7".

http://www.skatelog.com/bearings/abec.htm

[Phil Doyle]

Well, I'm a bit late to the party, but I'll add my 2 cents. I'm running a WWII on a Ridgid TS2400, and have had mixed results. The first one I got was an 1/8" kerf. It worked great for a short while, but then started burning on rips in some cherry (yes, I keep it clean, so it wasn't pitch build up). I called Forrest, and they suggested I switch to the 3/32 kerf, and exchanged the blade for me (no charge). I wasn't that please with the thin kerf, and found it to be very slightly warped. Forrest took it back and reground it. When I got it back, I did back to back comparisons with my Freud TKR906, and actually found the Freud to be the cleaner cutting blade. Forrest actually took the TK blade back and exchanged it back to the 1/8 kerf, which I still have today. It's a really good blade, and (as you can tell) their service was somewhere beyong exceptional. Still, my Freud Glue Line Ripper (1/8") out rips the WWII, and the 1/8 WWII is slightly cleaner than the the Freud TKR906 on crosscuts. Maybe it's just not the best blade for my direct drive Ridgid.

[Art Davis]

Jeff,

I have had a WWII for quite some time and---yes---I get glassy smooth cuts as long as the stock isn't too thick. That said, however, I recently had occasion to rip some one inch thick redoak and got bad burns. So it isn't a cure-all, but still a good blade.

Art

(Art Davis, different guy than Art Davies who posted earlier I think!)