Thread: Best table saw blades

Dimar is good as long as what you're buying is in stock; if they ever tell you something is special order, don't do it. Had a very disappointing experience that way

AKE is another of the lesser known German brands that's really good

Continuing on the thread , how useful do people find combination blades of these high end brands on sliding saws ( for solid timber )?
I've got in the habit of just using a fine crosscut and dedicated rip blade in my cabinet saw, a bit of a pain switching.

Never used a combo blade in my life.

A 300mm 72T ATB blade (i think the equivalent 250mm is 60T) will do pretty much everything well enough.
96T will give you an ultra fine finish in timber and is ideal for sheet materials, but ripping will be slow and limited to about 50mm (you also shouldn't make a habit of ripping with fine blades because it generates too much heat).
If you do a lot of thick ripping, get a dedicated blade for it; it really makes a huge diffrence.

Agree with elanjacobs, never used a “combination” blade, never even heard of one really. Sounds like a marketing pitch to either sell more blades, or sell ones that don’t sell. you use the correct blade for the material and the job at hand, if that means changing blades, then so be it.

The reason I want a combination blade is because every fifth tooth has a flat top grind. This will give me a flat bottomed kerf for box joints, dados and tenons. So I see it as the right blade for the job.

I have actually ordered 3 new blades, all 315mm from Axminster. A contractor grade combination blade and Axcaliber premium grade rip and crosscut blades. Axminster were the only place I found that could supply all 3 blades I was looking for in the correct size with the correct braking holes on a website that was user friendly. Their prices were around the mark and even with freight still a good buy I reckon.

Cheers Andrew

I hope you don't mind me resurrecting this thread but there is some fantastic info here and I'd like to keep the info in here.

I have a minimax Lab 300P (250-315mm and 30mm arbor) and I am looking for a fine crosscut blade. I currently have a 300mm 48Z ATB combo blade which goes ok.

I have contacted both Leuco and Leitz and they are great and responsive but I asked for a recommendation for a crosscut blade and a melamine blade (as my few attempts at melamine with the combo have resulted in a fair few chips even with the scriber) and now I am confused.

The recommendations are:

Leuco
LEUCO - 189968 - Sizing Saw Blades HW "WS" - Recommended as a fine crosscut but the datasheet states its application is for wood based panels
LEUCO - 192794 - Sizing Saw Blades HW "G5" - Recommended for melamine

Leitz
Article - Leitz - Recommended for melamine
162013 300x3.2/2.2x30 Z96 HW: FZ/TR- can't find a data sheet on this one - recommended for melamine
Article - Leitz

What do you use for a fine crosscut blade from either of these manufacturers or others? Is there a crosscut blade that works well for solid wood and reasonably well for melamine?

Thank you

Since you have a scriber, a standard ATB 96T will do. We used Leuco Topline at work for both timber and laminates; the crosscut finish in timber is like glass and no chipping on melamine (assuming your scriber is set correctly). If you regularly need to crosscut timber over 2" thick, consider 72T as 96T will need a fair bit of effort to push through
96T LEUCO - 192767 - Sizing Saw Blades HW - LowNoise
72T LEUCO - 192766 - Sizing Saw Blades HW - LowNoise

DO NOT use a triple chip grind with timber, regardless of what any rep tells you, you will get furry edges on the back and bottom.

I would avoid fancy grinds and bevelled faces, they just make life harder when it comes to sharpening them and a plain ATB is perfectly sufficient if you keep it sharp.

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

Since you have a scriber, a standard ATB 96T will do. We used Leuco Topline at work for both timber and laminates; the crosscut finish in timber is like glass and no chipping on melamine (assuming your scriber is set correctly). If you regularly need to crosscut timber over 2" thick, consider 72T as 96T will need a fair bit of effort to push through

Thank Elan,

Yes, well... the scriber... It is a tapered scriber and no matter how much I adjusted it laterally at full height, I could not achieve 2 clean edges. I have been told I absolutely have the wrong blade currently for melamine (48Z combo) so I am running with that for now, however, if I do melamine again and have the same problem even with a better blade, I will consider swapping it out for an adjustable split scriber.

Cheers

Yes, 48T combo is definitely not the one to use. I did some tests with the 96T blade with no scriber and the bottom edge is still very clean with the blade set at 15mm above the material (Leitz recommended height)

Scriber width is generally 0.1mm wider than the main blade, .05 either side

Yes the conical scribing blade that comes the Minimax saws is very difficult to setup.
A split scriber is on my to buy list ( list just keeps getting bigger ).

Originally Posted by elanjacobs

I would avoid fancy grinds and bevelled faces, they just make life harder when it comes to sharpening them and a plain ATB is perfectly sufficient if you keep it sharp.

What are your thoughts on the G5 grind geometry? Or its this one of the fancy grinds. How well does the G5 perform?

IMO, the shear face angle on the G5 grind is probably overkill and requires an extra axis to resharpen. I'm sure it's great, I just think a split scriber and a normal main blade will solve your issue without complicating something else

Two piece scriber with shims, and a 60 tooth atb or triplechip. Problem solved.

Originally Posted by riverbuilder

Two piece scriber with shims, and a 60 tooth atb or triplechip. Problem solved.

For fine crosscut (the other requirement mentioned), you want 72T minimum and absolutely not triple chip