Blade Recommendations?

Rennie Heuer

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
11,607
Location
Constantine, MI
Been thinking about a thin kerf combination blade. I have a Forrest WWII that I like, but its noisy and takes a bit of work to push things through. I've gotten very spoiled using my Freud thin kerf rip and crosscut blades. They are quiet and cut beautifully. However, I'm getting tired of swapping blades all the time. I know I wont get the same quality of cut from a combo blade, but I'm thinking that for 90% of my cuts it will be 'good enough'.

Anyone have any recommendations? Been looking at the Freud. There is also Amana and Infinity.
 
I bought this set of blades from Infinity a few years ago and would be hard pressed to go with any other brand now. I had used mostly Freud blades over the years and was satisfied with them, but decided to try the Infinity blades. There's no comparison in the sharpness right out of the box. Infinity wins! I bought the 3-blade set and all perform flawlessly.

I went with the 1/8" (full) kerf because I wasn't satisfied with the accuracy of cut with the thin kerf blades I had used. The full kerf blades cut easily and are quiet.
 
Based on a thread on this forum I put a (now I can't remember the name. :huh: Onsrud maybe?) blade on both my tablesaw anCMS. The tablesaw blade is a combo, the CMS is strictly cross cut. Both give beautiful cuts, nearly glue ready.
 
I know what it is like to have to swap for that thing you forgot or just thought about. Without hurrying I can swap a blade in just over a minute so it is not really as much a time waster as it is a mental thing sometimes. It probably helps that I have been a task specific blade guy for so long my workflow accidentally falls into groups of operations; rip work, crosscut work, etc. I don't remember what your tablesaw is but full and thin kerf feel about the same on my 3HP saw. Full kerf tend to give me a cleaner cut although with good prep and technique a TK blade cuts just fine.

So, all that without one recommendation . . . not super useful, eh? I run Carbide Processors but, there are many blades at that tier that do as well. Before Tom Walz lured me in to his 'cermet II' world I used Freud, Lietz and Amana all with good results. Surf Amazon a bit and you can find some industrial Freuds for great prices. I will point out that a combo blade is a different geometry than a general purpose blade although similar in many respects.
 
Top