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I do mostly fine work so I use blades that give me a good and smooth cut.
The original "combo" (rip/crosscut) blade that came with my Unisaw is relegated to construction cuts, but for a factory blade it is quite good
My goto blade is my Forrest WWII, 40 tooth. Great smooth crosscuts and rips on thinner (<1") hardwoods. I bought it back when they were <$100, I'd be hard pressed to buy one at todays price, but I'm guessing all blades have risen proportionally.
I bought a Forrest WWII 48 tooth when there was a good sale. It gets used in place of the 40T depending on which one has been put aside for cleaning (tooth brush after a short submersion in ammonia).
After I bought the original WWII, I bought a 3-set of Freud (rip+combo+80T plywood) so I wouldn't be using the Forrest for everything.
The Freud rip has a flat tooth grind (FTG) which I use all the time for making 1/8"+ grooves for panels. I do pop it on when I need some smooth rips as well. It is about due for replacement as the teeth are showing lots of chips. Never abused it so maybe the carbide is wanting?
The Freud combo actually has never been used.
The plywood blade does great crosscuts and is excellent for the thin plywoods I use, but the 48T WWII does just as well. Still a nice blade to have handy.
Recently bought a Freud thin-kerf rip for thin grooves but it also rips like butta.
Speciality blades:
Freud "Super Dado" 8" set. Minimal "bat-ears" and very easy set up since a stack of a few 1/8" choppers plus the outside blades will give the nominal dado width whitin a few thousandths. Great because I hate the cycle of shimming, test cut, then shim some more.
Probably my favorite specialty blade is the Freud box joint set. A pair of blades that depending on how they are stacked can produce a dead-on 1/4" or 3/8" cut. Same operation as a dado blade but quick and easy to slap in and start cutting.
This set was bought on a whim when I first saw them advertised. Found them for $60/free ship on a home furnishing web sight when everyone else had them for $80.
These blades have HUGE chunks of carbide with flat tops and square sides. Amazingly they leave virtually no chip out on exit sides of cuts. For this reason I sometimes leave them on when I need to skim cut a board as they leave a glass smooth edge and cross cuts.
Due to the cutting action I also use them for hogging out tenons. Perfect "bat ear-less" grooves for when this matters.
FWIW, I haven't tried other high-end blades so my experience is really only with the Forrest and Freud.
The Forrest's cuts better than the Freud's, but they are also much more expensive.
Ok, my throat is sore now 😳
I do mostly fine work so I use blades that give me a good and smooth cut.
The original "combo" (rip/crosscut) blade that came with my Unisaw is relegated to construction cuts, but for a factory blade it is quite good
My goto blade is my Forrest WWII, 40 tooth. Great smooth crosscuts and rips on thinner (<1") hardwoods. I bought it back when they were <$100, I'd be hard pressed to buy one at todays price, but I'm guessing all blades have risen proportionally.
I bought a Forrest WWII 48 tooth when there was a good sale. It gets used in place of the 40T depending on which one has been put aside for cleaning (tooth brush after a short submersion in ammonia).
After I bought the original WWII, I bought a 3-set of Freud (rip+combo+80T plywood) so I wouldn't be using the Forrest for everything.
The Freud rip has a flat tooth grind (FTG) which I use all the time for making 1/8"+ grooves for panels. I do pop it on when I need some smooth rips as well. It is about due for replacement as the teeth are showing lots of chips. Never abused it so maybe the carbide is wanting?
The Freud combo actually has never been used.
The plywood blade does great crosscuts and is excellent for the thin plywoods I use, but the 48T WWII does just as well. Still a nice blade to have handy.
Recently bought a Freud thin-kerf rip for thin grooves but it also rips like butta.
Speciality blades:
Freud "Super Dado" 8" set. Minimal "bat-ears" and very easy set up since a stack of a few 1/8" choppers plus the outside blades will give the nominal dado width whitin a few thousandths. Great because I hate the cycle of shimming, test cut, then shim some more.
Probably my favorite specialty blade is the Freud box joint set. A pair of blades that depending on how they are stacked can produce a dead-on 1/4" or 3/8" cut. Same operation as a dado blade but quick and easy to slap in and start cutting.
This set was bought on a whim when I first saw them advertised. Found them for $60/free ship on a home furnishing web sight when everyone else had them for $80.
These blades have HUGE chunks of carbide with flat tops and square sides. Amazingly they leave virtually no chip out on exit sides of cuts. For this reason I sometimes leave them on when I need to skim cut a board as they leave a glass smooth edge and cross cuts.
Due to the cutting action I also use them for hogging out tenons. Perfect "bat ear-less" grooves for when this matters.
FWIW, I haven't tried other high-end blades so my experience is really only with the Forrest and Freud.
The Forrest's cuts better than the Freud's, but they are also much more expensive.
Ok, my throat is sore now 😳
