Freud LU84M011: 10" Combination Blade

I've just gifted myself a second one of these and I seriously doubt that I'll outlive the pair. I've been a hobbyist woodworker for over fifty years going back to when even the best blades were high speed steel that required periodic resharpening. Then with the advent of carbide toothed blades an entire industry changed and no one has ever looked back. Those first carbide tipped blade were good when compared to their predecessors, but not really great in spite of being quite expensive. Most of my earliest carbide blades were 'box store' purchases from well known and highly regarded blade manufacturers, but Freud blades remained out of reach on my budget for many years. Most, but not all of my previous carbide blades performed pretty well, but learning what to look for in a blade took some time. Any blade will cut almost any type of wood or composite, but cutting and quality of cut are two very different things. Many experienced woodworkers will tell you that you need three different blades. Rip, cross-cut and dado, (which is really a blade set). Of these the rip and cross-cut will likely be used the most and unless you have a saw dedicated to each blade and cut you'll be changing blades quite often. That can take time and you might be tempted to skip it, but doing so would be a mistake that could spoil an otherwise perfect cut. That's where so called combination blades come in and this blade is one of the best, if not the very best. It's been designed to do both rip and cross-cuts without the need to switch between the two. Some might say this type of blade is a compromise and they would not be entirely incorrect. But this Freud blade is so good that few would realize there's a difference. This is a premium full kerf blade best used on table saws of 3 hp or more. It will work on lower powered saws, but they may struggle in denser or thicker materials. One thing that sets this blade apart from thin kerf versions of similar combination blades is the inclusion of a flat ground raker tooth behind each group of teeth. This not only clears the chips, but also leaves a square flat bottomed cut: a cut typical from a rip blade, but not possible with a cross-cut blade - best of both worlds and useful for dados, ploughs and rabbits. This a seriously good blade and worth every penny of it's price. Easily comparable with blades costing double or more. This blade will deliver satisfaction for years and years, take it from a guy who likely won't live long enough to need another.

it is my #17 (?) 50 tooth combination blade from Freud in last 8 years. Most of those blades had underwent 7-10 re-sharpening procedures before I was ready to give it to my friends that do framing work with 10-inch miter saw. I have to mention that I hear a lot of positive feed back from framing guys using these blades after it did work on my table saw. :)I am a small home improvement contractor. I make custom cabinets, bookshelves, entry doors and trim. It is not a furniture production business. Sometimes I will not turn my table saw on for several days. However, these Freud 50 tooth combination blades are heavy workers on my 3 HP cabinets saw. Unless I have to rip cut a lot of heavy hardwood I wouldn't remove this blade from my saw and replace it with a rip blade, for the rest of the time this 50 tooth blade from Freud does the most of the job.It rip cuts pretty well on plywood, oak, walnut, pine and maple and it crosscuts very good plywood, oak, walnut, pine and maple. This blade would easily survive after 7-8 re-sharpenings and it will give you very clean cut lines on most of plywood and hardwoods that are commonly used for cabinets and doors production. I am sure that there are more expensive and better blades and probably even fancier. This blade will do the work for me, it doesn't cost a lot and it lasts. Pretty much it is all what I am looking for when I am buying a blade for my table saw.

Got this blade for Delta 10" Contractors saw just before I planned to rip several pieces of hardwood - maple, purpleheart, and walnut. I had heard purpleheart was difficult to work with due to it's hardness. This blade did great ripping several strips of purpleheart as well as the others.

I purchased this blade a few weeks ago and put it on my new Hitachi C10FL table saw. I've always had good experience with Freud products and this blade isn't much of an exception. It is a hefty piece of steel and overall well made. The carbide teeth are THICK which will allow many resharpenings. It is a GOOD blade, but NOT "excellent". For general purpose use that will give acceptable results it certainly lives up to its manufacturer ratings for various types of cuts in different material. A few important points to note, however. There is splintering on the end of a cross cut, I suspect this is mostly due to the flat top grind raker tooth as my "low budget" Lowes bought Freud combo blade with all ATB teeth leaves a cleaner cross cut. The Teflon coating seems to be more of a hindrance than a blessing. It is not perfectly flat in all places, and seems to clog the anti vibration slots in the blade body. Also, the coating has worn off where the arbor washers contact it - I carefully sanded the coating away in this area. The blade does not vibrate at all, and I feel stiffeners aren't necessary though they can't hurt I'm sure. Although I am not sorry I bought this blade, I will be purchasing either a Forrest blade or two separate blades - rip and crosscut in order to get the perfect result for each type of cut. My recommendation would be to go with the LU84M011 blade instead - doesn't have the unhelpful Teflon coating and is ten dollars cheaper.