Best saw blade, advice please

[bartypit]

could anyone recommend the best saw blade for my Record Table saw. I use it for fairly fine work, but need it to be able to rip oak, ash etc. I've seen some CMT ones on Axminster, 40 tooth general purpose, and 60 tooth ones. Does anyone have any experience of these blades?Can anyone recommend any others?
Be really grateful for any advice

 

[superunknown]

Never used the CMT ones, but the Freud blades are excellent.

 

[cutting solutions]

You need to be a little bit careful with some saw blades.
the best industrial blades are made by Leitz, Leuco, Stehle, AKE & Kanefusa to name a few. you pay top dollar for those but get a very good blade.
next down the line you have Freud, Gomex, CMT, Ernest Bennet, Atkinson Walker (though I am not certain they make their own now) plus others....Good quality blades at keenish prices.
you can then get to the lower end with all sorts of manufacturers who use small tips, softer carbide, thinner plates to reduce the cost.
also watch out for places selling craft range. perfectly good blades but very low on quality with a price to match.

Where do mine fit in?
Somewhere between the 1st and 2nd list above.

as for the type of blade.
you rip with a rip blade and finish with a finish cut blade.
there are blades that you can use for more than one application but its a compromise ......on either speed (more teeth so you need to feed slower) or finish ........not enough teeth to achieve the finish you really want.

 

[Digit]

I've used Freud exclusively for the last 5 yrs and swear by them, as opposed to at them.

Roy.

 

[matthewwh]

Agree with Doug's advice above, you can achieve optimum performance with two blades and organising your work so that you don't have to change them too often, or go for a compromise with slower ripping and losing a bit of finish quality for fine work.

Atkinson Walker do make their blades from scratch in Sheffield, and have done for over 85 years.

The sawplates are heat treated in a special press to force the crystalline structure of the plate to form flat and are pinned down under the weight of a massive grindstone during tempering for the same reason.

The bodies are hand smithed and tensioned by one of their five Sawsmiths both before and after precision grinding, this step ensures that when you heat the perimiter up with friction whilst cooling the centre with airflow the plate expands uniformly - so it stays flat. I know Forest still do this too but I'm not sure about the others.

The tips are trifoil braized and precision ground to 1/100th of a mm. All the computer controlled robots had to be replaced by their insurers after the floods so they are absolutely state-of-the-art.

 

[cjp]

I can't offer advice on which blade, as I have no experience - but as someone listed CMT blades on here I thought it worth pointing out that Axminster currently have 30% off CMT baldes (and router bits):

http://www.axminster.co.uk/sale!-cmt-ro ... 30997_pg1/

Cheers,

Charlie

 

[gardenshed]

Freud imho make Ok'ish blades, they ain't the best by a long way.

Get yourself a Kanefusa you won't regret it.






.

 

[OPJ]

I would recommend the Atkinson Walker blades, from personal experience (although, I have been using them in my mitre saw, not a table saw ). At 3mm or 1/8in, their kerf isn't as fine as some of the other manufacturers. Their Industrial blades can be sharpened several times but, for occasional use, you might be fine with a ProTrade blade, which is comparable to Freud in terms of quality and very competitive on price.

I've also been impressed with Freud blades, in the past.

 

[jimmy rivers]

I can recommend Leitz blades, we've been using them for about 6 years. They are expensive but occasionally they do promotions with massive discounts.

We purchased 2 low noise blades for cutting panels 5 years ago for £40 on promo from 140! Used daily the blades keep a great edge and are sharpened 3-4 times a year (by Leitz)

We also use ripping blades, a triple chip for laminates and TCT planer knives - all from Leitz

Look out for a decent amount of quality tungsten on the tips, giving you plenty of sharpens :wink:

I haven't used them, but a well regarded woodworker I know recommended the CMT Orange triple chips as good value

 

[cutting solutions]

We purchased 2 low noise blades for cutting panels 5 years ago for £40 on promo from 140!

Jimmy
Do you wonder about the promo price?
They normally sell for 140 but are on offer at 40.
if 40 is cost or just above (who really sells anything for less than cost) then thats one very good margin.....or is it rip off :shock:

They are .....as I stated above...... one of the best manufacturers around but can you really justify the extra cost?
How about I give you one of mine FOC for a direct and honest comparison?

 

[jimmy rivers]

Indeed CS it was an amazing offer :shock: and definitely not a rip off. I had to wait 2 months on the blade though due to the high demand. It must of been a loss leader? Worked for me as it's a fantastic blade and I've bought Leitz since and we put all our blades through their resharpening service. I did recently ask the Leitz rep for a quote on the same blade and it was £140!

Wish I'd bought 10!

Just so no one thinks I'm making it up ... here's the original invoice :wink: