Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler Woodworking Question

What sort of general purpose blade do you use? I have what appears to be a vaguely decent blade on my new/old saw, but it would be good to replace it. I had some trouble the other day, but I think that was because the belt was loose. Tightened it up, and it behaved better.

It's a Forrest purchased through Lee Valley.

I can't recall the exact model but I can tell you that I actually paid more for this general purpose blade than I paid for my Freud, thin kerf, 80 tooth blade. It works like magic though compared to the general purpose blade that came with the saw.

I was wondering about Freud's suggestion of the 80T, myself. I'm not needing a superfine finish on the edge of the crosscut in this case as any flooring that gets cut will have it's cut-edge hidden under baseboard trim or a transition strip of somekind. I'm wondering if a 24T(10") will be better than the 30T(10") they recommended for ripping this flooring, too.

If you are ripping lengths of it, you will likely need the additional horsepower that the medium to lower tooth counts give you. However, if you need to also crosscut with it, you might not like the results.

The good news is that since you have both a mitre and a table saw, you don't have to choose. Try a ripping blade on the table saw and do some test cuts to see if it produces the desired results for ripping. As long as it leaves no big tears, you are good to go.

Since the wood you mentioned is extremely hard, invest in a 'good' crosscut blade on the mitre saw and do some test cuts. You may not need or even want the 80 tooth versions on such a hard wood (note I'm not familiar with Sucupira, I'm just going by your description.) Really hard wood is much more forgiving for tears in the mid-tooth range and as you say a fine tooth blade may just have to work too hard.

Forgot to mention. Take the time to carefully calibrate your table saw when using really hard woods. Also take extra time, every time, when adjusting your fence. Any lateral pressure on the blade is going to quickly bog it down or burn your wood till it's nearly on fire and ruin your expensive blade. It needs to be set up super straight to keep it running smooth.

Good information Andrew, thanks.

One of the problems I had with ripping hardwood flooring on my previous house, was that some of the planks were bowed slightly, or stress would be released while ripping and hence causing some binding/burning at times. That wood was a type of African Mahogany with a hardness similar to Oak.

One of the things that makes the Sucupira so hard apparently, is it has silica in it's grain structure. It's very stable however, so I'm hoping it won't warp or bend upon cutting.

I have been using the Freud Diablo blades from home depot for a few years and have always had great luck with them. However one downside I have noticed with them is that they do not always give me perfectly square cuts as there is some kind of blade deflection going on as you go through the cut. I didnt really think it was the blade until I was reading reviews on amazon for the same blades and other people had noticed the same thing.

Overall I will continue to use them since for the price I have yet to find any blades that cut as well as they do. However Once I finally get my own saws I certainly will be investing in something more high end for stuff that needs to be...perfect.

I used to switch between a rip blade and a cross cut blade quite a bit. Since I've had the Forrest WWII 48 tooth, it stays on the saw. I have not tried their blades for the RAS, as I tend to use that saw for lumber, nails, staples, etc.. No sense spending much money on blades for that saw.

Really, no switching?! I gotta get one. Do I have to get the WWII model, or is there one made after 1945?

A note on tooth counts and rake:

24-50 for ripping (table saw), 60-100 for crosscuts (chop saw). 80-100 tooth blades for table saw are for plyood and melamine, as they are prone to chipout and the high tooth count reduces that. Combo blades (for table saw) usually have 40-50 teeth.

It's to much info to get into detail about tooth rake (angle)here, as there are numerous choices) but check it out on any woodworking site. It designates the angle of the teeth, some of which have opposing bevels on every other tooth. Each blade's rake(s) determines its optimum cutting task.

And a further safety piece - glasses are not safety glasses... ended up with a small chip of melamine in the eye about 4 years ago. Ouch.

Bren R.