circular saw blade choices

[GEC]

Apologies to LarryH, it was he that pointed me to Diablo and Freud blades with flat raker teeth. These are 50T and I worry a little about the number of teeth in my work when cutting thicker stock or ripping. Any thoughts on 50T vs 40T combination blades vis a vis heat (burning), feed rate etc?

[jsburger]

Apologies to LarryH, it was he that pointed me to Diablo and Freud blades with flat raker teeth. These are 50T and I worry a little about the number of teeth in my work when cutting thicker stock or ripping. Any thoughts on 50T vs 40T combination blades vis a vis heat (burning), feed rate etc?

First, I am totally with RFGuy on his comments on the Forrest WW II. I have the Forrest 40 tooth combination blade on both my SS 520 and my Powermatic PM 2000 cabinet saw. I will never buy a different blade. A 50 tooth blade is not a rip blade regardless of the tooth configuration. A true rip blade is 24 tooth. Why they are typically flat top teeth is unknown to me. After all a rip cut is normally a through cut. Probably just more efficient and maybe better chip clearing???

As RFGuy said you get what you pay for. If you have never experienced a premium saw blade you don't know what you are missing. Yes they are expensive but it is a once in a lifetime purchase if properly taken care of. By the time you replace 3 or 4 cheaper saw blade you could have bought a Forrest. Forrest has a first class sharpening service as well as total repair back to factory specs.

Forrest will drill their blades to different arbor sizes for a fee. No reason to pay the price for a 1 1/4" hole. just get the 5/8" hole and buy a 5/8" SS arbor. That way you can use the 5/8 arbor with a cheap blade to cut up junk wood.

[RFGuy]

Thanks John. I think some woodworkers just see sawblades as consumables, more like sandpaper or brake pads on the car to be replaced more frequently. I have followed the "buy once, cry once" philosophy for some time now and I have been much happier this way with my purchases and ownership. NOT saying it is for everyone. I consider a sawblade analogous to a high quality chisel. Yeah, you gotta sharpen it from time to time (still on my 1st Woodworker II sharpening), but if you care for it, like all of your tools, it will last you a good long time - hopefully a lifetime. I consider my Woodworker II to be the last sawblade I will ever need to own/purchase for my 520. Some prefer to buy more affordable sawblades. I could be wrong, but I just wonder how many of them they purchase over a given time period, e.g. do they end up paying more in the long run on multiple sawblades? I know there are many good sawblade brands out there and my experience is limited to what I have owned. I know a Forrest blade is a luxury. I have several carbide tipped Shopsmith sawblades here that I purchased in the past and they were good, but my Forrest Woodworker II is great by comparison. I noticed the difference right away in performance. I have also had varying brand sawblades on my Skil circular saw in the past including a thin kerf one at one time. I do believe that thin kerf is overhyped and should have a smaller niche part of the market IMHO. Too many leap at them expecting a huge performance difference that simply isn't always there. JMO.

P.S. Subscribing to the "buy once, cry once" philosophy has meant many times I had to wait for a purchase until I had saved up enough money for it. This can be advantageous, e.g. I have waited and waited to purchase the PowerPro headstock and I still don't regret NOT pulling the trigger on this purchase as I am grateful for the dependability/reliability of my conventional headstock. While I would love to have the added power of a PowerPro headstock, there are still just too many negatives of that headstock for my personal preferences.