Forrest WWII blade

The only problem I have now, I love my Forrest WWII, is I DO change my blade MORE often! This is because I save my Forrest blade by constantly switching to a cheap carbide blade when cutting everyday chores. If I am ripping tomatoe stakes out of old 2 X 4's for instance I don't keep the Forrest in the saw. I guess I could have the nicest, smoothest tomatoe stakes in the area but I'll stick with sawmarks and keep the "good" blade from the re-sharpening shop, (Forrest's), for awhile longer.

Tim Q

Unlike cheaper blades, the Forrest stay sharper longer. I only switch blades if the wood is dirty.

In my opinion, you get much better results using a seperate ripping blade for ripping, and a seperate blade for plywood/cross cutting. I do very little crosscutting on the table saw (use miter box). Although I will point out that I'm using a contractor's saw. On a 3 HP cabinent saw, maybe a combination blade does a good enough job ripping.

It takes maybe 45 seconds to swap out a blade, don't see what the big deal is.

I use a Freud ripping blade, and I can glue up right from that, unless cutting the wood causes some internal stresses that cause it to bend a little after the cut, but you'll have that problem no matter what blade you use.

Depends. A good combination blade will out perform a cheap single purpose blade any day.

I used to think that way. I had a good combo blade on a contractors saw and had a 12" miter saw station. When I upgraded to a Jet cabinet saw I went with the Forrest WWII and completely quit using the miter saw all together. I only change the Forrest when I send it for resharpening or to cut dados.

Not a big deal unless it is not necessary. I would be changing many times a day.

Have you tried a standard kerf Forrest WWII?

How exactly would a different blade keep wood from warping after the cut is made?

Chris

I don't think it would. My reference was more towards him using a Freud blade for ripping vs. simply leaving a WWII on for all cuts.

I have to put my 2 cents in here. I'm probably the only guy on this newsgroup who doesnt like the Forrest blade. It sits on my shelf.

I bought one several years ago. At first it cut just great, just like everyone says here. Then after a few months and not too many cuts, I noticed it getting harder and harder to push a piece of wood through it. Also, the wood that I ripped tended to burn. I figured it was either getting dull, or had sap buildup..

So I de-gunked the blade, but it didnt help. Then I sent it back to Forrest for sharpening. It came back and once again, performed like it did when new.

Until about a month later when it started to get hard to push wood through it and rip cuts started to burn. Mind you, I'm a weekend woodcutter so it only had about 8 days of cutting on it in this period.

I gave up at that point and put a Freud blade on and havent had a spot of trouble since and its been over a year.

So my experience may be atypical or I may have gotten a bum blade, or I dont know how to use a saw, but all I know is I had nothing but problems with it. One of these days I may put it back on and try again, but I'm in no hurry.

Oh, this was on a Delta Unisaw.

Dickm

Snip

Sounds like you got a Forrest lemon.

Wanna sell it? If it's the full-kerf (1/8") version, let's talk. Send mail to woodworks at milmac dot com

...and I thought I was the only one. I got a used WWII with a saw I bought. I already owned a Frued TK906. Given all that I had heard about the Forrest, I sent this one in for a resharpening. I can't say it is a bad blade, but it is no better than the Frued TK906 (not even a top-o-the line Frued). I have had both now for a couple years and I use the Frued more often than the Forrest. To me the WWII is a good blade that is over priced.

Dave Hall