I've settled on a set of three blades for my BT3000. I use a Freud F40 40T regular kerf combination blade for general work. This was the same blade that was OEM from Ryobi when the saw was new. I have a Freud 24T thin kerf glue rip blade and a Freud 80T thin kerf fine crosscut blade for furniture type projects. I also have a Freud 8" Super Dado stack set. The BT3000 swings all of these with ease. To show you how long I've had these blades, the two thin kerf blades were $35 each. The only other blade I might want is one with a flat top grind for milling coves, but not bad enough to spend the money yet. I used to use a local saw sharpening service, but they closed their local shop and only have their operation in the nearby state. I now take my saw blades to a local tool store and they send them out to the same place.
Note that the BT3000 spins the arbor at 4,800 rpm while most 10" table saws spin the arbor at 3,450 rpm, so a quality blade might be worth a few extra $$$.

 

It's occurred to me now the (aftermarket) riving knife I installed won't allow for a thin kerf blade: it's too fat.

 

I use three basic table saw blades:
24 tooth for ripping
40 or 50 tooth general purpose/combination for 90% of my cuts
60 tooth for cross cutting or 80 tooth for thin veneers.

 

I also use a 24 tpi Amana full kerf blase for ripping 5/4 and thicker. I use a Freud `regular kerf blade that saws clean as a jointed edge. This blade is used for 3/4 and thinner. I use 50 tpi for general work. I use a scoring blade for veneers followed by the 50 tpi .

 

Yes, the aftermarket riving knife is likely 1/8" thick and most thin kerf blades mike at 3/32 or less. I made a riving knife from a BT3000 blade guard by stripping it out of a second blade guard from another BT3000 saw. Actually, I am a bad user as I rarely use the factory blade guard. I did remove the anti-kickback pawls from the original guard because they were marking the workpieces.

 

For the longest time I used a table saw where the blade just stuck out of the table.... nothing else.

I still think it was somewhat "safe"; it lacked soft start or anything else. When that thing was on, your attention was nowhere else. Also a ryobi incidentally (but not the BT3000).

Regardless, unless I change the riving knife, I think I'm stuck with the standard blade. Besides that, is there any reason not to use a thin-kerf blade?

 

three blades for wood, one for PVC/ABS, one for aluminum

 

I only use a riving knife when ripping really long stock. Other times it's not installed. I prefer thin kerf blades for a lot of reasons. Less load on the saw, less dust produced and less waste, blades are less expensive.

 

I'm going to offer some "brotherly" advice.
When at all possible replace the riving knife!
Here's why riving knives and splitters are used when ripping, there's two reasons:
One, if the wood binds on the rear of the blade because it closed up, it will either stall the blade or worse, kick back!
Two, the thin riving blade keeps the work against the fence pretty well through the cut.
If the work comes away from the fence during the cut it will ride up on top of the rotating blade and be carried back to you, the operator.
That's a "kickback" and they are preventable!
Splitters came on the older saws and did NOT rise and fall with the blade elevation, unlike newer riiving knives.
For certain operations, like bevels and partial through cuts, splitters were removed.
Here's my saws with the splitters in place:

I had removed them when I first got the saws because they were "in the way", but I soon realized they actually prevented kickbacks.

 

If I were cutting a lot of plywood I would get an 80 tooth blade for that. I don't so I only use a 40 tooth blade. I recently bought a new Hercules blade at Harbor Freight for about 25 bucks. It cuts as well as any blade I've ever used. It cuts both solid wood and plywood well. It's a full kerf blade. I won't make the mistake of buying another thin kerf blade again. I picked up a blade once and wasn't paying attention so I had to suffer with thin kerf. Cutting solid stock the blade tended to bend and follow the soft grain of the wood.

 

Steve, if I recall you have a cabinet saw with a 3 HP motor? There's no reason for you to run a thin kerf blade unless you're ripping valuable exotic wood.
The reason thin kerf blades were marketed was for "home shop" table saws, typically with 1 HP or 1.5 HP motors which struggled to power through hardwoods at anything over 2" thick. They caught on real well and became a "home shop" commodity in all the tooth variations from 24, 30, 40, 50, 60 and 80.
They were never meant for full time commercial applications, especially ripping thicker hardwoods.
I use them 99.5% of the time, but I have full kerfs when I need one.
Circular saws run an even "thinner kerf blade" sometimes only 1/16" thick.
The smaller 5" diameter blade saws, often battery powered, do great with these thinner blades because they have less power.

 

I'm also in the market for a new blade, and the one that caught my eye is this Klingspor:

Klingspor's Rip & Crosscut Combination Blade, 10"x 50 Teeth

Value-priced, industrial-quality circular saw blades for cabinet shops, woodworkers and hobbyists. Manufactured in Germany, these blades are laser cut from virgin steel, flattened, ground, tensioned and tipped with large, European-style carbide tips.

www.woodworkingshop.com

IMHO a blade shouldn’t be called a rip blade AND a crosscut blade. And 50 teeth is twice the number a 10” rip blade should have.

 

So maybe something like this?

Klingspor's General Purpose Blade, 10"x 40 Teeth

Klingspor's Woodworking Shop is full line distributor of woodworking tools and supplies from respected companies like Klingspor Abrasives.

www.woodworkingshop.com

It's like they're speaking to me:

In some cases, a customer doesn't want to change blades from ripping to crosscutting to rough cutting in a variety of materials. A good general purpose blade usually fits the bill, as it works pretty well on different materials and applications.

 

Yes, for most woodworking operations a 40 tooth blade is the ticket. I used the same one for 3 years, until a buddy said "Try a 50 tooth."
I'm now using that one for most all my cuts. I couldn't really tell any difference and the 40 tooth didn't seem to be dull. It's hangin' on a nail close by!
Edit: I have the 60 tooth blade in the radial arm saw and a 24 tooth in the left end table saw, but I can't remember the last time I needed to use it.
I do NOT like changing out a table saw blade! More times than I want, the nut ends up down in the dust, on its's way to the dust collector.

 

You do you. The different tooth counts and grinds are offered for a reason. I started out with the 40T combination full kerf blade that came with my saw. After reading blade reviews in many different magazines, I decided to spend $35 on an 80T crosscut blade and was extremely impressed with the improvement. The 24T glue line rip blade followed and I no longer needed my jointer. The time spent changing blades is not an issue as I'm not doing production work, my time is irrelevant, and it gives me time to think about what I am going to do next. Same story with my CMS. It came with a 40T blade that soon became dull. I replaced it with a 60T, negative hook blade and the difference was amazing. My small shop (12x22) almost always requires tear down and setup for the next operation anyway. As my Grandmother used to say: "The hurrier you go, the behinder you get".

 

Wait so the 24T glue line rip blade allowed you to skip the jointer? Is that why it's called that "glue line rip"? And what makes it able to do so? I was under the impression this wasn't possible: you always needed to follow up with a jointer, or use a flush trim bit on a router or something.

What does a negative hook blade do? What was that difference?

I'm genuinely not knowledgeable on this; despite the snark in my initial post, I am fishing for information and ideas. Also wondering if the really premium blades are worth it.

 

Wait so the 24T glue line rip blade allowed you to skip the jointer? Is that why it's called that "glue line rip"? And what makes it able to do so? I was under the impression this wasn't possible: you always needed to follow up with a jointer, or use a flush trim bit on a router or something.

Any sharp, clean cutting blade in your table saw when used with a straight line rip jig will make a cut good enough to glue up:
See post no. 4 here:

Straight Line Rip Jig

I've recently aquired several BF of white oak, that has been face planed, but not straight lined. I found this link for a simple jig, http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/reviews/4283497 Just wondering if anyone has any advice on a better one, or if anyone has used something similar and had...

www.woodworkingtalk.com

Most 6" jointers can straighten a edge on a 4 ft board OK, but longer than that, not so much without supports.
Most woodworker nubies think a jointer is a "one and done" machine, NOPE!
It requires sighting the edge to tell where to remove the wood that forms the curve, typically on either end.
Then joint in from either end, sighting as you go, until the edge looks straight.
Then it's ready for a final full length pass over the cutter.
The straight line rip jig eliminates all that fussin' and gives a straight edge in a single pass, "one and done".
Here's a stack of 1" hardwood I straight lined in about 10 minutes:

 

I use this on a lot of my work and don’t change to other blades much..

Amana Tool RB1020 Carbide Tipped Euro Rip With Cooling Slots 10 Inch D x 20T FT, 18 Deg, 5/8 Bore, Circular Saw Blade

Get a fast and smooth cut with Amana Tool's RB1020 Carbide Tipped Euro Rip blade. Designed for hardwood and softwood, with cooling slots for safer use.

www.google.com

 

Glue line rip blade.

Amana Tool 610301 Carbide Tipped Glue Line Ripping 10 inch D x 30T TCG, 22 Deg, 5/8 Bore, Circular Saw Blade

Get an extra smooth cut finish with Amana Tool's 610301 Carbide Tipped Glue Line Ripping blade. No sanding or jointing needed. Perfect for table saws.

www.google.com

 

Many sites offer information for blades and their purpose.

Saw Blades - Industrial Carbide Tipped Blades from Amana Tool - Products

Industrial Quality Router Bits, CNC Router Bits, Saw Blades, Shaper Cutters, Boring Bits & Planer and Jointer Knives by Amana Tool

www.google.com

You need to decide for yourself how much woodworking you will do. Light, medium, heavy. This will determine saw blade worth too you..

 

What blade you use also depends on the material you are cutting. how thick it is, what it's made out of and is there a "veneer" on top surface other than the internal material, like Melamine.
There ARE probably "20 different types" of blades if you include the above variations.
Go to a large manufacturer's site and check them out! CMT, Ridge Carbide, Infinity, Freud, etc.
If you are just making furniture from Walnut or Cherry for instance, then the blade you use will be determined by the thickness, the grain direction and the surface finish you need.
Most table saws do not come equipped with the best blade a home shop should be using.
The first thing that needs to be done is replace the factory blade with a medium price "good bang for the buck" 40 tooth saw blade, like a Ridge Carbide or CMT.

I've heard even the Saw Stop factory blade was not the best quality, but I don't recall the source of that:

I've had good luck with the thin kerf Diablos blades on my table saws and radial arm saws.
I am an "occasional user" and not running hardwood full time, or even close.
For very thick stock I use the bandsaw, not the table saw.
For veneer plywood, I will change out the blade to a 60 tooth or even an 80 tooth on the table saw.
The latest table saw I bought came with this blade installed. It's a 12" with 48 teeth, apparently very rare:

 

I've been buying from Klingspor's for several years now. I haven't tried their circular saw blades, but they seem to stick to selling good products, and my impression is that they're very careful about what they put their name on.
Carbide blades can be sharpened. Two decades ago, it was cheap enough to be worth sharpening even lower priced blades like the better Freud ones at least once. Now? I haven't looked for that specific service, but labor costs have skyrocketed on tool repairs in general. A Forrest Woodworker, at close to $200, is probably well worth sharpening, and they're reputed to withstand at least two sharpenings. Same for the top-line Amana blades.
How often you need to sharpen depends a lot on what you're cutting. Wally Kunkel, in his Master the Radial Arm Saw book, said he'd been using the same Woodworker II for all his cutting for a couple of decades without ever taking it off the saw, but I'll bet he didn't cut a lot of MDF or South American hardwoods with high silica content, like Ipe with it. Anything with glue in it, even plywood, will wear a blade faster than cutting most hardwoods and softwoods used in cabinetry.

 

I've been buying from Klingspor's for several years now. I haven't tried their circular saw blades, but they seem to stick to selling good products, and my impression is that they're very careful about what they put their name on.

This has been my experience with Klingspor as a whole as well. I feel quite confident ordering anything from their catalog that it won't be .

 

What and how much you cut of anything will determine how often you will sharpen. In all honesty from what I’ve seen on some forums is many don’t know who to send the blades to to be sharpened so they go with cheaper blades and just put aside..

 

Klingspor making their own saw blades?

 

I doubt it, but whoever they've found to do that seems to know what they're doing. They started out making good industrial-quality abrasives, and I think that's still their primary focus, but they've also opened a small chain of woodworker's shops, all in North Carolina, which used to the heart of the USA's furniture industry before Ashley and the other big furniture chains moved all the manufacturing to China. I've ordered a lot of sanding abrasives and a few tools over the years from them and been quite satisfied.

 

I seriously doubt Kingspor has tooled up to make their own blades.
It takes a lot of technology and sophisticated sharpening machinery to make a good saw blade.
Heat treating, tempering and steel stamping are all expensive.
I think they most likely teamed up with a blade manufacturing company and put their name on the plate.
I could be wrong, but a phone call would give the answer....

 

Them offering sawblades is a new thing. They’re known for Abrasives..

That being said Klingspor like any other company has to be open minded about more options from their company..

I need to check in with VSM/Vitex and see what they are selling now..

 

I'm also in the market for a new blade, and the one that caught my eye is this Klingspor:

Klingspor's Rip & Crosscut Combination Blade, 10"x 50 Teeth

Value-priced, industrial-quality circular saw blades for cabinet shops, woodworkers and hobbyists. Manufactured in Germany, these blades are laser cut from virgin steel, flattened, ground, tensioned and tipped with large, European-style carbide tips.

www.woodworkingshop.com

1-800-228-0000 - CS
According to their customer service rep, they are made in Germany (it says right in the title) with German quality steel and carbide, so I would expect some pretty high quality. They were not permitted to divulge the manufacturer. Their sand paper is also made in Germany and shipped here in bulk, then broken down here into user size pieces. Klingspor is a German company according to the CS rep.

 

I wonder if it might be Leitz << >>

 

I am spoiled. Over the years I have collected several Forrest blades at auction, had them resharpened. They are my go to blade. Woodworker II 40 tooth and a thin kerf 60 tooth. Toss the 30 or so carbide Craftsman saw blades from all over. 30 tooth to 100 tooth. Those are for other projects or suspect wood.

 

You will have an assortment between table saw and miter saw..

 

That's the blade I was going to look for in my collection! It came with a new saw I bought so long ago I can't remember which one. LOL.
There's about 4 or 5 German blade manufacturers I found, but who know one which has the Woodriver account?

 

Here's a guy who tried expensive table saw blades, but came up with one that's cheaper and better. No Way!

 

Most of what he says makes perfect sense. Whether it works in practice is another question, but it's an easy thing to check, and cheap, too. In fact, for me its free. I have a fair assortment of decent quality 7-1/4" blades that I use when I want a nice cut with my hand saws, plus a couple of good 8" blades for my old DeWalt MB, and it's no trouble to swap one one of those in and try it.
The only downside I can see, other than the lesser maximum depth of cut, is something he mentioned as a safety factor, the lower rim speed of the smaller blade. I'm a bit skeptical about the safety anyway; I doubt I'd notice the difference between being hit with a kickback at 180 mph and one at 200+. For that matter, I doubt the rim speed translates exactly to kickback speed, and I work very hard not to be in the way of one anyway. If I was going to use the smaller blades exclusively, it would be an easy and cheap modification on my saw to swap the drive pulley for a slightly larger one to get the rim speed up to where it belongs.