Table saw blade decision

[bp122]

For my next big project (my Roubo), I am going to be ripping about 30 – 40 meters of southern yellow pine.

At the moment, I have a Freud “best of both worlds” 48 T blade (used for over 18 months as my one blade on all manner of woods), which is very good for cross cuts but not great for ripping.



So I have decided to get a ripping blade.



My current blade spec is 216mm dia, 30mm bore, 2.4mm kerf, 1.8mm blade thickness, and the riving knife supplied is 2.2mm thick.



I have two options, as I see it (please feel free to add more)

Freud Pro 216mm 24T ripping blade, same kerf and thickness, approx. £25 from various outlets (FFX, ebay, etc)


Contacted Doug from cutting solutions, he says the only one he thinks will match is a 200mm dia blade with 4mm kerf and 2.5mm blade thickness. But it does come with a flat tooth grind (FTG) profile (Which I think is a nice to have, I may be wrong). This one costs £50 plus £8 postage.


Also emailed another saw place in Sheffield I think, looked at Saxton, Wealden. Nobody seems to have one that matches my table saw.



The conundrum I have is, do I go for Freud, who haven’t disappointed me with my current blade and are considered a decent quality diy supplier, cost half as much, have a narrower kerf by 40% means less wastage and dust and I don’t need to upgrade my riving knife?



Or do I go with the one from Doug Perry at 200mm (meaning, in theory, slightly slower tip speed and may be resultant lower efficiency in carrying the dust away, especially with higher volume of dust generated by the wider kerf) and upgrade my riving knife to 2.5mm (which I do have a blank for, weirdly)



I think I may have already answered my question there, but I would like to know your thoughts.



I have also considered Axminster version, it is slightly dearer than Freud but has a slightly narrower kerf still (2.2mm) but arguably better suited to my Axminster AC216 table saw!

Are there other options that I'm missing?

 

[Deadeye]

For my next big project (my Roubo), I am going to be ripping about 30 – 40 meters of southern yellow pine.

At the moment, I have a Freud “best of both worlds” 48 T blade (used for over 18 months as my one blade on all manner of woods), which is very good for cross cuts but not great for ripping.



So I have decided to get a ripping blade.



My current blade spec is 216mm dia, 30mm bore, 2.4mm kerf, 1.8mm blade thickness, and the riving knife supplied is 2.2mm thick.



I have two options, as I see it (please feel free to add more)

Freud Pro 216mm 24T ripping blade, same kerf and thickness, approx. £25 from various outlets (FFX, ebay, etc)


Contacted Doug from cutting solutions, he says the only one he thinks will match is a 200mm dia blade with 4mm kerf and 2.5mm blade thickness. But it does come with a flat tooth grind (FTG) profile (Which I think is a nice to have, I may be wrong). This one costs £50 plus £8 postage.


Also emailed another saw place in Sheffield I think, looked at Saxton, Wealden. Nobody seems to have one that matches my table saw.



The conundrum I have is, do I go for Freud, who haven’t disappointed me with my current blade and are considered a decent quality diy supplier, cost half as much, have a narrower kerf by 40% means less wastage and dust and I don’t need to upgrade my riving knife?



Or do I go with the one from Doug Perry at 200mm (meaning, in theory, slightly slower tip speed and may be resultant lower efficiency in carrying the dust away, especially with higher volume of dust generated by the wider kerf) and upgrade my riving knife to 2.5mm (which I do have a blank for, weirdly)



I think I may have already answered my question there, but I would like to know your thoughts.



I have also considered Axminster version, it is slightly dearer than Freud but has a slightly narrower kerf still (2.2mm) but arguably better suited to my Axminster AC216 table saw!

Are there other options that I'm missing?

I'd go Freud. Can't really see a good argument to do anything else!

 

[Spectric]

Have you looked at

https://walkertools.co.uk/product/saw-blades-for-cutting-wood/
20, 24 or 30 teeth and 210mm diameter, with 30mm bore.

 

[bp122]

Have you looked at

https://walkertools.co.uk/product/saw-blades-for-cutting-wood/
20, 24 or 30 teeth and 210mm diameter, with 30mm bore.

Cool. Even cheaper than Freud. Have you used these? If yes, how have they performed?

 

[Spectric]

I have used a couple of these AW blades and they are good, I tend to buy from either AW or Sheffield industrial saws and they seem to all originate from the original Atkinson Walker brand that was made in Sheffield but only SIS still manufacture there. Both these companies are also good for advice and info as they know the products.

 

[6x4]

Doug’s blades are good( I’ve joined that bandwagon elsewhere) and his FTG blade is indeed useful if you want to use it for joinery. I did rip a hell of a lot of SYP for a bench top last year and this combination did the job on a 10” saw with a 3.2 mm kerf.

a couple of thoughts about your specific case though
- given your smaller blade I wonder about the power of the saw itself? Putting a blade with a nearly 4mm kerf on it will be a large increase in load. A thinner kerf could be better.
- a thinner kerf may not give as fine a finish, but I don’t expect to glue straight off the saw anyway, I hand plane
- decreasing the blade size does a couple of things, it slows the tips yes but it also means the tips will be on a more circular path through wood at near max thickness, generating more heat and possibly giving less clearance for sawdust. Put it another way, although I agree with having gullets just above the board in most cases, for heavy work the more the cutting teeth follow a vertical path the less time they’re in the wood, less heat, less burning. I raise the blade to reduce load and sacrifice cut quality if the motor is struggling.

Ss in summary, I think max blade diameter/height, fewest teeth, thin kerf would be a combination to deal with that resinous SYP on a smaller saw. others may disagree of course......

Best of luck.