What’s a decent blade for ripping accurately? I’m using an old Craftsman 113 belt-driven saw, which I understand isn’t very powerful. I’d like to get nice rips on some 3/4” thick oak. If I can rip thicker stock in the future, that would be great, but as long as I can at least rip thicker softwoods too I think I’ll be satisfied.
I don’t expect to do enough woodworking to worry about a blade made to last through many re-sharpenings; I just want nice rips. Is a $20-30 Diablo from a big box store going to do what I want, or do I really need to step up to the $70-80 range for cut quality? Thanks!
I ended up choosing a CMT 24T ITK (thin kerf) blade, which worked fantastically.
Just be aware that there is a tradeoff with thin kerf blades.
The upsides are, if you’re doing a lot of thin rips, you don’t waste as much stock, and since you’re cutting less wood, it’s easier on the saw; the operation requires less horsepower. The downside is, the saw plate isn’t as rigid so it’s easier for it to deflect in the cut. Tablesaw blades aren’t too bad for this because they’re what? 3/32" instead of 1/8"? But still you want to be that extra bit more vigilant to keep the stock against the fence. I still find that it probably takes another pass or two on the jointer to really true up the edge.
The tiny little blades they’re making for circular saws and those small miter saws are another story; they’re not much thicker than a handsaw plate and they’re gonna do what they’re gonna do.