Surprising blade feed rates

[cgallery]

I've been kinda stunned at the difference in feed rates on various blades lately. I purchased two of the DeWalt General Purpose (40t) blades at Amazon a month or so ago (on special, $14 each). I also recently had some blades returned from sharpening (Forrest WWII and original Ryobi blade, both sent to Forrest for sharpening). Finally, I recently purchased (on sale) a Freud General Purpose Industrial blade (40t). Finally finally, I got some of the Irwin rippers on woodnet.net (24t variable pitch, Leitz of Germany made, $10 a whack--bought three of them because I didn't know how I could go wrong).

The Forrest and DeWalt blades allow me to push a 2x4 into the blade (cutting the thinner dimension) about as fast as I'd feel comfortable feeding any saw, and it barely affects the motor speed. The sharpened Ryobi blade isn't bad, either.

The new Freud blade is noticeably slower.

What really surprises me is that the Irwin/Leitz blades are slower, too. You'd think the dedicated rip blade would be faster.

So I'm left scratching my head a little bit. I suppose it could be better initial sharpening. Or it could be that ATB cuts faster than a flat-top grind.

Or it could be some weird power curve. Perhaps the BT3K's motor isn't beefy enough to "take it to the next level." Perhaps if I had a 3HP cabinet saw I'd find the rippers to cut faster when really pushed.

Don't really know. Just thought it was interesting. If you really want to maximize the BT3K's motor, though, the DeWalt blades are awesome.

BTW, does anyone know if DeWalt makes their own blades?

[Knottscott]

Playing with high speed sharp spinning objects are we? ...a man after me own heart!

The 24T TK should give faster feedrates, but I've seen blades defy logic before...have you tried a different Leitz ripper? Maybe the first one isn't as sharp as it should be. Kerf width can make a difference too....typical thin kerfs range from ~ 0.091 to ~ 0.104. Any additional runout from one blade to the next would effectively make the kerf wider too....another variable worth checking into. Also, the FTG teeth tend to be more efficient at removing material than the ATB, though not quite as clean cutting.

I have no idea how the gearing and power of the BT might influence feedrate. You might notice the difference more in 2" material.

Have fun!