Send your festool blades back to Leitz in Michigan for sharpening.

 

That’s a bummer. I’ve always had good results from Forrest but stopped shipping them because they were coming back with broken teeth.
Fortunately a local saw service does a great job and will make up bandsaw blades while I wait.
Good Luck

 

I bought a Woodworker 2 on sale from them about 12 years ago. It was one of the worst saw blades I've ever owned. I'm glad it works well for other people though.

 

That’s weird. Maybe you had it on backwards 😋

 

First, you need to turn the blade 180 degrees, clamp (fix) and start the saw, check it for runout.,,it on backwards This indicates the operation of all teeth. Align, then sharpen.
If you want to do it right, do it yourself..........

 

Find a saw shop within driving distance that uses CNC to sharpen.. Try again.

 

I didn't see it mentioned but is this place you sent them to an authorized Forrest sharpener?
Saw blades can have complex geometries on the teeth, not every sharpening machine is suited for the task.
I use Freud blades and send mine to an certified dealer/sharpener. The difference in result to where I used to get them sharpened 20+ years ago is substantial.

 

There are a lot of good companies sharpening saw blades.

 

It sounds like you sent them to Forrest for this sharpening (?), and I can't help but think if you reached out you their CS with your problems they would make things right. I've never used Forrest, but the number of good posts made about their sharpening makes me think they'll do right by you. At least start with them, you may get nothing....or you may get some resolution.

 

I've been getting my WWII blades sharpened by Forrest for more than 25 years, never had any problems, only praise. Get them on the phone, I'm sure they will sort this out for you.

 

These were sharpened a year ago and shipping costs a fortune. I need these for my business and don’t have endless time or money giving them second chances. I need them to work the first time.

 

Ridge carbide in New Jersey sharpened some used Forrest blades I picked up cheap. Excellent results. I dropped them off at a woodworking show before the virus, and John from Ridge was great to work with. EDIT: I am at the woodworking show in Milwaukee. Ridge has been sold, and is now headquartered near Witchita, Kansas.

 

Don't try to put a label on it..

I just make a phone call..

 

Don't try to put a label on it..

I just make a phone call..
View attachment 3868551

While you seem like you always want to have the last word, posting an invoice with you name address and telephone number on the internet, is not the wisest move.

 

Matter of fact, I need them to come now..

 

It was my business,.

I don’t care about last word. But certification doesn’t mean much,

Ill remove if it makes you feel better. The forum ihas some very sensitive users..

Last word? It’s called a discussion..

 

Very interested in more recent experiences with Forrest sharpening. I have several of their blades, as well as too many others. Day in day out the Forrests are the best blades I have. Are they worth the price? I’ll let you decide. I have used Forrest sharpening exclusively for my blades and always been very satisfied. Worried that the quality of sharpening may have declined?

 

I have used Forrest sharpening exclusively for my blades and always been very satisfied. Worried that the quality of sharpening may have declined?

It's a valid concern with the nationwide labor shortages that have been going on. I'll be interested to see replies to your question.

 

About a year ago I sent my three Forrest blades all the way out to New Jersey to have them re-sharpened. I’ve done this in the past without issue. This time around I am less than impressed. The two normal kerfs definitely have issues. The first one I tried had one tenth the lifespan before it started burning and was so gummed up it was unusable. I switched to my thin kerf and it cuts well without issue but has fewer teeth than my normal kerf blades. I need to cross cut a bunch of plywood without chip out so I put my other standard kerf on. After just six cuts on scrap plywood the edge of the blade is already starting to gum up and actually burned one piece. This is on a sliding tablesaw, and I have the slider within .002” of parallel to the blade so that’s not it. I just think they sharpened them incorrectly or something. Going off of memory it cost me almost 50 bucks just in shipping to get them out to New Jersey to have them sharpened. But of course it was a year ago so there’s nothing I can do now. Anyone else have this issue? I know they went through some hiccups after the old man died a few years ago but I figured they had stuff ironed out. Next go around I will just use my local saw doctor. At least if it doesn’t cut I can go over there directly and have them fix it. I had Forrest sharpen a couple of my Festool blades as well, I’m almost scared to try them. View attachment 3868385

I sent a WW2 in to Forrest several years ago to have a tooth repaired and sharpened. After waiting several months I was finally able to get a response and they told me they were very busy but would get to mine as soon as possible. I finally got my blade back 6 weeks later. I year later I needed a tooth repaired (Sawstop hit my Incra fence) and resharpened. This time it only took 2 months to get it back. Things worked fine until I put in my Dado King. I had swapped blades many times in the past but the first time after the second sharpened it tripped the brake on the Sawstop when I turned the saw on.It turns out the WW2 diameter was reduced so much the dado blade hit the cartridge when it spun and set it off. The WW2 is set as close as the Sawstop will allow so it cannot be sharpened again. I had a local sharpener (Snook's Saw Shop in Salem, OR) repair the Dado King and it is working great, no shipping expense, and got it back in a week. I cannot justify the expense or time required to use Forrest services. If the WW2 can only have 2 sharpenings and the cost of shipping plus the service I feel I would be better off using a lower tier blade.

 

Bob I am a little puzzled. When you put in the dado set and brake cartridge didn't you check the gap between the blades and cartridge and adjust it? I do even when switching between different 10" blades, rip, crosscut or combination. It is what the SawStop manual recommends if I recall correctly.

Pete

 

Pete, I certainly do check each time now. I usually did but that time I was trying to save some time and it had been a month or two since getting the WWII blade back. I didn't think about this being the first time using the dado and in the past it had always been okay so I changed be blades and turned it on. I didn't save much time.

 

Most high end sharpeners use automatic sharpening machines. They are no longer done by hand. The automatic sharpeners should sharpen a blade perfectly every time.

 

when one gets a lot of blades sharpened over the years, its bound to happen to have a bad experience, it happens, sometimes fault of machine not calibrated, human error, or simply just plain gotta get it out the door''okay'',
when i had the framing biz, we had a hundy blades a week sharpened, (80s') in cabt. shop we had a joint locally that sharpend planer, shaper, and saw blades along with anything else that needed a sharp edge, seems those services and good ones have gone by wayside, we are lucky to have one shop on west side, wait is usually a week, but they sharpen my glue line blades to the ''T'', and family owned biz. some mech, some by hand.
one bad experience doesnt not make a story. jmo
rj in az

 

In my area there are no shops that sharpen saw blades.Given the cost of shipping, I use a Frued Diablo blade that gives me great cuts and cost less than shipping does.

 

I sent a Dado King set to Forrest and an Amana to my local sharpener. Guess which ones cut better dados? My point is the sharpening is only as good as the set up and operator.

 

I must be lazy. I give my worn blades to a friend that sharpens them himself and let him keep the blades. I just go out and purchase new blades when I feel it's time for another blade.

 

I have been very happy with my WWII, and have had it sharpened by them. Great job, they even straightened the plate . My son went to use the saw, and somehow had the fence not locked, or something and it bound the blade during the cut. Bent the plate.

Their service has been excellent. They have done my planer blades too when they are too nicked up for me to reasonable do, but now I have a surface grinder, so I can do my own planer blades.. not the saw blades.

 

My musings:

Forrest has been in the blade game a long time so has a lot of experience. That's collectively, but does the guy sharpening YOUR blade have that experience / knowledge ? Maybe not, so now you (we) are faced with whether or not Forrest has a good system in place for training people with that extensive knowledge.

Of all the "good" sharpeners - Forrest is the only one I consistently read about about people having problems with. And when it does go sideways most often all you get is a shrug from Forrest. Waiting months for a blade to be sharpened is ridiculous, I don't care how busy you are. Even if you are, you should disclose your backlog publicly so people can make an informed desesion before choosing to engage.


From my perspective, Forrest's day has past, especially when it comes to sharpening. Sure they make a great blade, but so do others. Their sharpening service is too much of a crap shoot for me to use. Maybe it's good 99% of the time , but I'm not willing to take a chance for something that can be done jsut as good (or better) elsewhere with less risk.

 

I'm surprised with the posting responses. The Father/founder died a few years ago, that might have affected their capabilities some how.

 

It could be as simple as the wrong blade for the application..

 

Could also be as simple as Forrest screwed up too.

 

I want to chime-in about Forrest. I bought one of their blades about 20 years ago. It's a 10" 40T WWII for Table Saws.

I used it for a little while but it didn't seem to cut very well so I took it off of my saw and I put it away. I regularly use Amana, Freud, Dewalt Series 40, Jackson, DML and all are resharpened by Raleigh Saw and they work very well.

So I pulled out the Forrest blade recently and took my digital microscope to see the carnage I inflicted upon it 20 years ago. To my surprise, the carbide tips that I thought were chipped weren't chipped.

It appears that several carbide tips were mounted lower than the rest which, in turn, didn't allow them to shape correctly after grinding. The rest of the 34 or so carbide tips are perfect. Btw, this blade has never been sharpened or repaired.

So I called Forrest yesterday, Danny said to send pictures. His response to the pictures was that this blade would never have left their shop like that.

I guess that means "go pound sand."

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of just one of the tips in question. A portion of the top of the carbide tip looks to be virgin (unground).

I'm glad they didn't say to ship it to them hearing now that I probably wouldn't see it again for another year

I'll take it around the block to Raleigh Saw!