Good blade for ripping?

[Joe Shinall]

I do a lot of ripping on my Unisaw. I usually don't crosscut much on it, I use my sliding miter for that. I have a Freud 40 tooth and it does fine, just seeing if there is something better. I am starting to get to use a lot more nicer woods such as maple, walnut, mahogany, etc...(yes I have used mostly pine and ply because I'm cheap and couldn't afford the nicer stuff before).

What is a good, affordable saw blade and tooth count for ripping? I know I will get a lot of different opinions and will make my judgement on reviews and research. Thanks.

[Don Welch]

After being impressed w/ Freud's Italian line of Fusion blades, we tried their LM74R010 rip blade - excellent results again.

http://www.amazon.com/Freud-LM74R010...770739-4324839

[Jim Andrew]

A blade designed for ripping is best. I have a craftsman made in Italy, which is very good. Just a week ago I bought some rip blades at Menards, Bosch, just cheap blades on closeout, and am using one right now and it is pretty good, not as good as the Freud, but better than a general purpose blade.

[Bryan Cramer]

How about the Freud 30 tooth glue line rip.

[keith micinski]

The glue line rip blades usually will have limited cut capacity. I have a 24 tooth rip blade from fried that does great for me.

[ed vitanovec]

I have heard good things about the Freud glue line rip blade but I have not experienced using it myself. I do use the Freud Diablo 80 tooth thin kerf, it works for me really well. I use it to cross cut and rip hardwoods and on plywood, smooth cuts and tearout free on plywoods. I would recommend this blade and I bought it from Home Depot for about $59.00.

[scott spencer]

A 24T bulk ripper is a logical step from the 40T....the 40T should leave a very clean edge, but will bog and burn more in thicker rips. The WWII 30T is an impressive ripper that leaves a very nice edge even in thicker materials. It leaves a cleaner cut than most 24T rippers, and cuts thicker materials more efficiently than most 30T Glue Line rippers (the 30T GLR's are intended for 1" material, and cover pretty much the same ripping range as your 40T blade).

[Rich Engelhardt]

I use three:

The above linked Freud LM74R010 30 tooth Glue Line Rip blade for cuts that need a finer edge.

The other is the Frued LM72R010 24 tooth Heavy Duty Rip blade for cuts that don't require as fine an edge.
http://www.amazon.com/Freud-LM72R010.../dp/B0000225UD

The real key with Freud blades is to watch for them to go on sale.
I paid about half of what the prices are in the links for mine.


The third blade I use is an older (pre-Chinese made) Black and Decker Piranah 32 Tooth
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00006FRPG/...G&linkCode=asn
I use this for rough construction grade ripping and/or for ripping treated.
I picked it up on closeout at Wal-Mart a few years ago for about $5.00.

[Stew Hagerty]

+1 for the Freud LM74R

[Jeff Duncan]

Depends on what your ripping? But generally speaking 40 tooth is on the high side for ripping stock. A 30 tooth WWII will give better results as well as the Freud GLR blade. If your doing thick stock mostly 5/4 or thicker, than you'll want to drop the tooth count even more. For thick stock you want something in the neighborhood of 20 teeth, and again Forrest or Freud Industrial Line are always solid choices.

good luck,
JeffD

[peter gagliardi]

Forrest Woodworker 2 , you can do all your ripping, and crosscut as well. I am running them on my old Martin T75 , and my new Martin T75 PreX , and I will be putting it on my Martin T17 , as soon as I make a throat plate for it. FS Tool makes good saws as well, but Forrest has been a 1 stop shop for me. They sell an excellent blade, AND, they sharpen better than any outfit I've used.
peter

[Rod Sheridan]

FS Tools L21250............Rod.

http://www.fstoolcorp.com/Templates/.../E1_E9-E13.pdf

[Erik Christensen]

ridge carbide 24 tooth rip blade - made in the US, beefy carbide and wicked sharp... the couple of times when i have been too lazy to change blades for a quick plywood cut I have been amazed at how smooth it cuts

[Julie Moriarty]

I own (2) Forrest WWII blades, (1) CMT 24T FTG, (1) Freud 72M FTG and (1) Freud 74R TCG (glue-line rip) that I have used extensively. I think the Freud 74R leaves the cleanest cut of all of them, but not by a whole lot. I can get an edge that doesn't need planing with the 74R if the board is not too long and I'm very careful about feeding it - no side-to-side wiggle and keeping it tight against the fence.

I've ripped up to 6/4 jatoba and 5/4 maple and mahogany with the 74R and was still able to get a clean edge. I own a Delta contractor's saw that's about 20 years old, FWIW.

The WWII blades I bought long ago and never had a lot of luck ripping with them, though I kept trying. I then went to the CMT and used that until it needed sharpening, then to the 72M and then to the 74R. I just bought the 75R (thin kerf) but haven't tried it yet. BTW, both WWII blades are at Forrest for resharpening. Yeah, I'm going to give them another try, maybe.

[Joe Shinall]

I think I am going to try the 30 and 24 tooth freuds and see for myself. I usually cut 1 inch and under. Only time anything thicker is really 2x4's for not so fine woodworking projects and I can use an old blade for those. Thanks guys!