Original BT3100 Blade

[rcp612]

My original blade, red but Chinese, needs sharpening. Is this blade worth the expense or should I just replace it and forget it? It did do very well while new but, seemed to not last as long as I thought.

[LCHIEN]

Red? never saw/heard of an original Ryobi blade that was red.

[rcp612]

Red? never saw/heard of an original Ryobi blade that was red.

It sure is!!!!! And the box was un-opened when I bought it.

[LCHIEN]

All the ones I saw, and pictures I saw, were all silver.

I guess that makes yours a Red Chinese blade.

All kidding aside,
a blade that was good, when sharpened right should give you just as good performance as it did when new, provided there's enough carbide to sharpen.
The questions unanswered here are
(1) how good was the chinese-made original - never saw or heard of a side-by-side comparison to the original Italian Freud-made ryobi blades which were pretty good - altho you were satisfied, maybe a better cut is available, also maybe the carbide was not as hard, resulting in quicker dulling.
(2) how good will the sharpening you get be - sharpening services are usually mom-and-pop operations, the quality seems to vary widely. You could always send it to a nationally high-reputation service like Forrest.

With those unresolved issues, added to the $20+ cost of resharpening, it might just be better to spend the extra bucks and pick up a really good combo blade as discussed quite often in discussions here (search for combinations of the words (blade, freud, ridge 2000, WWII, Forrest).

It sort of depends on how good a cut do you want or need versus how much you want to spend. Are you just building patio furniture or are you building fine furnishings/ art boxes, quality toys and puzzles etc.

[Knottscott]

Assuming a good sharpening would yield similar results as when new, I think I'd put the money towards an upgrade that will stay sharp longer.

The Freud LU86 is on sale for $28 shipped...darn nice blade for that price:
LU86R010
http://www.epinions.com/LU86

Holbren's got the Tenryu RS25540 40T "Rapid Cut" on sale for ~ $27 shipped with BT310 discount code.
RS25540

Or if you're more concerned about speed and can accept "ok" cut quality, a decent 24T ripper might do ya. This German made Leitz/Irwin ripper is an incredible value @ $10 and a terrific ripper (one for ~ $18 shipped, ~ two for $28 shipped)
Leitz deal

[vaking]

I don't want to start a debate, my opinion differs from most:
a universal blade is defined as a compromize between a rip blade and a crosscut blade. Since I got 12"CMS most of my crosscuts are done on a CMS with 12" 100T blade. That means I no longer need to compromize. Most of the time my BT has a good rip blade on it (I have one 24T and one 32T). Such blade will give you excellent quality rip cut and a passable quality any other cut if you need a quickie. When I am cutting expensive plywood (the only real crosscutting I do on a table saw) I use special blade for plywood (80T freud) - this is no time for compromizing.
Chinese blade vs Italian blade - I don't think it matters now. All blades are now made with high degree of automation which means manufacturer's location is no longer important. I have high respect for Garrett Wade catalog and they are now selling blades from China.