Forrest ChopMaster VS. Festool 80T Kapex blade

[Hnnguyen85]

Hi guys and gals,
I'm planning to pick up a Kapex some time this week and started thinking about blades for it. I understand the blade that comes stock with the Kapex is a great blade and will likely use it for a while before replacing.

I currently have the Forrest ChopMaster 80T blade on my Dewalt saw and it's an amazing blade. I see that Festool also offers a 80T blade for the Kapex. My question is, does anyone here have experience with the festool blade or both and can compare their performance?

Thanks

 

[ear3]

Not to throw a wrench into the works, but you might also want to take a look at the tenyru mitre pro blade.

 

[Cheese]

FWIW...I had a Forrest Chopmaster, Signature series on a Milwaukee slider, a real nice combo. When I purchased the Kapex with the standard 60 tooth blade, I never really noticed a difference in quality of cut, so I'm still running the standard Kapex blade 2 years later.

 

[josephgewing]

I have both the Forest Choirmaster and the Festool 80t blades and they seem to cut about the same.

Joe

 

[peter halle]

Here is a link to a review that was done some time ago:  http://www.talkfestool.com/vb/festool-reviews/2836-kapex-saw-blade-review.html  that you might find informative.

Peter

 

[Knight Woodworks]

I get much better results with the Forrest blade on my Kapex.

John

 

[Brandon]

Had my Kapex a few years now and it gets consistent daily use. On any given day at my 2 man shop we will cut maple, cherry, walnut and pre finished maple ply, mdf, a full assortment. Anyway, tried all the blades and the Festool 60t might be the best all around for me and how I use it in my shop. Problem is, the cost.
I loved the Tenryu at first, cuts just about anything like butter,  but performance dropped sooner than I would have hoped. I'm curious to see how it performs after a sharpening.
Forrest blade is solid for sure, I've kinda babied so I can say much for the longevity of its initial sharpening.
The 60t Oshlun blades and an amazing value, cut really well for a very fair amount of time, especially for the price. I've never had one sharpened as I consider them disposable. Nice knowing that you can hit a staple or nail and not ruin a $125+ blade. After they don't cut wood as well as I'd like I use them to cut aluminum, they do great
Having said all that, I think the best overall value is Festool's 2 blade package of the 60t and 80t for $205. 60t great all around and the 80t is amazing on prefin ply and silky on most hardwoods minus maybe hard maple where you may get a little burning as a result of to many teeth.I've bought a few over the years, I'm pretty lazy about sharpening them so I always have a stack laying around.

 

[Jesse Cloud]

I have both.  Both are good, but I find the Forrest tends to burn the workpiece more easily.

My strategy now is that I use whatever is in there until it dulls, swap out the other, repeat as needed....

Not much help to you, I guess. [embarassed]

 

[Kev]

[member=58344]Hnnguyen85[/member] what are you going to be cutting regularly and are you the sort of person that'll go to the effort of blade swapping for an appropriate task?

 

[Hnnguyen85]

Great info guys and thank you.

[member=13058]Kev[/member] I cut just about anything from softwood to hardwoods on my miter saw. I have the Forrest chopmaster blade on it and never change it out but I do change out blades on my table saw for different types of wood and cuts. I use a 30T Forrest rip blade for ripping thick hard woods, 40T Forrest WWII blade that I use most of the time and a Forrest 80T blade for cutting ply and melamine.

 

[ear3]

That's actually a good suggestion to get the 60/80 pack.  That way I'll have a spare 60 when the other one needs to go in for sharpening.

I forgot to add this note on the Tenyru, but [member=7770]Brandon[/member] comment about dulling of the blade reminded me of it -- I toasted my Tenyru blade last summer after a major, heart-stopping kickback incident.  Visual inspection didn't reveal any warping of the blade, but the cut quality went from perfect to horrible after the incident, so I figured there was some major damage.  I called around to a couple of sharpening places explaining what happened, and asking whether they might be able to fix the blade.  One of them was willing so I sent it in.  After I got it back and tested it, I found that the cut quality on the left side was still as good as it had been out of the box, but on the right side the cut surface was really ragged.  I'm not sure if the sharpening service I used did the best the could, or didn't do quite enough (the other blades I sent in with that order, which were simply dull, came back extremely well sharpened).  So I'm considering sending the Tenyru blade into another place to see if it can be rehabbed.

The incident was obviously not the fault of the blade, and up until then it had given me the smoothest cut of any miter saw blade I have ever used -- and perhaps any blade I had on the saw would have been damaged -- but I thought I'd mention it since it is part of my user experience, and the reason why I am back to using the stock 60T blade for most applications.

Had my Kapex a few years now and it gets consistent daily use. On any given day at my 2 man shop we will cut maple, cherry, walnut and pre finished maple ply, mdf, a full assortment. Anyway, tried all the blades and the Festool 60t might be the best all around for me and how I use it in my shop. Problem is, the cost.
I loved the Tenryu at first, cuts just about anything like butter,  but performance dropped sooner than I would have hoped. I'm curious to see how it performs after a sharpening.
Forrest blade is solid for sure, I've kinda babied so I can say much for the longevity of its initial sharpening.
The 60t Oshlun blades and an amazing value, cut really well for a very fair amount of time, especially for the price. I've never had one sharpened as I consider them disposable. Nice knowing that you can hit a staple or nail and not ruin a $125+ blade. After they don't cut wood as well as I'd like I use them to cut aluminum, they do great
Having said all that, I think the best overall value is Festool's 2 blade package of the 60t and 80t for $205. 60t great all around and the 80t is amazing on prefin ply and silky on most hardwoods minus maybe hard maple where you may get a little burning as a result of to many teeth.I've bought a few over the years, I'm pretty lazy about sharpening them so I always have a stack laying around.

 

[Hnnguyen85]

From all the comments, it sounds like the stock blade is a very good blade. I'll have to look into the combo pack of 60T and 80T blade and order a set. I plan to keep the stock blade on the kapex and use the 80T for when I'm cutting ply or melamine.

On another note, I just placed my order for the Kapex from the toolnut about half hr ago. Very excited to receive it and start playing with it.

 

[Kev]

Great info guys and thank you.

[member=13058]Kev[/member] I cut just about anything from softwood to hardwoods on my miter saw. I have the Forrest chopmaster blade on it and never change it out but I do change out blades on my table saw for different types of wood and cuts. I use a 30T Forrest rip blade for ripping thick hard woods, 40T Forrest WWII blade that I use most of the time and a Forrest 80T blade for cutting ply and melamine.

[member=58344]Hnnguyen85[/member] as a Jack of all requirement then I can only fault the standard blade that comes with the KAPEX on it's replacement cost!

A blade I'm about to purchase to add to my KAPEX blade mix is the FLAI Mustang. I've got one in a Hitachi 71/4 and I reckon I could cut through a car with it!
http://www.promac.com.au/products/saw-blades/370/1-mustang-multi-material-saw-blades-/

(This is an Oz site in $AU)

 

[luke duke]

Great info guys and thank you.

[member=13058]Kev[/member] I cut just about anything from softwood to hardwoods on my miter saw. I have the Forrest chopmaster blade on it and never change it out but I do change out blades on my table saw for different types of wood and cuts. I use a 30T Forrest rip blade for ripping thick hard woods, 40T Forrest WWII blade that I use most of the time and a Forrest 80T blade for cutting ply and melamine.

I have the same Forrest blades and use them for the same purposes.

 

[justinh]

Had my Kapex a few years now and it gets consistent daily use. On any given day at my 2 man shop we will cut maple, cherry, walnut and pre finished maple ply, mdf, a full assortment. Anyway, tried all the blades and the Festool 60t might be the best all around for me and how I use it in my shop. Problem is, the cost.
I loved the Tenryu at first, cuts just about anything like butter,  but performance dropped sooner than I would have hoped. I'm curious to see how it performs after a sharpening.
Forrest blade is solid for sure, I've kinda babied so I can say much for the longevity of its initial sharpening.
The 60t Oshlun blades and an amazing value, cut really well for a very fair amount of time, especially for the price. I've never had one sharpened as I consider them disposable. Nice knowing that you can hit a staple or nail and not ruin a $125+ blade. After they don't cut wood as well as I'd like I use them to cut aluminum, they do great
Having said all that, I think the best overall value is Festool's 2 blade package of the 60t and 80t for $205. 60t great all around and the 80t is amazing on prefin ply and silky on most hardwoods minus maybe hard maple where you may get a little burning as a result of to many teeth.I've bought a few over the years, I'm pretty lazy about sharpening them so I always have a stack laying around.

Tenyru uses an ATAFR grind on their miter saw blades.  Your results are typical of that grind.  It will cut easily and cleanly because the teeth are all ground with sheer angles.  It is designed for cutting very brittle materials. You noted the only benefit of the grind in wood, it cuts easily.  The sharp points created by the sheer angles reduce the cutting pressure required which can be a  benefit in underpowered saws.  The problem is that the grind runs really hot and dulls very fast when compared to more conservative ATB geometry.

The burning Jesse noted in the Forrest is also a common problem with the 30* H-ATB top grind they use to achieve the mill glazed finish on their cuts.  The grind is designed to cut melamine and other brittle and chip prone materials where chipping and not edge life is the primary concern.  It runs hot and as such dulls quickly.

 

[CNX]

My Tenryu is a 72-teeth general-purpose blade, not even the 80-teeth for finish, but cut noticeably smoother and cleaner than the Festool blade.

 

[Cheese]

I've always been a fan of Forrest blades. They're a standard on the table saw and I've always used them on my Milwaukee chop/miter/slider saws.  I currently own 9 Forrest blades so I do have a vested interest.

I'll be making quite a few cuts in some birds eye maple, so yesterday I checked the standard Festool 60 tooth blade on the Kapex and decided it needed a good cleaning. It's been a good year since the last cleaning.

The first thing that literally jumped out on me was the highly polished surface on the carbide inserts. Each tooth surface was like a miniature mirror. I've never seen that on any other blade I've had.

Forrest Chopmaster

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Forrest Chopmaster Signature Line

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Kapex 495388

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What's not possible to see in the Kapex photo is the incredibly highly polished surface finish of the carbide inserts. The Forrest Signature blade has polished inserts but the Kapex is 2-3 times smoother. 

It reminds me of when you put the final sharpening touch on that chisel and when you pull it away from the leather strop it has that reflecting brilliance.