At a recent woodworking show in Detroit I watched a Oldham rep demonstrating their top of the line table saw blade. He was cutting some very thin slices, about 1/16", from a variety of wood samples, melamine and even Corian. The finish of the cut surfaces was extremely smooth with a slight burnished effect which may have been brought about by the slow feed rate. The rep also gave credit to their blade stabilizer for the fine performance. The blade stabilizer was a single piece, about 4 inches in diameter, having an o-ring located in it. The o-ring was about 1/8" thick and about 3 inches in diameter. Only one blade stabilizer is used against the blade and a regular washer is on the other side of the blade. I'm guessing this may tend to "cup" the blade slightly to the regular washer.
One of the more impressive cuts made was a rip through a 10 inch length of cherry. Half-way through the cut the rep stops pushing the cherry into the blade and launches into a short monologue about how hard cherry is to cut without burning. His hands are waving in the air but I'm watching the piece of cherry with the blade spinning inside it?and it's not moving. The cut is finished and there is no burning on the cherry and only a slight more burnishing where the cut was interrupted. This was no fancy cabinet saw he was using either (probably wouldn't want to drag one around the country) but appeared to be a smaller contractor-grade saw on a wooded platform.
Being slightly skeptical, I gotta wonder what else is going on here that I don't know about?or is this blade/stabilizer combo this good. What say you?