Thread: What are THE BEST blades available in Australia?

Oh when I said it took less than a minute I was thinking about changing one saw blade to the other so my estimate is actually pretty accurate.

Hey,

I did some shed time over the weekend and installed the dedicated crosscut freud blade I got (buggered if I know how many teeth - 78 I think ?????) anyway I had to do a few rips on thin american oak. max thickness was about an inch and thats on the large side...... it went well... I wouldnt want to rip 80mm of ironbark with it but for a few small lengths of thin timber it was ok. I reckon any quality blade would have done the same cuts no sweat. Note the finish was not ace but sufficient.... but then again a rip blade with less teeth (But a better rake angle) would also leave marks in the timber... as i was just cutting some mouldings to size on the back edges it didnt matter.

A combo blade may have done better im sure and in most instances I would swap for the appropriate blade as usually im a safety nazi in the shop....

I timed myself swapping a rip for the crosscut and it took about 3 minutes - but then - Im anal about getting snug fits and taking care not to drop stuff etc.... wongo may be more skillful than me to get the 55 secs swap but again I have a bigger blade and ape hands. also the saw I own (trupro 12 MBS300 variant) only has one spanner and a hex key... a bit finicky to get right so you dont strip the arbour nut hex hole....) generally it takes me longer to change blades as I dont want to mark surfaces or damage/drop my blades...

but back to the original quesiotn on this thread - any good blade is much if a muchness I would say. The only thing I would like to to be abl to do over is to get my dado set have the same arbour hole diameter as my other baldes so I dont have to change the arbour nut when isntalling the dado...

Back again, been busy:

Here's the first blade review - a Linbide 320 24 tooth ripping blade

I am particularly interested to know if this review (which is the first of many!) actually provides the sort of detail and data that you require to make a judgment about whether this blade would be of use to you.

If not - what is missing?

As the reviews are done, they will all be indexed from a common page, and there will be a separate page for each of the cuts with the photos side-by-side so you can compare the results from each blade.

Hi Stuart,

I use a negative rake blade, ATB for melamine, coupled with a scoring blade. The negative rake blade will do it easily enough by itself.

The CMT blades work well enough, but I prefer Freud blades.

Cheers,

eddie

I love my Forrest WW2. thin kerf 40t combo, with stabilizer. Quiet, sharp, and clean.

Originally Posted by Stuart

I am particularly interested to know if this review (which is the first of many!) actually provides the sort of detail and data that you require to make a judgment about whether this blade would be of use to you.

If not - what is missing?

Stu, I thought is was pretty well written and covered everything I would hope to find out. My only comment would be that I like to see the numbers on the ruler in photos, stupid I know as I can count the mm myself but I am just pedantic.

As a side note, I received a newsletter from Felder on Thursday and they have alot of Hammer blades on special for what appear to be really good prices. Has anyone used these blades or do they have some stange arbor that will only fit their machines?

- I would have liked to see some more numbers used so that statements like "cutting like butter", and, "it not only performed significantly above expectation, but even outperformed some of the blades that are dedicated to those roles." might have greater meaning.

- Maybe measure actual feed rate to maintain a nominal current draw in rip and cross cut as discussed in the original thread.

- Nominal comparable sound level?

- Also I could not find within the article what sort of saw was used to do the testing. Provide saw specs as well.

- Provide actual lengths and numbers of rips/cross cuts performed/tested . For rip tests the ruler should be shown in the direction of the width of the timber being ripped, not along the length. For cross cut tests the ruler should be shown in the direction of the thickness of the timber being cut, not along the length of the cut.

- A really good test of a blade is a full depth cut, which indirectly tests if the gullets are deep enough. A current draw with constant feed rate would be useful here - or perhaps just time how long it takes to make a 1.2m long cut?

- Explain what KD means.

- Provide actual species of hardwood used.

- Are the blade specs/numbers provided by the manufacturer or did you measure them?

The real interesting thing will be if you can quantitatively differentiate between blades - I suspect this will quite difficult.

All good points, will see what I can come up with.

In the end, I am evaluating these blades as we (as woodworkers) do, as much as quantifying makes side-by-side comparisons numerically easier, if two blades "cut like butter" then it really doesn't matter which you choose, as after that we are splitting hairs.

I don't know what KD means, but I'm sure anyone who cares to find out will do so just as easily as I can by googling it! As to the timber - not my forte Vic/Tas Ash at a guess

I'd love to put a Woodworker ][ through its paces, but they are currently not available in Australia.

Not trying to shoot down the good suggestions - I will revisit the tests as time permits and continue to expand the evaluation as it makes sense to. Such as one suggestion was to try Jarrah, and so I'm going to expand the initial tests to Jarrah and Redgum (think I meant to include them, but forgot on the day!)

All the measurements are made by me on the blade itself fwiw

KD would be kiln dried.

Thanks Mat - how simple is that! Just goes to show how information like that is regarded as being so common knowledge that it is assumed everyone knows.

Feel stupid for not knowing, but then I should have asked!

G'day,

After my initial posts about Daiko and Kanefusa blades, and with my inability to get them locally (Peacock Saws) didn't have them in stock, so I rang around places in Melb. about other blades.

I rand one large Wharehouse, described that I would be ripping a lot of s/gum and needed a blade that would handle 2", not 1" as some blades seem to be have as a maximum cut depth, eg. Freud. I didn't seem to get very far with this and the person I was talking to kept recommending Freud but didn't seem sure that it was suitable for what I wanted. So I rang Jalor Tools in Knoxfield, as per Matrix's post, explained what I wanted and was given the advice of AKE. The bloke I spoke to was very helpful and seemed to be on the ball as opposed to the first place.

I asked about Freud (his 2¢) but he didn't rate them too well - a bit above CMT. He gave Daiko and Kanefusa a very good rap, more so Daiko with AKE above them. He also mentioned a very good blade from Israel, but as I'd never heard of it I can't remember it. For his mind AKE was the best.

Rang yesterday and today picked up a 10" 24 tooth AKE rip blade. It's a very beefy blade and am looking forward to seeing what it does. I paid $147 for the blade, which I think is a good price for a good blade.

Got a picture of the blade mate? Interested to see it.

Pity the AKE importer was so rude about not wanting his blades included in a trial.

G'day Stuart,

I'll take some shots of it tomorrow and post up in here since you're asking.

Cool! Be good to know how it performs as well, when you have a chance to use it in anger.

Must be pretty good, at 3x the price of other ripping blades. I'm not knocking the price - my current testing is really showing just how much variety there is in blades and their performance, and a good blade is worth gold. An exceptional blade is worth its weight in diamonds.