I really enjoy face offs, especially in the world of woodworking :) Here’s a face off that showed up in WoodNet in which a member asked the following question: “Freud Fusion vs WWII? Prices about the same – Amazon 20% off each, $50 in Amazon bucks burning a hole in my pocket – What should I do?”

I waded out onto the battle field and counted up the “votes” for each blade… Note that a Freud representative actually joined the fray, though only to answer questions about his blades not to bash Forrest ;)

34 responses later (most comments were not actual votes) I tallied the following:

Forrest WWII: 6
Freud Fusion: 4

I would call this far from conclusive, but if you’re considering dropping upwards of 60-75 on a table saw blade you should definitely read through the post. It’s going to give you an idea of how you can best spend your money.

Check out: Freud Fusion vs WWII? in the WoodNet forum

For some balance I’d also suggest you read Saw Blades from TheWoodshop.20m.com. In it the author states (for those WWII fanatics out there ;):

“The primary advantage of the Forrest blade is in its sharpening. Most sharpening services do their final grind/hone at 400 grit. For cabinet making, you really want your blade sharpened and honed to 600 grit. Several sharpening services (Forrest and Ridge to name two) sharpen/hone to 600 grit. As a test, I sent my Systematic blade to Forrest for sharpening and it cut as well as the WWII.”