Hello
I need to buy a new 10″ saw blade for my table saw.
I have been looking into the forest woodworkersII.( the cost!$$$$)
My question is , is the blade worth the money? everyone says it is the best blade on the market. BUT!?.
If anyone has used this blade could help me justify the money,PLEASE DO.
THANKS inadvance. C.A.G.
Replies
Curtis,
The short answer is no and this is why. To produce good or excellent quality cuts you need several different blades that are designed for a specific purpose. If you change blades for the purpose at hand your cuts will be excellent with less expensive blades. However, that does depend on your blades being sharp. Given that you need to send your blades out for sharpening, that means in many cases you need two of each blade. That is why I say the WWII dosen't make financial sense.
The WWII may still be cost effective because of the number of sharpenings, etc. over the other blades but that is not an issue with my level of involvment. If you don't change blades then the WWII is rated the highest for a combination blade relative to quality cuts. It is a little inconsistent however, to want and buy the highest qualtiy blades and then use them in such a way to produce inferior cuts.
I will strenuously disagree with the last post. If your table saw is set up properly, it will yield cut that, at best, will need only light sanding. Most of my rips have no teeth marks at all. I'm sold on it and would buy another one, despite the riduculous cost. Cross cuts are finish quality. The C4 carbide proves to be much longer lasting and there's a lot of it, so it will take many more resharpenings.
The one draw back I find is that the blade makes a heck of lot of wind, and blows a lot of dust in my face.
C
I'll add my 2 cents. I bought the Woodworker II when I purchased my Unisaw a couple of years ago. After alot of fine tuning with the fence and blade I still couldn't get a nice rip with that blade. Out of frustration I bought an Amana Combination blade. First cut I thought I had a new saw. The WWII is now assigned to the mitre saw where the crosscuts feel like glass. I've read about some guys who have gotten a bum blade maybe mine was one of them.
Are you confused yet? I have the WWII and am very happy with it. (It's actually my second, I had one on my contractor saw when I upgraded.) It is a combination blade and so isn't the best blade for any cut - but - it's darn good. There are several manufactures out there that make excellent blades (Amana wouldn't be my choice, but to each his own). The quality blades aren't that much cheaper and if your shop time is as limited as much as mine I don't want to be switching blades to get the optimum for each cut. If you want a specialized blade look at Freud they make excellent professional blades and can come up with the right blade for whatever your application. If you want one blade that does a great job on whatever the application I like WW. If you need to get a second blade for when your WW is getting sharpened (I've never had too) buy a Freud (there professional line) rip blade and you pretty much have it covered.
Only my opinion,
Jim
I have the WWII and it works great. Ultra smooth rips, and crosscuts. Sure, a dedicated rip and crosscut blade will perform better, but only you can decide if the increase in performance is worth all the blade changing. It isn't for me.
If I'm making a crosscut that will be show up prominently in the finished piece, I may go to the trouble of scoring the backside with a knife to ensure there is absolutely no splintering. 99% of the time, I don't worry about it.
Having said that, if I were to be faced with ripping a LOT of 8/4 maple, I'd probably pull out my old Sears Craftsman rip blade and take off the WWII.
My WWII is flat to within .002 as measured on the arbor. Actually, to be completely accurate, I measured .002 runout, which is the blade and arbor combined. Awful good tolerance for woodworking if you ask me.
Regards,
John
I just bought the wwII 2 months ago and wasn't too impressed, after having a freud combo blade for 15 years. Come to find out I had to fine tune my saw's rip fence and readjust the pulley and then wow is it ever a pleasure to use. I have noticed though that my Freud was a little more forgiving, cutting quite nicely even with pitch and gum on it. Seems as though the WWII doesn't like to give excellent cuts very well when it is dirty, but I can't fault it for that! Good ole' easy off and 10 minutes and its sparkling and given me 1st rate cuts in anything I run over it. I'll but another one in 30 years! BTW, the guy I ordered it from tyold me this story of this little shack with a locked door at the Forrest Company where an old man goes in and all you hear for 15 minutes is the sound of hammer on steel as he tensions the blanks!!!! I'll leave it to your discression whether or not you believe it!
Loren
Is the blade worth the money? Nope! Excellent, just as good blades available for 20 to 30% less.
Don
Yes, in a heart beat.
Curtis, you get what you pay for.
I have not used a Forrest blade yet but I typically purchase blades in the $80-$120 range. I own a 10" Delta contractor table saw, and three years ago, I had a job where it called for very beefy, 3" square red oak legs. After glue up I needed to rip the stock down to rough size so it could be planed. There were very few marks on the blanks when I was finished sawing. I attribute this to a good quality sharp blade.
Go to a specialty tool or saw store to make your final decision. Obtain a copy of the saw blade manufacturers catalogue and find yourself a salesperson who has some experience. Get them to go through the catalogue with you. A saw blade sounds so simple until you get into all the options, negative and positive hook, many different tooth layouts, many different tooth grindings, quantity of teeth, thickness of the body. A very good blade used improperly usually turns out poor results. You need to match the blade to the desired cut.
My suggestion is to try an expensive blade like the Forrest or another good vendors name. I bet you will never go back to the cheap blades.
The next problem you might have is realizing the blade that seems to cut so well is actually very dull and needs sharpening.
Peter
Alright since everyone else responded. I bought a ww2 for my unisaw and I destroyed it with in two weeks..so you know I must really be rough on wood. After crosscutting a poker sized chip of hard maple the chip rolled back to the blade went BAAAM, hit my face then the ceiling and in the process bent a tooth on my 2 week old ww2. I liked the blades performance during rips so much I bought a second one before I would send it off for repairs.
The repairs were the only down side of the forrest co.. I was called by a Forrest asking what had happened to cause the damage and was then told it was not covered under warranty work! I then explained that I never asked for waranty work and that I really liked their blade and hoped it could be repaired at my cost. The blade was returned to me with out repairs or any explaination not even a note saying it cant be repaired.
Go ahead, spend the money. Just don't try to rip them off with bogus warranty work. They are ready for you!:)
Bo
curtis
Left tilt-right tilt. IMO, nope. I would get a 24 flat tooth for ripping and a 60 tooth crosscut. I don't mind changing the blades. No matter what you get, a cheap sharp blade is 10 times better than a dull expensive blade.
Luck...
sarge..jt
I agree with Bg and Sarge - for the best results use the right tool for the right job. That means rip with a rip blade and cross cut with a cross cut blade. If you're switching blades too much look at your workflow process and plan better. I haven't seen a combo blade that will give me an edge joint that's glue ready in 8/4 white oak. Everything else being equal you just can't feed thick material fast and smooth enough by hand with a combo blade. Just to many teeth and too much feed pressure. The WWII's are pretty popular but Forrest want's you to send it back to them to be sharpened. I wonder if their waranty requires factory shrapening?
BTW I use FS Tools blades.John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
Life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid - John Wayne
WOW!!!
Thanks to everyone! Im still unsure If...
Ive tried most major brands of saw blades,AND I do change my saw blades quite offten, Although I am a strong beliver in you get what you pay for,but ... "O WELL"
I guess Im going to have to try it for myself.
I will let you all know ,what I think.
Thanks again. C.A.G.
I have a Unisaw with a Forrest blade and like most of the post I'm happier than a dead pig in the sunshine with it. If you buy a Forrest blade and you don't like it for some reason I believe they will take it back. I personally don't know anybody who has sent one back. The thing that sold me on my first Forrest blade was a ripping job. I had some Red Oak 9' 4" long x 1"thick I needed 60 strips 1/8" x 1" and almost 8' long, I cut these and only had to lightly sand a couple.
Now everyone isn't going to agree with me, We have had this discussion about blades more than once. Forrest Girl that post here quite often is a big fan of Freud blades and I have several Freud blades myself. She has one she claims she cut a glass of water in half and didn't spill a drop. I didn't see it but I have no reason not to believe her. Woodworkers don't lie just fisherman and politicians.
God Bless
les
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