In his book “Classic Joints with Power Tools”, Yeung Chan suggests using a premium carbide tablesaw blade with flat top ground teeth for cutting joinery, so as to get square clean corners. As the only FTG blades I’ve encountered are 24 tooth rip blades, I am guessing he has another blade (probably 40 T) reground.
Does anyone here use such a blade? Does an expert have a comment on either the desirability of such blades for cutting joinery, or a source?
Replies
Me too please, and a mailorder source, for my Minimax 3
Malcolm
Malcolm
Try using a triple chip.
Don
His suggestion is realted to blade tooth design and grain relationships. (Analogy) Dovetail saws are sold as a crosscut saw, BUT the act of cutting a dovetail saw joint is a ripping operation. Many articles have been published on how to re-shape the teeth to perform perfectly. Fine Woodworking has published this and can be found with a search. Wouldn't ya think the mfg's would wise up? Same for the folks that sell veneer saws. The saw kerf of a re-shaped/tuned dovetail saw is thinner than Jap saws and YOU can resharpen, unlike Jap saws. Splittin a knife mark is a piece of cake.
Now back to you question, if a joint requires a with the grain cut, use any rip saw with flat teeth, cross grain ,use alternate tooth or triple chip. The Forrest brand does both pretty well due to incredibly flat plate and stabilizers still help.
Happy New Year,
Don
Edited 1/14/2005 8:19 am ET by DONC4
CMT makes a blade called the Cabinetshop blade. 10" 60T, 1TCG, 1FTG I think the part number is 221.060.10. I don't know if this is what Chan was talking about or what kind of exit wound it leaves. It is a premium blade with a heavy body. I use dado blades for a lot of joints. Connecting cuts, as you are suggesting, is a hard way to make many joints other than large rabbets.
Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
The CMT blade you describe sounds very similar to the Freud LU98, which also has a combination of TCG and FT teeth. The TCG teeth are .2 mm higher than the FT teeth, so wouldn't cut a perfectly flat "exit wound" (good term!). Two-tenths of a mm is pretty darned small though, not sure I could see it.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>)
Thanks to all who commented. If the small deviation from flat matters in a saw-cut joint, one could clean it up with a router or shoulder plane. It seems that Chan's approach to precision is not common.
Technically speaking, an absolutely flat top would hog out your material. Just like a knicker on a rabbet plane, the fibers need to be severed ahead of the cut, especially on cross grain cuts. That's why the blades will leave a very fine "extra depth" cut line. The exit wound I spoke of refers to the amount of hair or tearout that this style blade may leave. I don't have one so I'm just throwing it out there as a possible problem. Alan S may be taking the information too literally. Some ideas look great on paper. I would prefer to cut something like a tenon, flat on my saw with dadoes rather than standing up on a tenon jig and making two cuts intersect. I can cut a 12" long tenon that way if needed, you can't do that standing on end. Combining a table saw shoulder cut with a band saw cheek cut is another way to make a straight tenon, doesn't work with angles unless you build a sled.Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
Yeung uses a Forrest blade. It's a special flat top grind they originally did for him. Now they have it available as a regular item. However, I don't think it's in their regular catalog list. I picked one up at the last woodworking show. There's a number for it, but can't remember off the top of my head. Just call Forrest and ask for the "Yeung Chan Special" They'll know what it is.
For a tenon I cut the shoulders flat on the TS with an ATB blade and set the blade height just a bit high so the 2 little V grooves are left behind. I cut the cheeks next on the TS with a rip blade and a tenoning jig. Finally the height of the tenon is cut on the BS. No tearout. Does reducing the glue surface area by the amount of those 2 little V grooves weaken the joint and make me a sloppy, non-purist, hack of a pig? Boy I sure hope not.John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
The more things change ...
We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.
Petronious Arbiter, 210 BC
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