Plywood Blade recomendations

[Curt Harms]

I have a Home Depot 80-tooth Diablo blade (by Freud), recently sharpened and kept regularly clean. For clean plywood cuts I pre-score the line with the blade at a scant 1/16" or less height. That takes care of tearout. I do not see the need for an expensive blade. Unless you're making production runs, the pre-score method is a very manageable workflow.

I've done that with melamine, it worked better than I expected. Make the scoring cut then raise the blade for the through cut. I expected a 'step' between the passes but nope, clean cut. I've heard of using TCG (triple chip grind) and HiATB(more angled alternate top bevel) for sheet goods. Don't know which is better, I guess it depends on the blade. With the scoring cut I don't know how much it matters.

[Jim Dwight]

I've never used a blade specifically designed for plywood on any of my table saws and I doubt I ever will. I get splinter free cuts as long as the blade is clean and sharp and if I want extra insurance I put in a new zero clearance insert. On a non critical project I even once used a new 24 tooth ripping blade to crosscut some plywood and the spintering from it was minimal. With a 40-50 tooth all around blade in good condition with a newish zero clearance insert you should get clean splinter free crosscuts.

[Peter Kelly]

I've done that with melamine, it worked better than I expected. Make the scoring cut then raise the blade for the through cut. I expected a 'step' between the passes but nope, clean cut. I've heard of using TCG (triple chip grind) and HiATB(more angled alternate top bevel) for sheet goods. Don't know which is better, I guess it depends on the blade. With the scoring cut I don't know how much it matters.

Triple Chip if the saw has a separate scoring blade, High ATB if you're doing without. TCG blades are much easier to re-grind and tend to stay sharp longer whereas High ATB dull much, much faster and aren't so simple to sharpen. There's also Hollow Ground type blades which alternate triple chip with raker teeth that are ground to a concave profile. Commonly seen with vertical panel saws but Amana and some others make them in 10" D / 5/8" Bore / 80T sizes.

Either way, the shallow scoring pass method described above is a pretty foolproof way for clean cross cuts with veneered sheet using a standard cabinet saw.

[Rob Sack]

I used to use the Forrest Hi A/T for all plywood work. It's an outstanding blade. However, despite it's high initial cost, I never could find anyone out here to re-sharpen it properly and sending it across country back to Forrest for correct re-sharpening was really expensive. I am now using Tenryu 80 tooth blades. They seem to be able to cut about a cleanly as the Forrest blades. They are also much less expensive, easier for me to find, and local sharpening services seem to be able to re-sharpen them correctly.

[John TenEyck]

I used to use the Forrest Hi A/T for all plywood work. It's an outstanding blade. However, despite it's high initial cost, I never could find anyone out here to re-sharpen it properly and sending it across country back to Forrest for correct re-sharpening was really expensive. I am now using Tenryu 80 tooth blades. They seem to be able to cut about a cleanly as the Forrest blades. They are also much less expensive, easier for me to find, and local sharpening services seem to be able to re-sharpen them correctly.

FWIW, you may want to consider Dynamic Saw in Buffalo, NY for your future sharpening needs. I'd be shocked if they could not sharpen that Forrest Hi ATB blade at least as well as Forrest.

John

[Rob Sack]

FWIW, you may want to consider Dynamic Saw in Buffalo, NY for your future sharpening needs. I'd be shocked if they could not sharpen that Forrest Hi ATB blade at least as well as Forrest.

John

Forrest does a great job re-sharpening blades. It's the shipping to New Jersey from LA and back that makes it so expensive. Sending the blades to Buffalo NY should be just as expensive.

[Dave Sabo]

10” blades fit in a USPS flat rate box.

you can send half a dozen cross country for a couple of bucks a blade.