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?