Warning: Avanti saw blade danger from Home Depot

[Matt McColley]

well I learned something usefull today..... Avanti = NOT

too many other brands out there with competitive prices to bother with these guys.

I have a blade with a missing tooth.... I use it on my SCMS when I'm cutting 2x for construction jobs...

[Myk Rian]

I can't believe the criticism of the OP, he's just pointing out what could be a safety issue.

The issue being the OP suspected it was losing teeth, and continued to use it.

[Trinna Langdon]

The issue being the OP suspected it was losing teeth, and continued to use it.

I have this 60 tooth blade I have been trying to cut with and could not figure out what I was doing wrong with ripping wood. The wood kept pulling away from the fence. I thought it was me, then yesterday I was ripping some Hard Maple and by the time I got to the back end of the 4' length of board it was not even toughing the fence anywhere! So the problem was getting worse. Months ago wood was moving away from the fence at the back of the blade. So I realized yesterday this is not me. I put on an older blade and wow! What a difference. The maple sailed right through the blade hug the fence, no problem. Now I see this discussion. These blades are dangerous!

[George Gyulatyan]

I have this 60 tooth blade I have been trying to cut with and could not figure out what I was doing wrong with ripping wood.

My question is, why would you be ripping wood with a 60 tooth blade?

[Alan Green]

When at KMS Tools today I grabbed an "in-store special": a 2-pack of 10" 60T Avanti Pro blades for $25. I haven't tried them yet cuz when I got home and started doing some research I found a ton of mostly negative and some conflicting comments on these blades. So I sent Freud Canada an email asking for clarification. Following is my email and their response.

Hello I am hoping you can clear up something that is confusing me regarding your 10" saw blades. Today I purchased a 2 pack of Avanti Pro saw blades from KMS Tools. It would appear they are manufactured by Freud. I also found Home Depot sells the same package, also apparently from Freud. However after doing some research it seems that these are NOT manufactured by Freud- you discontinued this line in 2009. Additionally these blades are made in China, not Italy. Can you tell me the real story? If you don't make these blades then Home Depot and KMS have no business misleading consumers and selling them as a Freud product.

Good day. I do understand your confusion, but here is the explanation to this Avanti. The Avanti brand was creates in 2002- 2003 days for the Lowes company in the USA, it was to be their high price point blade in a chrome finish and yes it was manufactured in Italy. In 2009 we pulled the Avanti brand from Lowes US and Canada, the USA does not sell any Freud Product to Lowes any longer, but in Canada we still sell them blades under the Freud TK brand in a chrome finish and still made in Italy. Since we still own the brand name Avanti we have assigned it to our entry level blades Avanti that are sold at Home Depot, and our mid price point blades that are labeled Avanti Pro these blades have a blue rim on them, and yes both KMS and Home Depot sell them. The Avanti and the Avanti Pro blades are made in a Bosch owned factory in China with Bosch quality control, and yes they are not manufactured by Freud. Bosch is our parent company that’s how we got the blades. All Freud, Diablo, Freud TK, and all Freud Industrial blades are all and will continue to be made in Italy. I hope this explains it for you and if you have any other questions .....

[Rick Fisher]

Doesn't take long to wreck a brand name ..

[Curt Harms]

Alan, thank you for posting that. It clears away murk and confusion.

[Alan Lightstone]

Hmm. Didn't know Bosch owned Freud.

[Matt Meiser]

That was fairly recently.

[Dan Hahr]

I hope the folks running the Freud company are not the same as the guy that replied to the email question.

That looks like a lot of the Chinese product instructions I've seen.

Hate to see decent companies going down the drain...
Dan