The Best 10" Combination Blade?

[Jack Lemley]

Woodworker II for 30 years or so. I have tried several other blades over the years, Tenyru, Freud, Infinity and a couple of others but got rid of all of them and have two WW II blades that are my go to blades most of the time. I also have a Freud thin kerf glue line blade this is hard to beat when you have a lot of ripping in thicker wood to do. I have the Woodworker rip blade and the Chopmaster on my Bosch radial axial (is that right?). anyway, you get the point. They are pricey but have only paid retail for one of my Forrest blades the others were bought off Sawmill and FOG.

Jack

[joe maday]

I can't disagree with Scott. Also I find that the sharpening is the key...all or most cut fine when new...it's when you sharpen them when things go wrong. first I used Luxite then I used Forrest for a long time (still have 3 blades), then they seemed to have gotten too big...... Good when Jim was there and for a while after........ but I moved on to Ridge Carbide because the sharpened blades came back cutting as good as new, I feel that they give a more personal service. To me that counts for something...to talk to the owner/sharpener...to be known by my name not an account number.........I use mostly Ridge's TS2000 40tooth 1/8 kerf blades. I do have some luxite blades as thin as .075, .080 and even with a stabilizer they will some times "wander". never had a power issue with the 1/8k on my PM66 3hp........I recently purchased Ridge's 48 tooth 1/8 kerf but as of yet I have not tired it.
Remember: it's in the quality of the sharpening and carbide life span that you see the benefit of a quality blade...blades are a long term investment.
Give Ridge Carbide a call, in the AM......try to talk to John. He will give you honest information and advice. Tell him "Mr Luxite" sent you.
Joe Maday

[glenn bradley]

Another consideration is Carbide Processors' Worlds Best blades. Tom puts out a quality product and offers a discount to "creekers".

I agree there's a number of quality products out there. Over time I have replaced all my cutters with Carbide Processors Cermet II blades. Much longer life between sharpenings in my experience and you can't beat the customer service.

[David Pascoe]

Holy smoke, I had no idea guys were so into saw blades like hand plane fanatics. When I asked, I figured a coiuple answers naming just a few, not a dozen or more.

I used to send my WWII back to Forrest until one was returning with half its carbide ground away. When I complained, they denied that they did it and claimed that was the way they received it. Adios Forrest Manufacturing - once is enough for that kind of treatment.

I should have mentioned that ripping is my main concern and that I work small. My stock may be thick at times but nothing over 12" except for cutting planks to working size. My other "thing" is that I hate changing blades. Most of my work is done with Matsushita 7-1/4" blades, mainly because I work with fingers danger-close to the blade and the work piece clears the blade so much faster than with a ten inch. The ultra thin kerf (0.060") is a big plus when working with $100/ft exotics. Thing is, I have to change back to a ten inch all too often as the small blade can't handle thicker stock so I end up just keeping the larger blade on a while longer than I want. Thus it need produce glue joint ready rips. I also use blades for machine cuts that most would probably do on a different machine.

[Chris Hachet]

I have a WWII. I'm not all that impressed with it anymore. I have a stack of $20 Dewalt/Delta 7657/35-7657 combination blades that I run daily unless I am using a crosscut or ripping blade. For WWII money I would look at Freud.

As a WWII owner, I would second this.

[David M Peters]

I feel like I'm talking up a Kia at a BWM car show but get very good results from my 10" Diablo 40T combo blade. Crosscut end grain is damn near perfect and rips only show the slightest hint of track marks. But I also have a good table saw (Grizz G0700) and make an effort to keep it well-calibrated so the blade has every opportunity to do a good job.