On 2/11/2014 7:07 AM, dadiOH wrote:
"woodchucker" wrote in message

On 2/10/2014 10:37 AM, dadiOH wrote:
"Mike Marlow" wrote in
message
Ok - I just gotta get the conversation going on this,
so that after it arrives I can talk more about how it
works. I was ripping a slab of 8/4 walnut Saturday night and
it was going so-so. Took my blade out and put it in my
sharpener and touched it up. To be fair, my
sharpener is probably best suited for circular saw
blades, and it's not likely at all that I'm getting
the same quality of job out of it that any standard
sharpening service would provide. But - I did it,
and the blade did cut noticeably better. Only takes
about 20 minutes or so to sharpen a 60 tooth blade.
Still - it's the wrong blade, and it was still
smoking up the garage pretty good. The cuts were
very smooth but there was some burning on each cut.
So - after threatening for god-knows-how-long to smash
the piggy bank and buy a Woodworker II, I finally took
the plunge. Ordered it Saturday night from a site
that Leon pointed me to. Shipping should be very
fast - they are located only 1/2 way across NY state
from me. Could possibly be here as early as Tuesday.
I'm looking forward to this thing.


Which Woodworker ll? The 30 tooth one I hope. If many
teeth and ATB then spend a little more money and buy a
20-30 tooth flat grind blade that is meant for ripping.
Not easy to find but last time I looked Freud still
made them.
The 40 tooth one is the best overall blade.
It does crosscutting and ply better than the 30 would.

True. But it is also true that a lower tooth blade rips better. Especially
a flat ground one.




And that is probably true but Mike is moving from a blade that he
sharpens himself, his old blade probably has shark teeth or flint rock
for teeth, the previous owner of the blade was Fred Flintstone, to one
of the very best blades.

He wants the most bang for his buck and typically a blade that is better
for ripping is not so good for crosscutting where as a "very good"
general or combo blade is great for cross cutting and still pretty darn
good for ripping by comparison 99.5 percent of the time.

If his saw is set up properly he will likely wonder why he would ever
need to switch to rip blade and or see limited benefit that may not
justify purchasing a good rip blade that can out perform the WWII 40 tooth.

Looooooong ago I swapped blades when going from ripping to cross
cutting. There are still advantages to that, "but for me" the
advantages in the last 23 years have not warranted the time to swap
blades. AAMOF I don't think I own a dedicated rip blade any more.

I'm not trying to preach to the choir or to dismiss anything that anyone
has to say about which blade works best for themselves.
I'm mostly replying here to reassure Mike that, if his saw is set up
properly, he is going to be very very happy with this new blade for most
everything that he is going to cut on his TS for a very long time.

And Mike I can give you some tips for getting good cross cuts in plywood
even when the new blade has some miles on it and may be due for a
resharpening some years down the road. I use these techniques even on a
fresh blade just out of habit.