On Fri, 14 Oct 2011 12:47:55 -0500, -MIKE- wrote:

Anybody use CMT saw blades a lot. Love em, hate em?

Woodline USA, which is right down the road from me, has started carrying
them and has good prices. They seem to run a good amount below the
equivalent Freud and Forrest models.

Earlier in the summer I picked up three CMT blades (brand new in original
package) at a yard sale. I paid $10 each. About 10 days ago I pulled my
Forrest WW2 off to send it back for resharpening and stuck a 50T combo ATBR CMT
model 215.050.10 on in its place.

It is a piece of ****.

Solid pine, oak, poplar crosscuts are all hairy. Poplar and pine rips are very
fuzzy. There is heavy chipping to 3/8 inch on the bottom side of 1/2 inch
Baltic Birch and plenty of fuzz where there is no chipping. The BB has to be
scored first, then cut to reduce the tearout, and there is still some chipout
and fuzz.

I don't have a ZCI on the saw, but never needed it with the WW2. I played with
the CMT blade for about an hour then said screw it since I was partway through a
project and put the WW2 back on. It's still dull, but even so it cuts much
better than the CMT blade using the same solid wood and BB ply used to test the
CMT. The Freud Diablo blades ($30 at the Borg) are much better than this CMT
blade.

The other two CMT blades I have are 251.042.10 "General Purpose" blade and
210.080.10 "Melamine and Fine Cut Off" blade. I have not used either of these
yet, but have the sneaking suspicion a fool and his money have been parted when
it comes to CMT saw blades.

If I complete the work in progress while weekend warrioring the next few days I
will try to drop these other two blades into the TS and see if the other one is
just a bad blade or if the whole line is a POS. This is my first experience
with a CMT saw blade and you can tell I'm underwhelmed. Probably ok for cutting
up PT crap and boards with staples, sand and grit embedded.

To the OP: Just go buy yourself a Forrest WW2. Buy the best and only cry
(whine, bitch and moan) once. I may just take a leaf out of Leon's book and buy
a second WW2 to be my backup blade while the other one is being sharpened. I've
wasted more than the price of a WW2 buying other cheaper blades over the years,
and they have just about all been disappointments. I'd have been money ahead to
just buy two of them years ago.

Regards,
Roy