I thought it would be fun to pit the Forrest WWII up against the Freud P410. I had a hard time choosing between the blades about a year ago and ended up with the Freud. It was in need of some sharpening so I sent it to an authorized Freud center, but in the meantime, got the itch and picked up the Forrest WWII. I wanted to compared these 2 against the stock blade that came with the G1023 table saw I bought last year, but couldnt track it down, so found my old Freud LU84R011 and put it in the mix instead.
Blade Details
Forrest WWII: About $125 New. I had only used this blade to make one or two cuts before this test. It was basically new out of the box.
Freud P410: About $100 new. Mine is about a year old. I actually just knicked my miter gauge, hence the need for sharpening. In my mind, a freshly sharpened Freud and a new Forrest would be about as close as I would ever get to testing these two new. When I got the blade back, it was scary how sharp it was. I actually sliced my finger accidentally on a tip, first time that had ever happend.
Freud LU84R011: About $65 new. I dont know the details on this one. I know I used it for about a year, never sharpened it. It seems to be in pretty good shape except for in need of a serious cleaning.
The Victim
I bought this curly maple from a cabinet maker going out of business. I remember him telling me "be careful, that maple burns if you look at it wrong". He was right and I've fought it since. I very rarely have burns after cutting lumber except w/ this wood.
As a side note, I am not SUPER anal about setting up my table saw, but try to keep everything aligned pretty well. The blade is in line w/ the miter gauge and the fence kicks out at the end about .005".
Comparison
The dust shavings on these were all a bit different. The WWII spat out more chips than dust. The P410 created mostly dust but a few nice shavings. The LU84 was all dust.
WWII
P410
LU84
Next I made a thin cut of 1/32 with each of these. My rankings are as follows
WWII
9/10
Smooth/Even
P410
7/10
1 minor swirl mark, Even
LU84
5/10
Tough to push, inconsistent cut, swirl marks.
Cross Cut
WWII
9/10 Smooth
7/10 Tear Out
P410
9/10 Smooth
9/10 Tear Out
LU84
6/10 Smooth
7/10 Tear Out
Dado
I through this category in although I never make finish cuts like this with these blades. I notice it seems to show tear out though, so did it here.
WWII
6/10
P410
9/10
LU84
6/10
Ripping
WWII
9/10 Smooth
8/10 Burn
P410
8/10 Smooth (a few more rough tear out spots)
6/10 Burn
LU84
4/10 Smooth
5/10 Burn
So what did I prove here? Not much other than I can come up with some interesting ways to get out of mowing the lawn. For me personally, I think Im going to use the WWII for the time being. I think it did the best with ripping which is alot of what I use the table saw for. I was kind of surprised at how the P410 did with ripping, so maybe a freshly sharpened blade isnt equivalent to a new blade. The LU84 will probably sit in a corner indefinitely. Now only did not not rate up there with the big boys, I could tell I had to push significantly harder to get it to cut. A good sharpening might do it wonders though.
Blade Details
Forrest WWII: About $125 New. I had only used this blade to make one or two cuts before this test. It was basically new out of the box.
Freud P410: About $100 new. Mine is about a year old. I actually just knicked my miter gauge, hence the need for sharpening. In my mind, a freshly sharpened Freud and a new Forrest would be about as close as I would ever get to testing these two new. When I got the blade back, it was scary how sharp it was. I actually sliced my finger accidentally on a tip, first time that had ever happend.
Freud LU84R011: About $65 new. I dont know the details on this one. I know I used it for about a year, never sharpened it. It seems to be in pretty good shape except for in need of a serious cleaning.
The Victim
I bought this curly maple from a cabinet maker going out of business. I remember him telling me "be careful, that maple burns if you look at it wrong". He was right and I've fought it since. I very rarely have burns after cutting lumber except w/ this wood.
As a side note, I am not SUPER anal about setting up my table saw, but try to keep everything aligned pretty well. The blade is in line w/ the miter gauge and the fence kicks out at the end about .005".
Comparison
The dust shavings on these were all a bit different. The WWII spat out more chips than dust. The P410 created mostly dust but a few nice shavings. The LU84 was all dust.
WWII
P410
LU84
Next I made a thin cut of 1/32 with each of these. My rankings are as follows
WWII
9/10
Smooth/Even
P410
7/10
1 minor swirl mark, Even
LU84
5/10
Tough to push, inconsistent cut, swirl marks.
Cross Cut
WWII
9/10 Smooth
7/10 Tear Out
P410
9/10 Smooth
9/10 Tear Out
LU84
6/10 Smooth
7/10 Tear Out
Dado
I through this category in although I never make finish cuts like this with these blades. I notice it seems to show tear out though, so did it here.
WWII
6/10
P410
9/10
LU84
6/10
Ripping
WWII
9/10 Smooth
8/10 Burn
P410
8/10 Smooth (a few more rough tear out spots)
6/10 Burn
LU84
4/10 Smooth
5/10 Burn
So what did I prove here? Not much other than I can come up with some interesting ways to get out of mowing the lawn. For me personally, I think Im going to use the WWII for the time being. I think it did the best with ripping which is alot of what I use the table saw for. I was kind of surprised at how the P410 did with ripping, so maybe a freshly sharpened blade isnt equivalent to a new blade. The LU84 will probably sit in a corner indefinitely. Now only did not not rate up there with the big boys, I could tell I had to push significantly harder to get it to cut. A good sharpening might do it wonders though.