– How you doing? We're working today. We're gonna have a head-to-head battle of table saw blades. $150 table saw blade,
versus a $35 saw blade. So I had a viewer of this channels, he sent me, in the mail, a Forrest 10 inch saw blade 40 tooth. These things retail at about $150. And if you look on Rockler
and other places like that, it's a very expensive saw blade. Most likely I would have
not bought this on my own. I buy Diablo blades. This is about a $35 blade on Amazon, links to the both of these blades will be in the description
if you're interested. I've been using Diablo
blades for a long time and they've worked perfectly fine for me. However, the viewer wanted to know if I could tell the
difference between the two. He is not associated with Forrest, I don't mean personally. Do you really think… comment below right now before
we even get into the video, if you think that the
$150 blade is worth it versus the $35 blade and why you think so, 'cause I wanna know.
So I'm gonna put these blades on the saw, and we're gonna cut a
variety of different woods. We'll cut some softwood like pine, we'll cut a little bit of plywood even though the 40 tooth
is gonna be, I would think, at a disadvantage because
it's made for rip, cross cut or ripping? It says table saw rip and cross cut, so it's made for that type
things for ripping boards. It's not really made for sheet goods, I wouldn't think, we'll see. I have some purple heart, and I have some really hard exotic wood. We'll cut each one and see
if I can tell the difference and then we'll follow up at end. Well, let's see. I gotta put them on first.
Now listen, I know that
the Diablo is a 60 tooth, the Forrest is a 40 tooth, so we're already at a 20
tooth a difference there. It's okay, I think. I mean, $150 blade I'd be able to… We'll just see what the difference is. It may or may not make a difference. She's unplugged. (metal clanking) So she's had seen better days. I mean, it's still not a dull blade. I have a hard time throwing away blades, so I'll hang on to it. I'm already worried I'm
gonna drop that nut down in that dust collection and then have a time to
get the thing out of there. (metal clanking) So she's had seen better days. I mean, it's still not a dull blade. (paper rustling) So this says it's designed for
hardwood, softwoods, plywood melamine, MDF, cross cut, rips.
(paper rustling) Brand new, out of the package. It's only fair way to do it, right? Good gravy, tight fit, snugged her up. (metal clanking) All right, I got that brand
new Diablo blade in there. So I have a piece of Purpleheart,
a standard two by four and then a piece of Chechen. It's Caribbean Rosewood. And the reason I picked these two pieces is 'cause they're really dense-feeling. I know that Purpleheart is extremely hard, I used it on some mallets and then this Chechen, or
this Caribbean Rosewood is extremely heavy. It's about the same heft
as the Purplehearts. Working The Grain Hardwoods, in Benton County Arkansas,
around Bentonville, sent me a variety pack to play with. So I'm gonna cut some strips
out of this, that I can. I'm not gonna waste it, so we'll just do some half inch strips so that I can take these half inch pieces and use them as in lays
or something later. (upbeat music) ♪ Start it up ♪ So straight away, the pine went just like a hot knife through butter. I expected that, it's really softwood, any decent blade's gonna
cut that just fine.
On the Chechen, this Redwood, I felt a little bogging when
I was pushing it through. It cut really clean, no issues there, went through just fine. This Diablo blade done fine. On the Purpleheart, as soon as it started
biting that Purpleheart, I could feel that resistance. I could tell a difference between that and the other two woods immediately. And I don't know if Chechen's
harder than Purpleheart, maybe something I need to
look up and let you guys know. But it still cut it clean, no
burn marks, nothing like that. But I could tell a difference
when it started bogging. Let's put the Forrest blade on and make those three cuts and
see if there's any difference. So this Forrest, it's a
Woodworker 2 model blade. It comes with this
silicone around the teeth, I guess, to keep it from
rusting or something. A protection? I don't know, that's a
question for Forrest. I'm sure they have a
purpose for that silicone but (clicking) it's pretty annoying. So here we go, Forrest
Woodworker 2, big old teeth. My, what big teeth you have.
Well, I do know that the…
It's kind of a silly thing, but the arbor is a lot snugger than… Or the hole, the arbor
hole, is that right? The hole where the bolt goes through to tighten it onto your saw, is a lot less clearance than the Diablo and it fits tighter. I think that's a good thing. So the tolerances are better. If I can put this bolt on, or nut on without dropping it down to
the dust collection today, I will call that an accomplishment 'cause I've been very close so far.
It's just such a tight
fit down there, man. This is like, why? You can't do something? I mean, all the modern tech,
we can put a man on the moon, we can't make enough space
to put a nut on a bolt. Well, we about to see if
there's any difference. So I did not cut a
piece of plywood earlier with that Diablo blade. I should have, I forgot. I've cut it hundreds of
times on many projects that I've on this Channel, so I know what it's like, and I know what the finish looks like when it gets through cutting. So I have a pretty good idea. So that's what we'll do first. I'm gonna cut a piece of plywood with the Forrest blade. (upbeat music) ♪ Start it up ♪ Now out of the box, is a whole lot different
than weeks and months of use.
(safety glasses clattering) I understand that. Out of the box, cutting each type of wood for a 40 tooth blade, there is no splintering or
nothing on that plywood. It cut it smooth. It's a brand new blade, I understand that, but he cut it smooth. Now for this Chechen and Purpleheart, this is the Forrest blade, I got a little burning
on there on this side. The Diablo blade got less burning and it's right there,
you can barely see it or you can see it pretty good right there, just in that one spot. The Purpleheart didn't burn
at all using Diablo blade. You got a little blade burn? That stuff sands off, it's not a big deal. But just to show you
that the Forrest blade actually done that. I don't know if it's the oils
and stuff that was on there, or what the deal was. As far as pushing through, it actually… I don't know if it bound up, or what, but it was a little more
resistance on the pine than the Diablo blade. And then, well, when I
started cutting the hardwoods I did notice a difference.
I don't know if it's
the 60 versus 40 tooth, but the Forrest blade, the Purpleheart went through much smoother. I didn't feel that bog
that I got on the 60 tooth and then on the Chechen,
it bogged a little, very similar to what the Diablo had. And of course, this is all subjective, my thoughts and feelings on how it felt when I pushed it through the blade. Worth $150? (bell chiming) Man, it better last a long
time though, I got to say, 'cause that's a lot of money for a blade.
Most people can spend $150 on
a tool for their whole shop, or for building things. 'Cause if you're looking at
spending $150 on one blade, I know these can be resharpened, but so can the Diablo. Forrest, I think, resharpens their Blades for like $25 bucks. So I just Googled it, Forrest
resharpens a 40 tooth blade for $27 per blade, and then it costs you $12 to ship it. So even at that point, you're
resharpening this blade for what it cost you
to buy a Diablo blade. If it's me, in my suggestion, using this saw for the
type of products I'm using, I'm buying Diablo blades all day long because those Diablo blades
will last a very long time. I use them for months at a time and I don't even have to resharpen. It's $35, I just bought another one and put it on there and we keep rocking. And for $35 versus $150,
I can buy several Diablos. How many Diablos can I buy? I can buy 4.2 Diablo blades for the cost of one Forrest blade.
I'm not saying Forrest blade's
not an excellent blade. Obviously it is, they've
got a huge following, but for a beginner woodworker, man, you don't need that Forrest. That Diablo blade's just perfectly fine. That's my findings,
that's my thoughts on it. You tell me if I'm wrong,
drop a comment below, let me know why I'm wrong
about that Forrest blade, or why I'm right about that Diablo blade.
So what I'll do, is I'll
leave that Forrest blade on my saw and use it
for the next month or so and see how it does in the longterm. I think that would be the
only fair way to gauge it. But for this video, new versus new, I think the Diablo winds all day. Cost is the main thing. Now, as far as cut,
they cut similar to me. There's not enough difference
there, in my opinion, to say, "Hey, buy that $150 blade." I'd much rather you buy that $35 blade and get much more use out of it and save that money to put
towards something else. Thank you for watching,
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I appreciate you watching. (Matt clicking).