What's your favorite saw blade ?? ??

[Bob Wingard]

Due to an unfortunate "incident", my WWII is trashed.:mad: Was wondering what blades you folks would prefer if you were in a position where you needed a replacement for same ?? ?? ??:confused:

[Mark Rios]

From what a lot of folks around here say, the ONLY replacement for a Forrest WWII is a Forrest WWII. It's a mighty fine blade.

The Freud top-o-the-line combo blade is also very good as is the Amana I understand and also the Infinity.

Some folks around these parts really like the Freud Diablo line and some swear by the Dewalt top-o-the-line combo.

There has been a recent thread or two on this subject and a quick search might get you the answers that your looking for.


hth

[Jim Becker]

I only run Forrest blades at the present time...TS and CMS. The comparable Freud is the 410. But Mark's suggestion is a good one...there is a lot of previous discussion on blades here at SMC. But use the "Advanced Search" for best results.

[Ken Miller]

For what it's worth, I just purchased a Freud combination blade, the exact model number escapes me but it is the 50 tooth with 4 atb teeth and 1 flat. It was very disappointing. I was getting burns on rips and crosscuts of cherry. After cleaning, I put back in my Freud 24 tooth rip blade and it was great. Both rips and crosscuts of cherry and no burns. And it cost less than the combo and about a third of the forrest, though I have never used one.

[Dennis Peacock]

Everlast and Amana over WWII any day of the week. Nuff said. ;) :D

[Jim O'Dell]

I've been very happy with my 2 Systamatic blades, considering they were each less than half of the WWII. One of these days I'm going to splurge on the Forrest WWII and see if it lives up to all the hype. My guess is that it will. Jim

[Charlie Plesums]

I have three WW II blades, so you see my bias. But Forrest has some great repair facilities... I don't know what happened to yours, but I would certainly give them a call. Be sure to phone - that gets the real company - it appears that one of their dealers runs their web site.

[Seth Poorman]

I like my Cmt General Blade, rips and crosscuts well. I think its the best all around blade that I have used on my tablesaw....about $60...
Seth...

[Greg Koch]

I really like the Tenryu Gold Medal....

{www.tenryu.com/gold_medal.htm}

Is smooth, quiet, cuts very well... It's my main blade, with my WWII as second.

Greg

[Vaughn McMillan]

I use dedicated rip and crosscut blades, both Freud, so I have no comparison for a combo blade. I get glue-ready rips, glassy crosscuts, and my two blades combined cost about what a WWII costs. I generally keep an older rip blade in the saw for utility (non-critical) cuts, but swapping out the blade on the saw only takes a couple minutes, so I don't mind switching every once in a while. Someday I'll try a WWII, but I'm not very motivated to do so, since I'm happy with the cuts I get from the Freuds.

- Vaughn

[Ron Blaise]

the money I pay for them, I like the Freud blades, but they keep shipping them backwards to me :D .

[scott spencer]

I'm pretty fond of my WWII and would suggest replacing yours with one if you were happy with the results. Mine's not only a great all around blade, but it was a gift with sentimental value as well. FWIW, the WWII always seems to top the charts in blade comparisons of other similar blades. If tragedy struck, I could live just as happily with a Ridge Carbide TS2000 or a DeWalt DW7657 performance wise. The Freud F410 and Tenryu Gold Medal are suppedly in the same league, but I haven't tried them.

One consideration for me is that my saw isn't a 3hp cabinet saw and it performs better with a good thin kerf blade. The WWII and the TS2000 are available in TK's whereas the others are not AFAIK. My Freud LU88R010 cuts a little cleaner than my 40T general purp blades, and even rips surprisingly well for a 60 toofer. If my budget were $50 and I wanted a TK, that'd definitely be my choice....grab an inexpensive (< $15) rip blade from Leitz or DeWalt and your good to go (a good investment regardless of your primary blade).

Holbren.com has the Ridge Carbide for ~ $72 shipped with the "Woodnet10" discount, the Tenryu Gold Medal is ~ $81. The DW7657 is $55 delivered from Amazon, and the WWII TK is $82 delivered.

LU88:
http://www1.epinions.com/content_226312687236

DW7657:
http://www1.epinions.com/content_220309917316

WWII TK:
http://www1.epinions.com/content_145552674436

http://holbren.com/home.php

[Doug Shepard]

I use dedicated rip and crosscut blades, both Freud, so I have no comparison for a combo blade. I get glue-ready rips, glassy crosscuts, and my two blades combined cost about what a WWII costs. I generally keep an older rip blade in the saw for utility (non-critical) cuts, but swapping out the blade on the saw only takes a couple minutes, so I don't mind switching every once in a while. Someday I'll try a WWII, but I'm not very motivated to do so, since I'm happy with the cuts I get from the Freuds.

- Vaughn

I finally bought a WWII a month or so ago when Amazon had a real good sale on them. Until then I would have posted an almost identical answer to yours'. I haven't had a chance yet to use the WWII but I'll let you know how it compares to the Freud rip and CC blades. I figured I'd take the plunge and see if the WWII lives up to all the raves. If I can reduce the number of blade changes I have to do that's a plus. I dont think it's going to totally retire my 2 Freuds though.

[tod evans]

bob, i`m not a fan of combo blades no matter who makes `em. give me a sharp dedicated blade any time....02 tod

[Russ Massery]

Forrest WWII.

[Gary Curtis]

Everlast. About 40% cheaper than Forrest, but equal quality.

gary curtis

[John Miliunas]

Well, I'm from the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" school of thought. My Forrest blades (WWII on TS and Chopmaster on CMS) have done everything I've asked of them, with great results. :) We just received a couple Forrest WWII 20-tooth rip blades at the store. I'm seriously considering trying one as a dedicated blade, especially for thicker stock. I love my Freud dado blades but, having tried the 24-tooth "Glueline", I was less than impressed. :(

I can't comment on the Amana, Everlast or Tenryu blades, though it seems lots of folks are happy with them, as well. IMHO, Forrest has done alright by me and that's what I'm going to stick with. :) :cool:

[glenn bradley]

My WWII TK blade is a bit disappointing. I'm OK with it as I got it on sale for $60. Remembering it is a multi-purpose blade; its OK for that. My Freud TK 'task specific' cross cut (80T) and Rip (24T) do a vastly superior job in 'one after the other' tests; same saw, setup and board. I run the thin kerf on all due to my small 1HP 1970's Craftsman TS.

Others find the WWII to be superior for all cuts so maybe its just my blade (or my underpowered saw) and I haven't written it off yet. If your WWII worked as well as some of the reports here, I would get another. If it was just OK; you could get both Frueds (on sale) for the retail cost of the WWII. Consider your saw's power. I'd run full kerf if I could do so as effectivly as the TK's just for the raw strength of the blade body.

[David Tiell]

I bought a WWII TK at a wood show last year and I love it. Beautiful clean cuts on anything cut. My Freud Rip blade hasn't been on the saw since.

[John Miliunas]

OK, rather than put up a whole separate thread on this, I elected to add to this one. We got a couple Forrest 20 tooth rip blades in the store last week. It's .125 (full kerf) ATB/Raker and retails at our store for $71.00. (Not sure on pricing elsewhere at this time.) Finally, after everyone else chickened out, I decided to go ahead and pick one up myself. (No guts, no glory... :rolleyes: ) Well, I swapped it into my Bridgewood a bit ago and I had the most pleasant surprise! This thing cuts like nothing I've ever run on that saw before!!! :D Mind you, I normally run a WWII, 40 tooth. I've tried the dedicated Dewalt rip blade, as well as the Freud "Glueline". AFAIC, neither of those can hold a candle to this new Forrest. :D

I tried rips on stuff from 4/4 Cherry to 6/4+ Cherry, 5/4 Maple, 5/4 Purpleheart and even a length of 8/4+ Walnut. Cuts like butta', I tell 'ya! Absolutely zero burning! Further, it's the closest thing I've tried to "glue-up ready" in a dedicated rip blade! :) To say that I am impressed would be an understatement! I can see this blade being a real plus to those folks running a combination blade on a lower powered contractor saw, as well. Even the 8/4+ Walnut needed extremely little effort to push it through! A blade well worth consideration for your ripping needs! :) :cool:

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

the sharp one.

[Jim Becker]

John, I've owned the WW-II 20t Rip blade for some time now..."like butter".... :) Yea, not the "smoothest" cut, but I don't really care about that since I always clean my edges on the jointer. And those bad-you-know-what teeth really rip into (pun intended) thick, rough material with ease.

[Bruce Wrenn]

First, I own a couple of Forrest blades, but my question is- Why don't Isee them in production shops? I regularly see them in one man shops, but not production shops. When I go to commercial shows, I don't ever remember even seeing Forrest blades for sale -WHY? Been to IWF a couple of times and to Carolinas Expo for over 20 years, but only see Forrest blades at hobbiest shows-WHY? Seems like if they are so superior, then these guys would be beating doors down to get them.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Due to an unfortunate "incident", my [bloody expensive blade] is trashed.

Ohhh I've done that. Recently I dropped an 8" heavy forged C clamp on a brand spanking new 12" blade when it slipped off the fixture.

I had tightened it prior too but apparantly not enough.

[Scott Loven]

Forrest WWII is on the saw all of the time. I have a Jesada rip blade that I use if I am doing a lot of ripping. Like them both a lot.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Ohhh I've done that. Recently I dropped an 8" heavy forged C clamp on a brand spanking new 12" blade when it slipped off the fixture.

I had tightened it prior too but apparantly not enough. :cool:I would be willing to bet that Forrest could straigthen your blade, as this is one of the services they offer.

[Roger Meeker]

Freud LU87R010...it's a great thin kerf rip blade that does well at crosscut as well. $40 or so shipped from most places. I haven't found a flaw yet, and have run 5+ blades through 2 saws.

[Greg Narozniak]

I have a Forrest WW2 and while it does cut very well. I picked up a Freud LU 84 very cheap some time back ($29.95 I believe) and it cuts just as well as the Forrest, I really cannot tell the difference. I am not really sure the Forrest is worth two to three times the price. The Ridge Carbide, CMT and F410 are all the same design as the WW2 that I believe was copied once the patent ran out, I could be wrong but I think that is what I remember reading.

Like others I use a Freud Glue Line Rip blade for a lot of ripping or if the stock is over 1" thick and it does a wonderful job.

[Jim Hager]

I use forrest blades on my table saws and my SCMS but not exclusively. I like the forrest blades but I am not sold on them to the point that they arae the only thing I'll have. I also have some freud blades, delta, hitachi, and others including a fairly new player Infinity. I really like the infinity blades with bang for buck being a major consideration. Infinity.com Their stuff is right up there with freud and forrest as far as I'm concerned. I especially like their rip blade and their super general.

[Bartee Lamar]

I had a Freud Combo, then put in the WWII. WWII seems to be great but I have not done exact comparison.

My next new blade will be a Ridge from Woodpeck.com

Interesting question... why at the wood shows does WWII always have a stiffener on the saw ?

[scott spencer]

I had a Freud Combo, then put in the WWII. WWII seems to be great but I have not done exact comparison.

My next new blade will be a Ridge from Woodpeck.com

Interesting question... why at the wood shows does WWII always have a stiffener on the saw ?

I can only speculate about the stiffener. Technically it's more right than wrong, and financially it's got to be fairly profitable to recommend it.

I compared my LU84 to the WWII and found the Forrest leaves considerably smaller saw marks....much harder to see, even though the LU84 was pretty good. Obviously, mileage may vary!

Have you checked out the pricing on the Ridge Carbide from Holbren? It's easily the equal of the WWII with thicker carbide. Both great blades IMO.

[Chris Padilla]

CMT and Frued grace my CMS and TS and Skilsaw. :)

[Charlie Plesums]

... why at the wood shows does WWII always have a stiffener on the saw ?
The weekend wood shows are primarily for hobbyists, who have low power saws. Whether it is for that reason, or because it is easier to haul around, the WW II is normally demo'd with a low power saw. Forrest recommends a thin kerf blade on low power saws. And they recommend a stiffener with the thin kerf blades.

[Bill White]

I use dedicated blades. Infinity rip (well pleased), and Freud 80 th cross cut on the RAS and the CMS. Have the combo from Freud but only use it on rough stuff. 2x and such.
Bill