Frued Fusiom blades any good?

[Tom Solomon]

I work at home mostly with extreamly hard woods like Ipe, Purple Heart, and Briziallin Cherry, for making furniture. I have had fantastic luck with Diablo blades, Tenryu and King Carbide, but now I am looking for somathing to get me a better cut finish. The 3 woods I usually work with require either a large kirf because of the oils in the wood but dun't leave a very nice cut on the edges. I was told the the fusion blades would correct the rough edges after ripping but my question is will I have a binding problem I find with most thin kirf blades because of the excess of oils in these 3 woods I use. If not I quess I won't fix what's not really broken. Just tring to make life a little easer on myself.

[Jim Grill]

Hi Tom,

Just curious.... Have you ever tried Forrest blades?

[Tom Solomon]

I have, but my biggest thing is I am more of a hobbiest making furniture out of my garage, and people squak at my prices so I try and keep them down a little I have alot invested in tools I have had forrest blades in the past (thin Kirf) and had the same results of binding of the blade. This is why I was asking if anyone knew about the fusion blades. give you an idea for my chairs, I have almost $300 in wood in them and only get $450. for them so tring to save where I can..

[scott spencer]

Tom, if you've had good results from the Freud Diablo blades, I'd consider looking into something from the Freud Industrial line. Sale prices pull them down into a very similar price range. They're a step up from the Diablo and Avanti line.

What saw do you have?

[Frank Snyder]

Tom - I used the Freud Fusion blade for about 6 months until it began burning some Birch I was ripping a few weeks back. It's now in my "needs to be sharpened" pile. I used it to cut a lot of Maple, Birch, MDF and Melamine, the latter two taking their toll on the blade. I preferred the Fusion over my Forrest WW2 (cleaner cut and easier to rip with). I just picked up a Tenryu Gold Medal which behaves a lot like the Fusion...will see if it stays sharper longer. I've never worked with Ipe so I can't comment as to how the Fusion holds up to this species. Keep your blades sharp (and your table saw aligned) and you should get good results. Using a wider tooth blade should help a little with your binding problem, but even better would be a riving knife or at least a splitter.

Moser charges upwards of $1000 for his chairs...I wouldn't balk at $450. If you've got $300 in materials, you should be charging $900 for the chair. The world has enough starving artists...

[Kim Spence]

I have a Freud Fusion. Nice blade, but at about $100 its essentially the same price as a Forrest.

Pros of the Fusion
-Extremely clean, almost polished crosscuts, especially in dense woods
-No tearout to speak of
-Fairly clean ripping, I've seen just minor scoring and some burning if you cut slowly

Cons of the Fusion
-Burning when cutting bevels (I was cutting Oak & Cherry)
-Seems more prone to Kickback than the Forrest. I took a chunk of plywood in the gut shortly after I got the Fusion. This is just subjective opinion, no facts to back it up other than a scar on my stomach.

Couple other things to know about the Fusion
-Uses a pretty high angle ATB tooth design, this is what gives the clean crosscuts.
-High angle ATB teeth tend to dull quicker, so Freud compensated by using a "harder" grade of carbide.
-Harder grade of carbide chips VERY easily, must use EXTREME caution when installing the blade. I chipped mine with just a slight bump to the edge of the saw's throat opening.
-The teeth have a unique "Side Grind" that helps to gived polished crosscuts and smooth rips, but I think this leaves less clearance between side of tooth and the workpiece, leading to higher possibility of kickback. Again, no facts to prove this, just my observation. Other opinions welcome.

All in all, not a bad blade, but at $100 I'd buy a Forrest WWII. If you can find the Fusion on sale I'd say go for it.

Kim

[Greg Cole]

I agree with Frank.... $150 for your time is not nearly enough. Granted a Maloof chair is "the benchmark" for top of the line
The Freud Industrial line isn't bad for the price... and they are a defininate step over the Avanti line you can get at the Borgs.
I have one of the industrial glue line rips in my TS and one of the Fusions on my CMS. The glue line rip is all its cracked up to be.
I've never been able to convince myself to buy a Forrest or any blade over $100... yet anyway.

Greg

[David DeCristoforo]

"...people squak at my prices so I try and keep them down a little..."

Here's the thing Tom....you need to worry when people don't squawk at your prices. It' a bit like poker. You gotta look them right in the eye when you give them your price. You have to be confident that your price, whatever it is, is fair. I like to see them wince just a bit. Then I know I'm pretty close, not to what they want to pay but what they will be willing to pay. If you underprice your work, everyone suffers. You because you are not getting what your work is worth, every other artisan out there because people are getting an unrealistic idea about what fine work should cost. The only one who comes out ahead is the customer who, in most cases can be convinced to invest a bit more as long as you can offer the value. It's not your responsibility to make it possible for people to be able to afford what they want. If they can't, that's their problem, not yours. You got enough problems as it is trying to make money doing this work in the first place.

Oh and BTW, I have been using Freud blades since 1982 and I have never found a "better" blade although there are many that are, I am sure, just as good. I was on the Freud side of the first of the "blade wars" with Freud's LU85M vs the Forrest "Mr Sawdust" blade. It was a lot of fun because the LU85M cost like half of the Mr S blade and did not need the "optional" giant washers to make it's best cut like the Forrest blade did. I sold a lot of Freud blades and I have not yet found a better value.

[Gary Keedwell]

I'm thinking that Forrest blades are over-rated. Basically the same finish as my good freud. Also, in over 20 years of woodworking, Forrest is the only blade where a tooth just fell out in a routine cut.
I sent it back with an explanation ( I only had it a few weeks and made only a few cuts) and they sent it back to me repaired and with a hefty bill attatched. I called them back and after explaining for a long time the person on the phone said they would cancel the bill. A few weeks later we got another bill. The guy on the other end said I must of talked to this other person who is on vacation and I would have to talk to her when she came back.
Needless to say, this took quite a few weeks and alot of aggravation to finally clear up. Sorry for the rant, but this happened awhile ago and I never posted it.
Now I feel better

Gary K.

[Tom Solomon]

can't put the pic's in too big wanted to share with everyone

[David Tiell]

I can't speak to the Fusion blades. I have used a couple Freud blades (I believe a LU84M and a 24 tooth rip blade) which I like and will still use once I get them sharpened. I have also used the Forrest WWII, both TK and regular kerf. Love them. Most people complain about the price, but if you keep an eye on Amazon, you can get them at a decent price. I just ordered a 30 tooth TK WWII last week for $63.99 and free shipping. The quality is well worth the cost if you can find it at that price.

[Al Willits]

Found I was burning with the blades I had on bazillian cherry, so off I went to my local Rockler store, was set to buy the fusion and mentioned to the guy what I was cutting, he said he had tried both and got less burn with the WW2 blade, I mentioned cost and it seems the WW2 was on sale, ended up about $10 more than the fusion.

So I never got to use the fusion, but this newbie is happy with his Forrest blade, but I think I'm finding different blades may work better on different woods, the freud blades I have work great except for the cherry wood.....more of that learning curve..

Also the WW2 has become my "leave in the saw" blade, pretty good all around wood (not plywood) blade.
Al