Modern Fine Saw Blades and the Effects of Plywood

[Ty Williams]

Growing up as a kid, my dad always had a high quality blade for the table saw that was used only on solid wood. He had a different, cheaper, blade for using on plywood because plywood supposedly dulled the good blade very rapidly due to the glue content. However, this was with steel-toothed blades that didn't have carbide tips. With modern saw blades tipped in fine grain carbide (WWII in my case), should you still avoid cutting plywood with your fancy blade (or other high-glue materials like MDF, glue-lam, LVL, etc) or are carbide tips sufficiently tough to chew through plywood with impunity?

[Jamie Buxton]

What real evidence do you have for your belief that glue damages tools?

[Rick Potter]

Can't answer for Ty, but I have seen sparks while cutting particle board. That was a while ago, before PB got less dense. If I am cutting lots of MDF, or PB, I switch out the blade to a skill saw blade, and it works fine for me. Just for a few cuts though, I don't bother. Guess I have to change my thoughts when I get the SS up and running. Plywood? Nah.

Rick Potter

[Ty Williams]

What real evidence do you have for your belief that glue damages tools?

In the past, prior to carbide tips, simple steel saw blades did dull noticeably faster in plywood that domestic hardwoods. I suppose I could simply use my WWII in a lot of plywood, but I'd just as soon figure this one out without the cost of a sharpening.

[johnny means]

The fact is the adhesive in engineered lumber is abrasive as well as corrosive to carbide. This is something that manufacturers have studied to great degree. The actual real world differences to any one posting on this forum are nil.

[Art Mann]

When I started woodworking back in the late 1970's, carbide blades weren't as common as they are today and I used various steel blades for all my work. I now use carbide blades exclusively. A good quality carbide blade will outlast a good steel blade by many, many times. I am mostly a hobbyist but I cut a lot of plywood and I very seldom have to sharpen or replace a blade.

From another point of view, my goal is not to see how long I can make a blade last. My goal is to make the best projects my skills and equipment will allow. If that means wearing out an expensive crosscut blade in order to get splinter free cuts, then that is what I will do.

[scott spencer]

It depends a lot on how much you'll be cutting and how critical the application is. A small amount shouldn't hurt anything, but a good 60T or 80T will leave a cleaner cut than the WWII, and will save it for your hardwood applications.