# Table saw blade advice



## Muzzy17is (Sep 14, 2014)

I need to put a new blade on my table saw. It's a small table top craftsman saw and I need a good general purpose blade. Which one is y'all's favorite and why?


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## mengtian (Nov 8, 2012)

Freud 40T all purpose blade is great if you just want one blade


> Freud P410 Premier Fusion 10-Inch 40 Tooth Hi-ATB General Purpose Saw Blade with 5/8-Inch Arbor and PermaShield Coating


http://www.amazon.com/Freud-P410-Premier-10-Inch-PermaShield/dp/B000JNTG76


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## wericha (Apr 29, 2012)

Instead of the 40 tooth, I'd prefer a 50 tooth combo blade. A few more teeth to make cleaner crosscuts, but a wider tooth geometry that gives good rip cuts. We have a couple of jobsite saws that have the Freud 50 tooth thin kerf blades on them.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

Muzzy17is said:


> I need to put a new blade on my table saw. It's a small table top craftsman saw and I need a good general purpose blade. Which one is y'all's favorite and why?


There are different blades for different applications. That saw will be a little underpowered and if you are cutting hardwood you might use a 26 tooth blade. If you are cutting plywood then you might use a 80 tooth blade. The fewer teeth will work better for solid wood where more teeth will chip plywood less. A mid range blade that will do both would be a 40 tooth blade. It will cut hardwood slow and chip plywood a little but will do both. As far as brand I like the Frued teflon coated blades. The teflon coated blades run quieter than any other blades I've used.


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## woodchux (Jul 6, 2014)

Any name brand saw blades with 40 tooth should work well for your general TS cutting, with my preference being a Freud 40 tooth. Also be sure to use the right dimension blade that fits your TS arbor. Be safe.


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

For price/performance I like the craftsman 50t combo blade


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## Zircon (Aug 1, 2009)

I have a different take on it. I use the 24 tooth Freud Diablo ripping blade for everything. It's far better for ripping than a combo blade and I'm not about to change blades for crosscutting. It seems to me to do a nice clean job of crosscutting too.


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## ryan50hrl (Jun 30, 2012)

It will do a nice job crosscutting....when compared to a dull knife, but not when compared to a crosscut blade. I can see if your doing construction grade rough work, but if you're doing fine woodworking for enjoyment why cut corners just to save time???


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## Al B Thayer (Dec 10, 2011)

Zircon said:


> I have a different take on it. I use the 24 tooth Freud Diablo ripping blade for everything. It's far better for ripping than a combo blade and I'm not about to change blades for crosscutting. It seems to me to do a nice clean job of crosscutting too.


Oh my!

Al


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*well, there you have it*

Everything from an 80 tooth blade to a 24 tooth blade and 40 and 50 and 60 in between. Get them all or pick one and never change it. Easy.
Me, I just change saws.... never did like changing blades anyhow. :no:


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## Oneal-Woodworking (Apr 14, 2013)

woodnthings said:


> Everything from an 80 tooth blade to a 24 tooth blade and 40 and 50 and 60 in between. Get them all or pick one and never change it. Easy.
> *Me, I just change saws.... never did like changing blades anyhow.* :no:


A lot of guys may not know that you are serious... :smile:


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## ryan50hrl (Jun 30, 2012)

LOL......he really is serious, which is ridiculous.....I need a bigger shop!!!


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## BaldEagle2012 (Jan 25, 2012)

I have three Freud combo blades, 60 tooth. I have them sharpened about once a year. Recently I purchased a Diablo 60 blade, and it has done a wonderful job and leaves no tooth marks. I went back to get another but Big Blue was out of them. I spyed a Dewalt blade, 60 tooth for about the same price as the Diablo, so brought it home, and tried it out. Just like the Diablo, it worked great and left no tooth marks. I didn't like paying the price for the Freud blades, and the two new ones were both below $30 at the Big Blue.


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## unclefester (Aug 23, 2013)

You mean you don't get a new saw when the blade gets dull?


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## Al B Thayer (Dec 10, 2011)

unclefester said:


> You mean you don't get a new saw when the blade gets dull?


Doesn't Fe$tool throw in a new saw when you buy their blade?

Al


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## Chamfer (Sep 6, 2014)

^ All those guys are hilarious, but Woodnthings is serious.


Personally I generally use the same type of blade that came on my DeWalt benchtop saw, a thin kerf 24T fast rip blade. It crosscuts as good as the 80T on my 12'' MS so I rarely change blades. Besides, everything gets milled or at least sanded beyond that.

Ive got several fancy Freud TS blades ranging from fast rip to plywood and everything in between, but I couldnt tell you the last time I took the time to bolt one up.


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## Zircon (Aug 1, 2009)

Chamfer said:


> ^ All those guys are hilarious, but Woodnthings is serious.
> 
> 
> Personally I generally use the same type of blade that came on my DeWalt benchtop saw, a thin kerf 24T fast rip blade. It crosscuts as good as the 80T on my 12'' MS so I rarely change blades. Besides, everything gets milled or at least sanded beyond that.
> ...


I totally agree. I can even cut plywood with the 24T with a clean edge top and bottom with no splintering. I follow the advice of the late great Cabinetman and keep the blade fairly high out of the wood(with guard installed) and that allows the teeth to chomp down on the wood instead of burrowing through when the blade is just higher than the workpiece. I also use a slow feed rate so the teeth take small bites. If I feed at half the normal rate, the workpiece is seeing just as many teeth per inch of cut with the 24T blade as it would see with a 48T combo blade at normal feed rate.


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## ryan50hrl (Jun 30, 2012)

It's not about the number of teeth per inch only. By cutting slower your building more heat from double the time of cutting. Plus the chip geometry is quite different. 


I have 24, 30, 40, 60 and 80 tooth blades. From time to time I'll cut some plywood with a rip blade if I don't care about cut quality, but it's never as clean of a cut as with a dedicated plywood blade. 

Just a question, if there is no difference between blades, why would ALL the blade companies make use specific blades?


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## Chamfer (Sep 6, 2014)

ryan50hrl said:


> Just a question, if there is no difference between blades, why would ALL the blade companies make use specific blades?




Ill counter with this, do you ever cut a piece of wood to size on a TS and do absolutely nothing with it after that before assembly?

If the answer is no (which I would hope it would be) than that means it would at a minimum get sanded/cleaned up, if not milled or recut in some fashion. Therefore, it doesnt really matter how much 'frizz' is on the cut.

Tear out is another issue. However I have never had an issue with tear out with any of my TS blades, regardless of how theyre used.


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## Al B Thayer (Dec 10, 2011)

Chamfer

I like to make as many cuts as possible on the TS that only require sanding with at the most 180 grit. I didn't work this way before but have found the trade off in time saved is more than worth it. Most of the time I can start sanding with 220. The exception is with glue up and table tops. I start with a cabinet scraper and then go to 220. 

Reducing sanding time also means the wood comes out truer with less round over on narrow edges. Maybe this isn't possible on saws with less power. And maybe because I use a stabilizer on my blade it works well for me. Maybe it's the newer style of blades these days. I'm not sure. I don't think it's a thin kerf blade by design. But it's thinner than the blades I used 15 years ago.

This isn't something I recommend for guys with cheap saws but if your saw has some beef to it it's doable. And for me lately, I've been doing projects working with hardwood and plywood at the same time and leaving the 80 tooth affordable Freud in the saw all the time is working out fine.

Al


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

Chamfer said:


> Ill counter with this, do you ever cut a piece of wood to size on a TS and do absolutely nothing with it after that before assembly?


Most of it. As best, i want to start with 180 grit paper, if not 220. Personally, i just get better results that way. Joints go together better, pieces sizes arent changed due to sanding/scraping/whatever, and i only really need to fire up one tool. Case in point, a picture frame. Making one, i can go from raw stock to finished frame only using my table saw, no sanding or planing necessary because the blade leaves a buttery smooth cut. 

Now, im not going to claim that you have to have a different saw for each sort of cut, although id give a few body parts for woodnthing's monster saw. There is something to be said for matching the blade to the intended use, if for no other reason than it saves time and wood


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## Chamfer (Sep 6, 2014)

Well different strokes for different folks then.

I didnt mean excessive sanding. I meant taking a piece of 220 and running it along the edge by hand a pass or two to knock the few fibers off. To me hitting it with a piece of sand paper for literally a few seconds doesnt seem like that big of an extra time adder and it certainly doesnt change the shape of the wood.

My point was that I personally dont see a difference in my nicer blades versus the el cheapo I normally run. That, and sanding for me has always been part of the process whether its time intensive with a power sander or taking a couple seconds to knock a few fibers off an edge.


Jon


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## Al B Thayer (Dec 10, 2011)

Chamfer said:


> Well different strokes for different folks then.
> 
> I didnt mean excessive sanding. I meant taking a piece of 220 and running it along the edge by hand a pass or two to knock the few fibers off. To me hitting it with a piece of sand paper for literally a few seconds doesnt seem like that big of an extra time adder and it certainly doesnt change the shape of the wood.
> 
> ...


I've had the same experience. I don't see a big difference between my 80 tooth Freud I picked up at the box store and the more expensive blades I used to buy when the box stores didn't exist. Now I did try those Irwin blades that are dirt cheap and their 60 tooth blade was not so good.

Al


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## unclefester (Aug 23, 2013)

Al B Thayer said:


> Doesn't Fe$tool throw in a new saw when you buy their blade? Al


Don't know. Still on same blade


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## GeorgeC (Jul 30, 2008)

It is good to see that we can still get a consensus on something.

George


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## bladealignment (Dec 29, 2014)

*Tearout splintering blade alignment*

Greetings, I have a 1954 AMF Dewalt Radial Arm saw with a 9” Freud LU84R009. I was sawing some reclaim 2x4’s and hit nails at least 3 times. I chipped about seven teeth. I have tear out on the table down side on one end of the cut; the piece cut off has no tear out. I considered a new 80 tooth zero rake blade. Before the investment, I put the 9” Freud on my Ryobi BT3000 Table saw. The tear out went away, the chipped up blade cuts flawlessly on the used second hand low ball Ryobi BT3000? Well when I grab the Dewalt RAS head, power off and saw unplugged, at mid way along its travel, I can move the head slightly. I spent hours tuning the 1954 Dewalt. I found the head is moving and misaligning as I cut. New sharp blades mask machine issues. I have a 10-degree rake 9" 40 tooth chipped Freud that only tears out in my 1954 RAS. Do not ask how I put a 10” 40 tooth Diablo on a 9” RAS but when I did the tear out is identical. I tried the chipped up Freud in different machines chipped up Freud only tears out in machines with worn or loose shafts or bearings. The saw motor/arbor on the 1954 is flexing, alignment is everything to me. The blade must run true and the motor and arbor shaft must remain almost flawless to produce nice cuts. I have used a machinist's dial indicator for blade run out and both blades run out noticeably. But the wobbly chipped up blade cuts flawlessly in the Ryobi BT Table saw and an otherwise nice cutting blade tears out in the RAS. P.S. I just bought a used wooden Stanley 22” smoothing plane made it flat, sharpened it and made big wood chips and that makes me smile profusely:laughing:


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*do you have a question....*

Not certain what your post is all about. A crappy blade may work fine in a saw with an arbor that is "tight" and may not in a RAS where the carriage is sloppy. The blade may be "skewed" in it's movement along the rail causing it to tearout on one side. A RAS must be correctly aligned AND have no slop in the carriage as it rolls along.

I replace my blade and use a 10" sanding plate to reference the framing square against so I don't need to jump over the teeth, it works great. A also register my fence off the blade rather than the other way around. My fence is a 1 X 2 screwed to the top of a full size plywood top. Once the blade is square to the fence which is temporarily clamped in position, I screw it down and recheck it.

:yes:


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## unclefester (Aug 23, 2013)

Anyone use Forrest blades?


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## ryan50hrl (Jun 30, 2012)

They're very good blades....which one are you looking at?


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## unclefester (Aug 23, 2013)

I have one in my table saw and sliding miter saw. Never been sharpened and they clean up well.
I'm wondering if they are worth the extra $$$ compared to the big box blades.

I've always thought a better blade can make most tools better than they really are with less frustration. 

Same goes for my saber saws. I use Festool blades even in my Makita saw. Best chance to get a square cut without the blade bending to the grain of the wood.

What do you use? I'm always looking for improvement.


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

unclefester said:


> I have one in my table saw and sliding miter saw. Never been sharpened and they clean up well.
> I'm wondering if they are worth the extra $$$ compared to the big box blades.
> .


From what I personally have observed I think the extra cash is for the carbide on the tips. Compared to most brands, the teeth are massive, so you can resharpen more. I think that's the biggest justifier


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## unclefester (Aug 23, 2013)

epicfail48 said:


> From what I personally have observed I think the extra cash is for the carbide on the tips. Compared to most brands, the teeth are massive, so you can resharpen more. I think that's the biggest justifier


Thanks for the response

Makes sense now that I think about it


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## ryan50hrl (Jun 30, 2012)

unclefester;699305: said:


> What do you use? I'm always looking for improvement.



I've got almost all Freud blades and have been very happy with them. I did get one brand new in the package Diablo blade with a saw I bought, and I don't think it gives as good of a cut as the Freud mainline blades.


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## WarnerConstInc. (Nov 25, 2008)

Never been a Forrest fan. 

I found a blade manufacturer by accident that I really like, Everlast. 

Also have Skarpaz, Tenryu, Popular tools, and FS tools as well.

Only thing a Frued blade may go in, is my circular saw.


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## Chamfer (Sep 6, 2014)

Everyone always mentions the Freud blades that come from box stores, the 'Diablo' line. Has anyone used their 'Fusion' line that I see advertised in my WOOD mags? Kind of looks more like a premium line geared towards WW'ing.


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## ryan50hrl (Jun 30, 2012)

The fusion line is on par with their industrial line. It is a single 40 tooth all purpose blade. Not the best at anything, but better than the standard all purpose blades at everything. 

If you only want one blade, it's the way to go. 

Downside is you might have a hard time getting it resharpened as they claim it's one of a kind tooth geometry.


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## tewitt1949 (Nov 26, 2013)

I bought my first Forrest blade at least 35 years ago. It cuts oak cross gain that is as smooth as glass. Since then I've bought 2 more for my other saws. I'd buy another if I needed it.


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## sawduststeve (Jan 11, 2009)

I have a 10" delta cabinet saw in my woodshop which my father purchased quite a number of good frued 60 and 80 tooth blades. When cutting oak or hickory I always found that it burned the wood edge on the saw cut. I now have switched to a 24T Irwin blade that sells for around $30 dollars and I sale thru the hardwood like butter. But if you want splinter free cuts on all type of wood the thing that makes the most difference in my book is fitting your saw with a zero clearance throat plate. This will do more for making nice cuts than any blade!


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