I’m skeptical when a sawblade manufacturer claims to make one blade that does it all. After all, crosscutting and ripping are quite different tasks and trying to get the geometry right for one process seldom lends itself to having the right stuff for the other cuts. But Freud (freudtools.com) has a new blade, the P410 thin-kerf (40-tooth, with an alternate top bevel grind), that has helped tame my skepticism about combo blades.
I tried the blade on hard maple, white oak, ipé, and a couple of different types of plywood, and quite frankly, I’m impressed.

Its ATB grind doesn’t leave a flat-bottom kerf, so it’s not perfect for joinery cuts. However,ripping was a breeze in all the material, with clean edges and no burning. Better yet, on crosscuts, the true test of a combo blade, the P410 left no tearout in the plywood and virtually no fuzz on the exit side of the kerf—impressive. With the hardwoods, the blade made exceptionally clean cuts with a glass-smooth end-grain surface and no tearout on the exit side of the cut.

Best of all, it’s a thin-kerf blade, which not only helps save material (it cuts a 0.091-in. kerf) but also reduces the power needed to make a cut. Over all, this blade’s a winner.

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