Woodworker II blade

[ecom1]

I have been thinking about the WW II as well. I have a SS combination blade that came with one of my machines - it cut okay, but I have no idea how old it if it had ever been re-sharpened (came with my 1988 machine), so I took it in for service. It came back yesterday - I did a test cut on some scrap melamine, and I gotta say I'm impressed with the cut (the bottom edge was from another blade before I had this one re-sharpened). If it holds up, the WW II will move farther down the list.

[Sazerac81]

Hey Ed,

Nice cut on that melamine. I will likely take my old shopsmith blades in for a sharpening as they seem quite dull compared to the Forrest blade. A nice sharpening may really bring them up to speed.

What impressed me the most about the Forrest Woodworker II was not the blade itself, but the instruction manual that was provided with it. Maybe not a manual, but a couple sheets very detailed instructions in its setup and its care. It has instructions on keeping it aligned with miter guage slot, keeping it parallel with the TS fence. It has instructions for use with a radial saw. It has troubleshooting tips/advice. It tells you how to diagnose issues or prevent future issues. It instructs you how to best go about sharpening it.

I get the sense that these guys truly care about this product and want it to work to the peak of its ability for the end user.

I like the blade quite a bit and will be keeping it. It does tell you to avoid melamine and other very hard synthetic surfacing cuts if it can be helped as they can more quickly wear down the C4 carbide. It really stresses that you should save the Forrest WWII blade for mission critical cuts on hardwoods and softwoods and use another blade for the tougher synthetic board material, one that is designed for those materials or just another blade that you've reserved for those materials if you do a lot of that type of cutting.

The manual stated you can expect 10-15 sharpening cycles out of the blade/carbide cutters, so hopefully it will last a long, long time and chew through hundreds to thousands of board feet before its time is up.

Conclusion is I like the blade and will keep it, I just want to get my current shopsmith up to speed maintenance wise to try to bring out the best in the blade.

Cheers,
John

[dgreen810]

Update: I received the two Forrest WWII blades and good news-bad news.
The seller shipped them together with the Forrest Stiffner, SS 5/8" arbor, and SS combo blade in a USPS Priority box with some crumbled paper for packaging. Bad news first. The box was heavily damaged and the edge of one blade was showing minis parts of two carbide teeth. Everything else was OK.

The older blade (Damaged), serial # 523094 has a # 6 OD grind just what I was looking for. The new unused blade Serial # 412278 has a ALT grind. The seller has agreed to refund me the cost to repair the blade two teeth at $ 6.00 each, recondition to new specs. $ 24.00 and $12.00 shipping to and fro.

You just can't ask for more in my opinion.

I want to pass along the fact I have had still have several SS blades, several Freud blades, WKM blades, Jet blades and several unknowns. I put the Forrest WII ALT on today and was "Shocked". I had to cut several strips of Walnut 3 feet long 1/8 " and 3/16" from a 3/4" board. There was no sensation of any resistance at all pushing the stock through the blade. No feel of a cut being made, no vibration, no nothing. The cuts look like I ran them through the jointer. I tend to be skeptical about a lot of things, but I think I may be convinced.

Don G

[jsburger]

Update: I received the two Forrest WWII blades and good news-bad news.
The seller shipped them together with the Forrest Stiffner, SS 5/8" arbor, and SS combo blade in a USPS Priority box with some crumbled paper for packaging. Bad news first. The box was heavily damaged and the edge of one blade was showing minis parts of two carbide teeth. Everything else was OK.

The older blade (Damaged), serial # 523094 has a # 6 OD grind just what I was looking for. The new unused blade Serial # 412278 has a ALT grind. The seller has agreed to refund me the cost to repair the blade two teeth at $ 6.00 each, recondition to new specs. $ 24.00 and $12.00 shipping to and fro.

You just can't ask for more in my opinion.

I want to pass along the fact I have had still have several SS blades, several Freud blades, WKM blades, Jet blades and several unknowns. I put the Forrest WII ALT on today and was "Shocked". I had to cut several strips of Walnut 3 feet long 1/8 " and 3/16" from a 3/4" board. There was no sensation of any resistance at all pushing the stock through the blade. No feel of a cut being made, no vibration, no nothing. The cuts look like I ran them through the jointer. I tend to be skeptical about a lot of things, but I think I may be convinced.

Don G

Send them to Forrest, let them repair/sharpen/tuneup/put on new tips and you will be more surprised than you are now.

I have said this before. If it is fixable Forrest will fix it and they don't care if you are the original owner. Also their repair and sharpening prices are very reasonable.

What other manufacturer of saw blades does this? Does anyone know?

Please look at the Forrest web site and tell me what other saw blade manufacture offers the service for their saw blades that Forrest does.

In my opinion Forrest blades are like the Shopsmith. Extremely high quality and company service that will make the blade last many life times with care and reasonable servicing.

Yes they are pricey as is the SS but if you buy a cheap blade and never sharpen it and then complain that the SS is a terrible table saw then you deserve what you get.

Sharp cutters are the key to success.

This is just my opinion and I stand by it. I also realize that that some of you can't afford this blade.

[dusty]

My inappropriate comment deleted.

When I was growing up, this would have been called a Thumper Moment.

[reible]

Getting a good or better blades makes a saw cut a lot better. That is not to say that I would always use the "best" blade for every project I do. I have lesser quality blades that I use for say making a bird house or cutting some wood for a garage quality shelf system. I keep the "good" blade for better projects.

Now I don't use these particular blades as I have found I get the quality of cut I want with blades from another place and still pay in the $100 or under range for the blades on sale. I don't get the lowest quality blades even for less projects, but everyone to their own.

I had some really bad luck with a pair of shopsmith blades back in the late 1980's and haven't gotten any more from them. I'm pretty sure they are a better blade now. Those two blades lost carbide tips for no reason that I knew about, perhaps bad "welds" but I felt too uneasy with them to even send them in for repair, just put them in the trash bin.

The higher quality blades even sound different when running a cutting, the sound damping on these new blades are wonderful. When I started woodworking we only had those steel blades and I wasted hours on them...... a whole day of blade tune-ups and sharpening really slows a project down and then there was all the work after the cuts..... not nice edges like the ones today. Rip cuts especially, cut and be done with it.

If you haven't gotten an expensive blade yet then do yourself a favor and get one. You will notice the difference!

Ed

[Sazerac81]

It does glide through the wood like butter. It cut 2x4 pine like it was laughing at it.

The walnut fed very smoothly as well and some test pieces of very hard white oak cut smoothly as well.

Glad everyone is enjoying their saw blades and happily surprised by the results. I think I just need to tone down the vibrations just a bit in my headstock and then I'll be set.

Hmmm, I wonder how well the thin kerf WWII would cut? Ever Onward!

Cheers,
John

[dusty]

It does glide through the wood like butter. It cut 2x4 pine like it was laughing at it.

The walnut fed very smoothly as well and some test pieces of very hard white oak cut smoothly as well.

Glad everyone is enjoying their saw blades and happily surprised by the results. I think I just need to tone down the vibrations just a bit in my headstock and then I'll be set.

Hmmm, I wonder how well the thin kerf WWII would cut? Ever Onward!

Cheers,
John

I doubt that it is the headstock. Pull the headstock off the tubes and set it in a cradle on the bench to determine "headstock vibration". When testing for vibration, I trust that you have the Mark V down on all fours (no casters). Do the feet have rubber booties?

[dusty]

It does glide through the wood like butter. It cut 2x4 pine like it was laughing at it.

The walnut fed very smoothly as well and some test pieces of very hard white oak cut smoothly as well.

Glad everyone is enjoying their saw blades and happily surprised by the results. I think I just need to tone down the vibrations just a bit in my headstock and then I'll be set.

Hmmm, I wonder how well the thin kerf WWII would cut? Ever Onward!

Cheers,
John

I doubt that it is the headstock. Pull the headstock off the tubes and set it in a cradle on the bench to determine "headstock vibration". When testing for vibration, I trust that you have the Mark V down on all fours (no casters). Do the feet have rubber booties?

You should be able to pass the "nickel test". Somebody here recently said the "dime test" but I don't think so. Maybe, maybe the PowerPro.

[Sazerac81]

It does glide through the wood like butter. It cut 2x4 pine like it was laughing at it.

The walnut fed very smoothly as well and some test pieces of very hard white oak cut smoothly as well.

Glad everyone is enjoying their saw blades and happily surprised by the results. I think I just need to tone down the vibrations just a bit in my headstock and then I'll be set.

Hmmm, I wonder how well the thin kerf WWII would cut? Ever Onward!

Cheers,
John

I doubt that it is the headstock. Pull the headstock off the tubes and set it in a cradle on the bench to determine "headstock vibration". When testing for vibration, I trust that you have the Mark V down on all fours (no casters). Do the feet have rubber booties?

Rubber booties? Please, tell me more about these rubber booties for the Mark V. One of my pro planers has rubber booties, but I don't have any rubber booties for any of my Mark V's.

The Mark V is firmly planted on all fours to the garage floor.

And there is no way I would ever pass the nickel test given how much it vibrates at this point! I'd need a roll of them and clamping them down.

Cheers,
John