For 15 years I used (for free) every damn high-end table saw blade you can name. We had Forrest blades galore, plus CMT, Freud, Lenox and <honestly, insert any brand name here>.
The blade manufacturers wanted us to write about their blades, of course. But they also wanted for their blades to show up in photos in Popular Woodworking Magazine. As part of my job, I had to learn all about the different grades of carbide and all the grind angles and negative-rake stuff. When you have to know it, you start to believe it.
Plus, it’s easy to believe sawblade propaganda when you get to use super-sharp blades every day.
So when I began making furniture for sale full-time in 2011, here’s what I did: I promptly forgot everything I had absorbed about table saw blades. And I started classifying blades into two categories.
1. The crap blade that came with your saw or has a brand name you’ve never heard of. These blades should be recycled or avoided altogether.
2. The brand-name home-center combination blades that are on sale.
If you make furniture out of solid wood, I don’t think you need anything more than a basic combination blade from the home center1. Are home-center blades perfect? Hell no. Are they good enough for every cut? Hell yes. Can you resharpen them? Maybe? I don’t.
OK, let’s get into the details. Combination blades are more-than-good enough for furniture making because they make clean-enough crosscuts and fast-enough rip cuts.
Some people gripe about sawblade marks left on the edges of boards by combination blades. To that I say: Don’t you clean up the machine marks left by your jointer and planer? So what’s different about a few scratch marks on an edge left by a sawblade? Handplane the edges of your boards.
Other people gripe about the minor splintering that combination blades leave when you make crosscuts. OK sir/madam, you can prevent that splintering with some kind of backing block or fence. Or you can forget all that hoo-haw and remove the splintering with two strokes of a smoothing plane.
What counts as one of these good-enough blades? For me, it’s the one blade I’ve used on my table saw since I bought it: The Freud Diablo 40-tooth combination blade. There are a couple versions out there, including the Diablo D1040UX Wood Demon and the Diablo D1040X Non-Demon Blade.
The Demon Blade usually costs about $20 more than the non-Demon blade, but all that is irrelevant because you should just buy what’s on sale.
Go to the home center during the Christmas season, and they’ll have specials on these blades, usually a buy-one-get-one-free sale. They’ll package two of the blades together and sell them for $40 or $50. That one package of two blades will last me an entire year, and we cut thousands of feet of oak, ash and other nasties all year round.
If you don’t have Home Depot in your area, you’ll see Spyder and DeWalt blades. These are almost as good as the Freud Diablo blades, but not quite. It’s worth driving a little farther for the Diablos.
So when your blades get dull, what should you do?
Here is where you can perhaps help me. We sent dull blades out to sharpening services (yes, even Forrest’s service) for more than 25 years. And I’ve never used a resharpened blade that was as good as a new blade. Plus, the sharpening service costs almost as much as new home-center blade.
Am I insane? (You can reply in the comments.)
So for the last 13 years or so, I have sent our dull blades to the recycling center on Russell Street. They are happy to recycle the steel sawplate. Then I buy another two-pack of Freud Diablo blades, and I am set for another year.
If you think this post is a screed against sawblade manufacturers, you are off-base. High-end sawblades are critical for special materials. But if you are ripping and crosscutting oak, cherry, maple, walnut etc. in a small-scale production shop or home shop, I’m here to tell you that you don’t need the expensive stuff.
Instead of spending money on blades, spend it on the wood you’re cutting.
If you work with melamine and plywood and other exotic sheet goods then you should get the “What You Deserve Saw Blade” at the specialty store.
I've had a couple of Forrest Woodworker 2 blades. They were good. I didn't see any magic. I started using the Freud 410T, the thin kerf, when I had a contractor saw with a wee motor. I use the full kerf 410 with my Sawstop. It cuts great. I glue up panels straight off the saw. No piece of wood in one of my projects has a visible surface that was last touched by a machine. Even underneath.
I also don't sharpen tablesaw blades, or bandsaw blades -- even carbide. I feel a little guilty about that. But not guilty enough to actually do it.
I agree. You go through blades 10 to 15 times faster than I do in my home shop (barring the dreaded hidden carbide tip killer). I have my blades resharpened and they seem to give a better quality cut than the factory sharpening. This was not a controlled experiment so really not sure...for the most part. I say that because my Forrest WW2 never gave a really good crosscut but, after resharpening, it's cut was vastly improved. I used to look down my nose at home center table saw blades until I had a batch of reclaimed lumber that needed ripping. I bought an inexpensive Home Depot rip blade for 11 bucks for that task and it performed way beyond my expectations.