This does not seem normal to me, but then again I stopped buying Freud
products many years ago. IMHO you are getting a refurbished product or the
manufacturer takes no pride in what his product looks like brand new. If
they don't care what it looks like new, I would have concerns about what
amount of care that went into the manufacturing process.

Igor,

Forrest now will build a blade to your liking,, IIRC they do and or will
grind a blade to suite your needs. You have to contact them directly vs.
going through a distributor.

You might want to take a look here http://www.stores.yahoo.com/forrestman/
and or call about your concerns or needs.

The "dried glue" on your blade is actually an epoxy resin that Freud places
within the vibration dampening laser cut slots to prevent material from
lodging within it.

I suspect the "paint run" within the metal is the tension ring on the blade.
Every Freud Industrial blade is run through a high pressure roller to
straighten the blade blank within a couple thousands of an inch. There is a
noticeable "ring" at about the 8" diameter mark on a 10" blade.

The printing is the last thing to go on the blade, and thus the first to
wear off. The fact that it is not worn off in a radial patter would suggest
to me that it was merely worn or chaffed in shipping.

I've never known Freud to offer any "recon" products, and I've sold their
product for 11 years.

Without seeing the blade I could only assume that the product was used, or
my theories above would be applicable.

Rick


"Igor" wrote in message
...
I am going to be cutting a lot of plastic stock so I ordered a special 10"
plastics blade from Freud, LU94M010.
http://www.toolmarts.com/solidsurfaceblades.html I had used the same
blade
in the 8" size on both my RAS and my CMS and had reasonable results --
such
as minimal melting and no chipping.

When I opened the 10" version when it arrived, it had a number of peculiar
appearance problems that made it look possibly used, but certainly
handled
badly. There were random scratches on the surface across the blade (i.e.,
not radius and not circular), substantial parts of the "priniting" on the
front of the blade were missing in various places, and there was something
that looks like dried yellow glue on one side of the blade surrounding the
arbor hole. (There was also on one side of the blade, what looked to be
within the metal, what looks like a paint run. Do they spray some kind of
poly finish on the blades that might run?)

I described this to the retailer, ToolMarts, and they said that they would
send a replacement blade which arrived today. The replacement also has
the
dried glue around the hole. And, while the first one had what I assume
are
grinding/polishing concentric "scratches" (ie.., normal) that make it look
like a CD, the replacement has comparable scratches that are more in a
spin-art paint pattern. Both blades have a small indent just below
every-other carbide tooth (a polished welding point?), but the size of
them
on one blade is 2X the size on the other.

BTW, both blades are marked "Made in Italy" -- so you China bashers can
stand down. (What's that old joke about a product embodying German
styling
and Italian engineering?)

Now, if the blade works as it should, I don't care about what it looks
like. But does this seem normal? Regardless, should I be concerned?
Anyone else experiencing this w/ other types of Freud blades? Thanks.

On Sat, 09 Aug 2003 16:45:55 GMT, "Leon"
wrote:

Igor,

Forrest now will build a blade to your liking,, IIRC they do and or will
grind a blade to suite your needs. You have to contact them directly vs.
going through a distributor.

You might want to take a look here http://www.stores.yahoo.com/forrestman/
and or call about your concerns or needs.


Thanks, Leon. I'll check that out. Forrestman's prices are high compared
to other sources, but his selection is much better than what else I've
seen.

For wood, I have ordered a WWI blade so that I can use it on both the TS
and the RAS. I see that most people here praise the WWII but I also found
strong reviews for the WWI.

BTW, finally got the DeWalt moved in and assembled last night. Will do a
bit more confirming/tweaking of the setup with a dial gauge today before
cutting.

On Sat, 9 Aug 2003 21:15:34 -0500, "tailslid1"
wrote:

The "dried glue" on your blade is actually an epoxy resin that Freud places
within the vibration dampening laser cut slots to prevent material from
lodging within it.

I suspect the "paint run" within the metal is the tension ring on the blade.
Every Freud Industrial blade is run through a high pressure roller to
straighten the blade blank within a couple thousands of an inch. There is a
noticeable "ring" at about the 8" diameter mark on a 10" blade.

The printing is the last thing to go on the blade, and thus the first to
wear off. The fact that it is not worn off in a radial patter would suggest
to me that it was merely worn or chaffed in shipping.

I've never known Freud to offer any "recon" products, and I've sold their
product for 11 years.

Without seeing the blade I could only assume that the product was used, or
my theories above would be applicable.

Rick

Thanks for the detailed comments. Some of what you wrote suggests my
original post wasn't as clear as it could have been. FWIW a little more
detail: The "dried glue" looks like something had been glued to the blade
at the center hole -- maybe 2" square (though the glue is not in a defined
shape) -- during processing and then it was popped off (or it fell off
from the glue drying out and the stresses of processing) and the glue was
not cleaned up.

As for the "paint run": Picture the looking at the side of the blade.
Then, take a small brush loaded with some thin polyurethane and dab it at
the bottom edge of the hole. Let the poly run down and dry.

As for the printing, it looks like the worst stereotype of "Chinese"
production. With the replacement blade it looks like too much ink was
used. Every try taking coated printer paper designed only for a laser
printer and using it in an inkjet printer. Like that, but it was allowed
to dry.

In article ,
Igor wrote:

(There was also on one side of the blade, what looked to be
within the metal, what looks like a paint run. Do they spray some kind of
poly finish on the blades that might run?)

Yes, the Freud blades I've received all have a clear coat of some sort
sprayed on - I believe it's a corrosion inhibitor to keep the metal all
nice and shiney before use. It wears off fairly quickly between the
arbor washers - the rest has been removed through general blade cleaning
or by the cleaning the sharpening service I use performs. (Have lost
most of the lettering as well.)

--
Owen Lowe and his Fly-by-Night Copper Company
Offering a shim for the Porter-Cable 557 type 2 fence design.
http://www.flybynightcoppercompany.com
http://www.easystreet.com/~onlnlowe/index.html