User Reviews - Beautiful Cuts

Mike Goodpasture at Fabrication Specialties in Centerville, TN

Mike Goodpasture at Fabrication Specialties in Centerville, TN was looking for longer life out of his saw blades.  He is now getting at least twice the life he was before he started using saws from Murphy Saw Shop in Redmond, OR.   He is using asymmetrical saw blades to control vibration.  Long life is achieved by using Cermet 2 tips from Carbide Processors, Inc, in Tacoma, WA.  The specially cut saw plate is supplied by Peerless Saw Co. in Groveport Ohio (800 973-3753).   The saw blades are built at Murphy Saw in Redmond, Oregon (541-548-2515) by Monte Murphy and Steve McCall.

Nathan Hull, Grinderman at Marvin Wood Products / Marvin Windows

On the saw that we tried.  How many times we resharpen a blade before we order new or have retipped we are not sure. Most blades get damaged by hitting something so we have the carbides retipped a lot.  How often do regular blades have to be resharpened? We normally have our carbide tipped blades sharpened every week.  The new Cement II blade normally last twice as long before it gets damaged.  The best so far is four weeks and one and a half million cuts before we changed it out which is four times longer.  Hope this helps and keep up the good work on those tips.

Darrell Wong at Forintek

Darrell Wong called from Forintek to tell us that the saw mill tests on two of our Cermet II grade were going very well.   These were mill tests in Northern British Columbia on beetle killed (hard) Lodgepole pine.   “The Cermet II® A & B grades that you sent me were cutting mountain pine beetle (MPB) killed lodge pole pine.  Lodgepole pine is a softwood indigenous to the pacific north west, Alberta and other areas.  MPB-killed wood tends to be dried at half or less of the moisture content of green wood”.   As of February 14th both our grades of Cermet II had run twice as long as standard grades and were still doing very well.   These grades have run 5 to 10 times as long as standard carbide for our customers.   However this is the first fully scientific test done by a world renowned research institute.

Jeff Galloway, Lead saw filer at Alder Creek Lumber in Portland Oregon

Jeff Galloway at Alder Creek Lumber says that he loves our "Tuff Tip" / Comet "M" tip.  He ran the tips on his saws that accidentally sawed 12 penny nails and when he took the saws off there wasn't even one tip missing or broken.  He is the guy who originally called and said he's cutting the 12 penny nail.   He said he loves our tips, they last so much longer than any he has used and he just wishes he could order more, but they last so long he doesn't need to order as often...so he says he'll send us as much business as he can.  He also says that I should let "all your people there" know that we're doing a great job and he's a big fan of our pretinning too!

Barry Stubbs, Home User, Huntsville, TX 
I have been using both blades on comparable cuts.  To be honest with you, the ceramic tips cut as well or better than the C4 carbide tips.  Both types of blades tips on the Forrest WoodWorker II cut very well.  If you want me to compliment your product, here goes:

I put the ceramic tip blade on first and did several rips and crosscuts.  The cuts were glue ready.  There was no need to sand or prepare the surfaces at all.  You couldn't sand finish a cut to be any smoother than the cuts made by the ceramic tip blade.  It's pretty sad when you want to keep making cuts just to show friends how pretty the blade cuts.  I look forward to using it in the future.

I don't know how you guys did it, but I figured your product would be hard to prove against the technology of the Forrest WoodWorker II blade.  The ceramic tips you put on gave such precise cuts.  I appreciate having been given the opportunity to use your product and would recommend it to anyone.  Please keep me posted about your future plans for these ceramic tips.  If you need any further information from me or need this in the form of a letter please let me know how I can help.

Ken Sharp, Home User,  Berkeley Springs, WV
I must say I was very skeptical about the performance of your product. That is no longer the case and I put the blade through its paces on four different projects with 5 species of wood (hardwood). IMHO, if you put the tips on good blanks, keep the price competitive, and most importantly, provide good customer support, you will be successful.  These opinions will be reflected in my review. You may even get a 17 year Forrest blade user to change his stripes.:-)

 

Stephen Koschmann, Fluid Forms, Inc

This is just a short message to update the group on my experiences with Tom Waltz and his new ceramic tipped saw blades:

1.  Tom's company has developed a ceramic material (cermets, I believe, is the name) that has applications for cutting tools, particularly saw blades.

2.  We make retail counter top displays out of a 6"x12" granite tile with an oak frame.  Since we make the retail displays in batches of 500 we rip a LOT of oak for the frames!!. Up until Tom's ceramic blade, I have used three major blades; a Freud 50 tooth combination (oldy but goody); a Systemic 60 tooth blade and of course my top of the line Forrest WW II blade (I have two that I rotate between using and sharpening).

3. The bottom line is the ceramic blades WORK!!.  I have used one of Tom's latest ceramic blade for about two weeks now and I have ripped over 1500 lineal feet of 5/4 and I resawed about 500 lineal feet of 8/4 red oak.  Next week we start another run and that will be another 1500 to 2000 lineal feet.

4.  There are three main things I like about the ceramic blade:  ripping speed, quality of cut and the apparent durability.  The ripping speed is FAST.  Since I rip so much wood, speed becomes a real issue.  With the ceramic blade, the blade will cut almost as fast as I can feed it.  (We use a General 350 TS, 3 HP with Bies fence).  Unlike any carbide tipped blade, the ceramic blade works better at a FASTER feed rate than slower.  And yes, you can feed it TOO fast, but overall, the ripping speed is noticeably faster than the WWII or my old standby, the 50 tooth combo Freud.

The quality of the cut is very, very good.  I will admit it is not quite as good as a new or freshly sharpened Woodworker II blade.  But, by varying the feed rate, I can very close to the WWII cut.

My sense is Tom’s ceramic blade has excellent durability.  I can slightly dull my WWII blade in about1500 feet of ripping 5/4 oak, and start to see a decline in the cut quality and I have to use a lot slower feed rate. On my last ripping run, the ceramic blade wasn't even hot after a couple of hours of solid ripping.  The cut quality was the same on the first board and the last oak board and the feed speed was just as fast (no need to slow down the cut).

I also tried the ceramic blade on two side melamine.  VERY good cut. Almost no chipout on the bottom.... but I did have a zero clearance throat plate installed and my saw and Bies fence is quite accurate (blade parallel within .002 of miter slots, fence .007" out of parallel at the back).

Net, ceramic cutting tools is a very exciting technology. maybe not for the hobby woodworker, but for anyone doing a lot of cutting in "hard" or "abrasive" wood, check it out.  Please feel free to call or email if I can answer any questions.

Barry Stubbs, Home User, Huntsville, TX 
I have been using both blades on comparable cuts.  To be honest with you, the ceramic tips cut as well or better than the C4 carbide tips.  Both types of blades tips on the Forrest WoodWorker II cut very well.  If you want me to compliment your product, here goes:

I put the ceramic tip blade on first and did several rips and crosscuts.  The cuts were glue ready.  There was no need to sand or prepare the surfaces at all.  You couldn't sand finish a cut to be any smoother than the cuts made by the ceramic tip blade.  It's pretty sad when you want to keep making cuts just to show friends how pretty the blade cuts.  I look forward to using it in the future.

I don't know how you guys did it, but I figured your product would be hard to prove against the technology of the Forrest WoodWorker II blade.  The ceramic tips you put on gave such precise cuts.  I appreciate having been given the opportunity to use your product and would recommend it to anyone.  Please keep me posted about your future plans for these ceramic tips.  If you need any further information from me or need this in the form of a letter please let me know how I can help.

Ken Sharp, Home user,  Berkeley Springs, WV
I must say I was very skeptical about the performance of your product. That is no longer the case and I put the blade through its paces on four different projects with 5 species of wood (hardwood). IMHO, if you put the tips on good blanks, keep the price competitive, and most importantly, provide good customer support, you will be successful.  These opinions will be reflected in my review. You may even get a 17 year Forrest blade user to change his stripes.:-)
 

Industrial Tests - Long Life  

Customer: H.J. Scheirich Co., Louisville, KY

Material: 45 lb. single and double sided vinyl-laminated particle board

Control: 5 blades with standard C-4 carbide

Cermet 2 / Normal: 15,088 meters / 6706 meters

Customer: Billy Amos Lumber Co., Russellville, AL

Material: 101.6 mm x 152.4 mm (4" x 6") Green hardwoods, oak, hickory, maple and walnut

Equipment: KM-16 industrial saw

Control: 11 blades with standard C-4 carbide

Cermet 2 / Normal: 462 hrs / 40 hrs

Customer: Ashcroft Saw, Raleigh, NC

Saw Type: 406 mm (16") 100 teeth

Material: Countertops

Cermet 2 / Normal:       4 weeks / 1 week (4 times)

Customer: Frisco City Furniture

Saw Type: 406 mm (16") 80 teeth

Material: MDF Board

Cermet 2 / Normal: 10 days / 2 days (5 times)

Customer: Intercraft Industries, Statesville, NC

Saw Type: 305 mm (12") 100 teeth TCG Miter

Material: Oak, Compressed Fiber Board, Plastic

Cermet 2 / Normal: 154 hrs / 28 hrs (5.5 times)

Customer: Precision Saw

Saw Type: 305 mm (12") 60 teeth

Material: MDF, High Pressure Laminate (Formica)

Cermet 2 / Normal: 56 hrs/8 hrs (7 times)

Customer: The Sharpening Place, Defiance, Ohio

Saw Type: G 1060A on Chop Saw

Material: Particle Board and Pine Dowel Rods

Cermet 2 / Normal: 48 hrs / 8 hrs (6 times)