I recently got my new Forrest WW2 blade sharpened for the first time, locally. When new, the blade cut like a hot knive through butter on everything I threw at it, including resawing through 3” hard maple. Now that it’s back and freshly sharpened it doesn’t cut anything like when it was new. I talked to the guy who sharpened the blade (he does most of the cabinet shops around here). He told me he used 600 grit top and 400 grit face grinding wheels. <!—-><!—-><!—->
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I would like to hear from people who have had their Forrest blades sharpened, both through Forrest, and otherwise – to hear what your experience has been. I am leaning towards either buying a run-of-the-mill blade and sharpening locally, or buying and sharpening through Forrest. I believe Forrest blades are much sharper than typical blades.<!—-><!—->
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Cheers,
Nathan<!—-> <!—->
Replies
I ONLY send mine back to Forrest, period. They may even be better than new and the price is right and the turn around is less than a week. I also have them sharpen all my other blades.
I am adopting Napie's plan. I too have had my WWII sharpened locally and I have to question the sharpening job that was done. I had a lot of splitout that I didn't get when it was new. I am going to buy a 2nd WWII for backup when the other is being sharpened.
Jeff
I send 'em back to Forrest. They come back good as new. Heck, I've even had them weld 3 or 4 new teeth on one and the repaired/resharpened blade was indistinguishable from a new one. To top it off, they send you a bunch of $$ Off coupons on future sharpenings. Worth the $ and the wait for the UPS guy to bring it back, IMHO.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
Well, I guess that settles that. I'll be sending them back to Forrest.
I live in Canada and wonder what type of turn around time I'll get. Also, now that the blade has been sharped locally I wonder if they can restore it. Might have to get another blade as backup.
Mike, how do you find your non-forrest blades work after Forrest sharpens them? Perhaps the trick is in the sharpening.
"Mike, how do you find your non-forrest blades work after Forrest sharpens them? Perhaps the trick is in the sharpening."
Dunno. Since climbing on the Forrest bandwagon about 10 years ago, I consider all my non-Forrest blades pretty much disposable, so I've never sent them for sharpening.
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
There aren't many that I'd trust to do as good of a job as Forrest, but there are undoubtedly many that could. Forrets does get a premium but their a safer bet than your average local shop.
Ridge Carbide sharpens their TS2000 blade to 1200 grit, and they'd be among my first choices as a resharpening service.
I hear great things about Scott Whiting in Arizona, but shipping is cost prohibitive from the east coast.
Nathan,
I just recently sent in one of my forrest WWII blades to forrest to be sharpened.
I had 9 chipped teeth, must have hit a nail or hard knot or something. I called to get a price and here is what they told me:
$20 for the sharpening, $8 for return shipping. $3 each to replace the 9 chipped teeth (normally $5each, but when you have them replace more than 5 or so the price goes down)
I sent the blade in with a check for $55. They were actually able to grind the chips out without replacing the teeth - and they RETURNED my check to me with a note to please re-send a new check for the reduced amount.
They could have kept my money and I would not have known the difference - but they did not. They will get all of my blade sharpening business from here on out.
I have not had a chance to mount the blade yet and test it out, but I feel confident it will cut as well as new.
Good luck,
Lee
P.S. Just saw you are in Canada, so the shipping price they quoted me may not apply. I do think it would be reasonable, though. As for the turn around time, I got the blade two days before they returned my check with the new invoice. All together no longer than 2 weeks from the time I sent the blade off (via USPS parcel post - pretty slow, but I have a spare blade)
Edited 6/20/2007 2:39 pm by mapleman
I had my Forest WWII sharpened here in Houston. He welded one new tooth. Sharp as new. The business that did it is called Circle Saw.
Scotty
Pearland, TX
I've had my FWW2 sharpened once by Forrest, once locally by Cleveland Cutter and Tool. No scientific testing, but I think CCT did a good job and maybe better than Forrest. CCT's sharpening seems to be lasting longer than Forrest's.
I've had the same experience.
I have generally used the premier sharpening service in this area for non-Forrest blades; they came back good enough, I suppose.
But when they sharpened some of my Forrest blades, they were clearly not as sharp as they were when new.
So just this past Monday, I shipped off a big stack of blades to Forrest to see what they can do.
A deciding factor for me was a conversation with my tool supplier in which he told me a respected cabinet shop here has them ship brand new blades (generally Freud specialty blades) directly to Forrest for sharpening.
I have no idea why Forrest seems to do a better job of sharpening than most other shops, but that is apparently the case.
The other thing I have noticed is that new Forrest blades stay sharp much longer than those from other manufacturers. I will be interested to see if that is also true with the blades from these other companies sharpened by Forrest.
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"It is what we learn after we think we know it all, that counts."
John Wooden 1910-
where are you situated
Goldsmith in prescott ontario mfg speculty blades and does a good job of sharpening them
dude, I'm in Saint John, New Brunswick.
I would'nt send them to Ridge Carbide Tool Co....If you want them to be sharp! Rickk
Rick - Would you mind elaborating? I'd be curious about what's behind your statement...their blades are exceptionally sharp.
Knotscott, I sent my 1 year old dado-king blades to Ridge shipping 37.00 to be sharpened,got them back and the tear out was terriable,called Ridge and talked to "John" he said to return them,so I did . A couple of days later he calls and tells me it is the shims which were torn a bit. Got them back and tried using the set without shims and the tearout is just as bad,so I got my magnifing glass and checked out the tips...on the outer blades I could detect to tips which did'nt have a sharp point,I since tried to sharpen with a diamond hone,had some luck but not great and thats the story,so I will be sending them to Forrest. Rickk
In one of those "haste makes waste" moment, I left my zero clearance insert in my table saw when I started cranking the blade to a 45 degree angle. I heard a pop and found one of the carbide teeth from my brand new WWII blades sitting there on the table. I called Forrest blades and they told me to send it to them and if I didn't bind it out of acceptable tolerances they would fix it. They did and re-sharpened all the teeth. I was skeptical that it would be "good as new" but it is! I wouldn't even think of having a local sharpen the WWII, just send it back to Forrest.
Larry Squier
My Forrest blades go to Forrest for sharpening. My local sharpening Co.'s rep advised me to do this, even though they do a fine job. But, there is a noticeable difference. Wonder what they really do at Forrest to accomplish this? Maybe the earths' magnetic field is misaligned at their facility allowing the carbide molecules to orient themselves in a different way. :>)
Paul
Nathan
Okay. Here is what I was told.
In 1988 I made 1200' of 8" base from 1/2" MDF. Two lifts of 5"x14' sheets.
Hideous.
My man at the sharp shop suggested the thin kerf WW2 and so I got one. Worked great. Blah blah blah.
He also told me that because Forrest used a finer, denser quality of carbide they had to be sharpened with different grinding wheels and at a slower speed. Being the main, (and only), Forrest rep in the area he was in possession of said wheels and had been to where ever the hell it is where they make those blades and had learned all there was to know about sharpening said blades.
Worked for me.
I now have six or seven Forrest blades,( I have three table saws in the shop), and I really don't use any other kind. Oddly enough though, even though any other blade can't touch the Forrest I have two FS Tool melamine blades which I think are better than the Forrest melamine. Having said that however, I ripped about 75' of 1/8" aluminum on the Forrest melamine blade a week or so ago and one of the shop monkeys has been cutting Baltic Birch panels on the same blade with a minor amount of tear out ever since.
150 2'x2' panels.
He hate me.
So as per sharpening. Find someone in your area who knows Forrest and is one with the wheel.
And by the by, has anyone out there heard from Mr. Sawdust lately?
He died in 97.------------------------------------
It would indeed be a tragedy if the history of the human race proved to be nothing more than the story of an ape playing with a box of matches on a petrol dump. ~David Ormsby Gore
http://mrsawdust.com/Tribute-10th.php
I had my WWII blade sharpened locally and was not happy with the results. The cut is not even as clean as prior to sharpening. With this one exception, i've always used Forrest and will continue to do so.
I've had my Forrest blades (12" chopsaw & 10" table saw) sharpened through Forrest and they always come back working like new. The price is comparable to other sendout companies. I have had mixed results with local companies regardless of what they use for grits. Hat a freud lu85 come back rather dull on one side so it cut to one side, Had to send it out again to someone else to get it right. You always tend to get what you pay for.
I had a similar experience in having a local sharpener do my WWII. It came back cutting worse than it did before I sent in to resharpen! I addressed this with the sharpener and things got heated. In the end, since I had accused the sharpener of ruining my blade, the sharpener reimbursed me, not for the sharpening service, but for the cost of a new thin kerf WWII. Lesson learned: for expensive blades always return to the manufacturer for sharpening service! For cheap blades... buy a new one.
I send my Forrest blades to bc saw in Toronto Canada because Forrest recommended them they do a wonderful job and I am very happy with the results just in case anyone is looking to get there blades sharpened in Ontario cheers.
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