Say hello to Maegan. She is new to woodworking and my shop, but I look forward to many more visits.
   This day I decided to look at a new blade from CMT, their "Glue Line Ripping Blade."

    Right off the bat you can see that there are more teeth, 30,  than the usual rip blade (24). Both blades have the anti-kick back design. There are other differences but I will stop at this point. What I really want to see is the quality of the cut — after all, "glue line rip" is suppose to give you an edge that is so smooth that no other jointing is necessary and you can just place the board directly into a panel glue up.

   First up is the CMT Fine Kerf Ripping Blade. The fine kerf blades are designed to allow lower horsepower saws to rip efficiently. With the Uni-saw in the shop, I shouldn't need the thin kerf, but I have used it allot and it performs faultlessly. You can see that I do use a blade stabilizer. I do that with all blades.

   If you were wondering why the wood was so "ugly", it is because I was able to get a hold of some "shorts". They are 2" X 2" so they will serve well to test the blades.
   Maegan is adjusting a new clamp that we have had in the shop for a month or so. We really like it.

   This is the shot of the holddown. we are using. It is from Lee Valley and is called the MagSwitch® featherboard.  The two knobs (A) are the "MagSwitch". They really work so very well. You simply place the featherboard where you want it and turn the knob. That lowers a very strong magnet which holds the device fast. The vertical featherboard can also be used and that is locked in place by two thumbscrews.

   *to the MagSwitch page at Lee Valley

   And Maegan makes the cut. While the featherboard helps, Maegan has to use the push shoe to keep control for the entire cut.
   She and I made cuts so that we could judge the degree of resistance of the ripping action.

   This is going to be a very hard test. The cut was almost perfect. Where there were saw marks, it was where Maegan or I stopped and started. It is more than likely that if we fed the piece smoother, we would have perfect faces. As it was, one pass over the jointer would have been enough. I have the jointer set to remove 1/32" on each pass. That would have been enough. If the faces simply showed, I think the Festool RO 150 sander starting at 80 grit would handle these surfaces in no time.

   She has changed the blade and the standard kerf rip blade is cutting.

   The saw marks show where we were not smooth in feeding, otherwise, it is about the same quality as with the thin kerf blade.

   This is the cut from the new CMT Glue Line Ripping blade. The surfaces are smooth and free from blade swirls. You could probably start sanding at 150 or higher.
    When we start scrutinizing the surfaces as close as we have been doing, we can lose sight of the fact that a all three of these blades give us an almost perfect rip cut. Sometimes they get jointed. More often, one pass of a cabinet scraper and it's time for glue up.
   I will try to remember to do the same test next time we have proper stock for a glue up.