Am I using the correct blade?

[Sean Troy]

I'm using a 40 tooth Forrest WWII blade. Should I be using something different for ripping hardwoods? thanks, Sean

[Harold Burrell]

I'm using a 40 tooth Forrest WWII blade. Should I be using something different for ripping hardwoods? thanks, Sean

I am guessing that you are doing this ripping on a 10" tablesaw? If so, then you would want to rip with something more like a 24 tooth.

Around these here parts, we ain't got too much use fer no "combo blade"...

[Nathan Allen]

The WWII is a combination blade, albeit one of the best.

I'm going to say that as the everyday blade on your machine it is great, but if you're setting up one particular cut through you may want to go with a lower teeth dedicated ripping blade or a cross cut blade. A high quality, but still cheaper version of those blades will do a slightly better job at their dedicated task.

[Sean Troy]

Is there a ripping blade that I can still go straight to gluing?

[Jerome Hanby]

Is there a ripping blade that I can still go straight to gluing?

I use a Feud Glue Line Rip blade for all my "non-junk" ripping. I love it. I've got some junky combo blades that I use for cutting MDF and plywood.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

+1 for the Glue line rip. Good ripping blade. If I have a lot to rip, I change out the WW II. Not that you couldn't do the same with the WW II. I think it's a pretty good combo blade. Okay get your flame throwers out.

[Tom Esh]

Hard to beat a good dedicated rip blade but at the risk of sounding like a broken record, Forrest's 30-tooth WWII is much better at ripping and makes nearly as smooth xcuts as the 40 tooth. I started with their 40-tooth but these days it rarely gets used much except maybe for finish cuts on thin (~1/2" or less) stock. Otherwise the 30-tooth practically lives on my saw.

[Paul McGaha]

+2 on the Freud Glue Line Blade. I think there are some limits to the thickness of the stock though. I think it's not more than 1 1/4".

I use my table saw mainly for ripping and dado work and keep a glue line rip blade in it almost all the time.

PHM

[Chris Padilla]

I have Freud and CMT 24 tooth ripping blades. They both do well but there will also be some technique on your part for feeding your stock through a ripping blade.

I've found that you want to go a little bit faster than you might be used to. If you're burning the wood while ripping, speed up the feed rate. If your cut isn't as smooth as you think it should be, also try speeding up your feed rate. If speeding up the feed rate doesn't help either situation, get your blade sharpened or try another brand.

[glenn bradley]

As many opinions as there are woodworkers on this one ;-) I use 24T to rip, 80T to crosscut and 40T for when I am just making something smaller; not making a final cut. Feed rate and stock control will effect any cut so what you do during the cut will also change the outcome.

[Joe Spear]

A 40-tooth WWII works very well when I use it up to one inch thickness. I get glue-ready rips. For thicker wood, a 30-tooth WWII or 24-tooth glue line rip blade would be better.

[Sean Troy]

Thanks for the help. I'll start shopping

[Myk Rian]

Glue line rip up to 1", Avanti 50t combo for most everything else, a Diablo 24t for the heavier ripping, and a cabinetmaker for the fine crosscuts. All Freud.
The 24 tooth that came with my saw is for the nasty wood rips.

[Will Overton]

The Freud glue line rip blade is on my table saw 90 % of the time, since that is pretty much all I use my table saw for. I have several combo blades that I use while the rip blade is out for sharpening. I got a new saw today and I think I'll buy it a new rip blade.

I just ordered the full kerf 'red' version from Amazon for $58.99. According to Frozen Warrior that is Amazon's best price ever on that blade.

[Matt Kestenbaum]

I have an Amana 24T Rip Blade that does a great job...I recently cut legs for two bedside tables out of 8/4 cherry...a thick rip of a wood prone to burning. The faces were both pretty clean, but they were skimmed through the jointer and then planer for final dimensioning. If they were glueing up...might still have jointed the edge before glue-up.

I tend to think of a true rip blade in terms of the safety...those big gullets mean much less effort during the cut. That is both safer and makes for a cleaner cut. And no risk of bogging down the saw (3hp SS PCS).

During a bench building class a few weeks ago, we used an 18T monster to rip 2 5/8 Hard Maple...some of those were clean enough to glue up, others needing a skim on the jointer. Still nearly stalled a 5 HP SS ICS!