saw rustMy table saw was beginning to bog down.  It had been 7 months since I bought the new table saw and I was still using the blade that came with it.

I was cleaning out the woodshop and came across a slew of used and new table saw blades wrapped in newspaper dated 2007,  some so rusty that they were going to need a lot of help to get them working.  I just hate to throw things out as my family will no doubt attest to. I probably put them away in that condition after acquiring some from a fellow woodworker.

For many years I have used Dewalt thin kerf blades on my Craftsman contractor saw and in the cache I found a brand new Dewalt blade.  I liked the Dewalt blades – they are cheap and cut pretty well.  But my new table saw is 3HP and came with 1/8″ 40 tooth blade. I was a little concerned that the thin kerf blades in a 3HP machine might be a little flimsy, besides it’s a real pain to have to allow for the thinner kerf on the very accurate measuring scale.

I had thought about sending the current saw out to be sharpened – but that would have left me without a saw and where would I send it now that our local hardware store is no longer in business? So it was time to move up to a premium blade. The  Forrest Woodworker II has ruled the saw blade world for many years, but it’s a chunk of money at $130 a blade.

Several woodworkers, I admire invariably have red freud blades, but there are so many… I wanted one that produced glue-ready edges and was able to crosscut without tear-out.  I contacted Charles Neal a woodworker that I respect and he told me he uses a Freud Premier Fusion blade.  Now, it’s not inexpensive either at around $90, and has been around for about a decade, freud sold a few, and then a woodworking magazines had a favorable review of it and sales started to soared. Freud realized they had a winner and the blade was renamed “Premier Fusion”.

I ordered one and it lives up to the hype.  Crosscutting hard wood gave very smooth surfaces and ripping 3″ cherry was no problem.

So, I have a new thin kerf dewalt blade and a few rusty blades if anyone wants them.