Are Forrest Saw Blades any good?
Well,
are they? I have been in the construction business for almost 7 years
now, and I have never heard of them until just recently. I also doubt
that any of my co-workers have heard of them; if they had, they
probably would be using their blades instead of the Diablo. So why is
it that I have never heard of them? Probably like most construction
workers, we use what we can readily find, and what we know works. This
is one of the reasons, I am thinking of buying a 7 1/4" saw, and
shelving my 6". It has become just too hard to find good 6" blades
anymore.
I saw on another website, that the author recommended Forrest Woodworker II blades for his table saw. I had seen the same thing on his website over and over again, without even giving it a second thought. The other day I happened to see it again, and decided to see what this blade was all about. I did a Google search for Forrest Blades and found their website. One thing that really caught my attention, was the fact that they re-sharpen their own blades. I always doubted the fact that the local blade sharpener could match every single tooth on every saw blade to the original specs. Having the manufacture re-sharpen their own blades solves this problem.
I decided to see if Amazon carried their blades. They are one of the few online stores that have a huge stock on tools, and most of the time, the lowest price. If I cant find a tool locally, I go to Amazon next. Sure enough they have it in stock. I was then shocked to see the amount of 5 star reviews the Woodworker II has. At the time of this blog entry the 10" 40 tooth WWII has 111 out of 127 reviews being 5 stars. Sure it costs a little more then your average blade, but when you need straight cuts, and the blade is said to last 3x longer, it seems worth it.
They have a wide verity of sizes of blades to fit almost every saw
imaginable, so be sure to check them out on their website, or check
their selection on Amazon.
One thing I forgot to mention. The new Festool Kapex KS 120 uses a 30mm arbor, and most saw blades are 5/8". What I got from reading Forrest's website, is that for $9 they will make the saw blade with a larger arbor size. Or if you already own a blade, they can enlarge it for $11. You do not have to be stuck with the stock Festool blades.