WWII-Burns...Grizzly Blade-NICE

[Jeff Miller]

Forrest WWII BLADES >>>>>R>>>>>>>>OVERRATED

I have some CMT and Freud blades that cut like butta.




Haven't really heard much good said about Forest blades (here and on WoodNet)


An employee at Woodcraft even steered me away from them



JEFF

[Don Alexander]

i find it interesting that even though the Grizzly blade is cutting better than the WWII that th OP still refers to the WWII as superior and the griz as inferior

the facts apparently do not support that , in this case at least
personally i have tried 2 different WWII blades several years apart both combination blades and neither one produced as good a cut as a Freud combo blade with the same number of teeth my conclusion was that there was no point in spending significantly more money for a lesser quality cut not saying anything other than my personal experience on 2 occasions several years apart

every once in awhile i still try out some other brand of blade and almost all of the time i quickly start asking myself why i bothered, basically stick with what works till it doesn't work anymore

[Kyle Kaldor]

Don, what I meant by that is the WWII is supposed to be superior and the Grizzly is supposed to be inferior. Obviously, in my experience, that is not the case. I think the Grizzly blade is every bit as good as the WWII.

i find it interesting that even though the Grizzly blade is cutting better than the WWII that th OP still refers to the WWII as superior and the griz as inferior

[Van Huskey]

I think the perception by many that Forrest is overrated is based on two things, the hype around the blade makes one expect a miracle cut and Forrest blades need a different setup than most other blades to work properly. Between the Tenryu Gold Medal, Freud P410 Fusion, Infinity Super General and Forrest WWII 40T there is little or any real world difference when properly setup in my opinion. I have had all these blades and have multiples of three of them in the shop now. I just can't tell wood cut by one from the other. If I was buying a new one to be my only combo blade I would pick the cheapest I could find of the 4. The one type of person I would suggest NOT buy the Forrest would be someone who does not use a blade guard, the Forrest grind requires a lot of blade above the cut and if you don't use a blade guard it is really increasing the danger in an already dangerous situation.

In the end blades are usually a Ford vs Chevy vs Mopar kinda discussion.

[scott spencer]

I think the perception by many that Forrest is overrated is based on two things, the hype around the blade makes one expect a miracle cut and Forrest blades need a different setup than most other blades to work properly. Between the Tenryu Gold Medal, Freud P410 Fusion, Infinity Super General and Forrest WWII 40T there is little or any real world difference when properly setup in my opinion. I have had all these blades and have multiples of three of them in the shop now. I just can't tell wood cut by one from the other. If I was buying a new one to be my only combo blade I would pick the cheapest I could find of the 4. The one type of person I would suggest NOT buy the Forrest would be someone who does not use a blade guard, the Forrest grind requires a lot of blade above the cut and if you don't use a blade guard it is really increasing the danger in an already dangerous situation.

In the end blades are usually a Ford vs Chevy vs Mopar kinda discussion.

You nailed it IMO, and that's pretty much the way I see it too...the WWII is typically an excellent 40T ATB general purpose blade, but it is the marquis name in this class, and people sometimes expect more because of it. Remove the lettering and its just an excellent 40T ATB general purpose blade...no fairy dust... What people often overlook, is that these precision blades have more potential for a cleaner cut, but are also more revealing of all the other variables involved with cutting wood. A setup that's not quite right will mask the capability of a higher precision blade.

It's still possible that this blade has a defect, either from the factory or after the fact. I'm not trying to excuse a defect from a premium supplier, but I think it's premature to make any assumptions about this blade, and especially about all Forrest blades based on this one....they seem to sell a lot of blades, which of course increases the total number of defective ones that escape into use, even if their defect ratio is unchanged from prior years.

(I do find that the Super General and Fusion leave a shinier edge than the others though, but that also makes them even more prone to burning in given situations.)

[Kent A Bathurst]

24 kt solid gold balderdash.

I have Forrest 2 x 10" WWII, 2 x 12" 80t Chopmaster, 1 x 10" 30t WWII, 1 x 10" 80t panel saw, and the dado set. No burning. No problems. None of them anything but excellent. For 12 + years. Your expert reference is some unnamed employee at a some unknown Woodcraft franchise? Does that person have the same extensive experience with the Forrest product as you? Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but without any hands-on experience, you aren't necessarily entitled to your own facts.

Forrest WWII BLADES >>>>>R>>>>>>>>OVERRATED

I have some CMT andFreud blades that cut like butta.




Haven't really heard much good said about Forest blades (here and on WoodNet)


An employee at Woodcraft even steered me away from them



JEFF

[David Weaver]

I would agree that they're not overrated. I don't use my TS much anymore, but my blades are forrest and freud. the forrest are top notch. The freud are good, too.

The only time I've ever burned anything with a forrest is at a buddy's shop where he was running a negative hook 60t forrest on a 5 horsepower powermatic. You had to really keep the pressure on the material to feed it and keep it moving along skippy. I have no idea why he was running it. It did leave a nice edge, though.

He's running a WWII 40t now, though. I wonder of the QC has gone down a little, there is just a teeny bit of swirling in all of his cuts now, where the WWI had left a glass edge. May also be just because the WWI had less clearance angle.

I wouldn't put too much credence in one WC employee pointing you elsewhere.

[Chris Padilla]

In the end blades are usually a Ford vs Chevy vs Mopar kinda discussion.

Okay, so where is the BMW version? I don't need the Ferrari but BMW would be nice....

[Van Huskey]

Okay, so where is the BMW version? I don't need the Ferrari but BMW would be nice....

Look to the blades supplied to commercial shops. There are a ton of them and many are extremely nice. The prices don't make sense for me personally since without the big retail price support Freud et al get they tend to be expensive and the suppliers tend to be "no dicker pay the sticker" kinda places. I won't throw out any names since my experience with them is limited but I know there are several pros here among others that use them.


As for the analogy I would say the Forrest and upper level Tenryu/Freud/Infinity are the BMW/Mercedes/Audi/Lexus range but their does exist a Ferrari/Aston Martin/Pagani/Bugatti range of blades.