I recently made a video that really upset a lot of folks and to be honest I knew that it would it was a pretty controversial subject and as a saying I just made up goes you can't sit on a wasp's nest without getting swollen tcus so smear a little ointment on it and get back to work in keeping with that folksy wisdom I wanted to make this short follow-up video to clear up a few things not just for the angriest commenters because they aren't even going to watch this but for my regular viewers who deserve an explanation now if you miss that video I'll put a link to it below it was about the renewed push to regulate table saw specifically to require saw stop technology or something similar on all saws sold in the United States after Decades of debate this issue does appear to be coming to a head and it's going to affect all of us so I tried to give a balanced view including the potential consequences good and bad of such a government mandate yes I did raise some theoretical points that may or may not even happen but the video was intended to start a conversation and boy did it almost 6,000 of you left a comment sharing your point of view including many who did disagree with my assessment that this has the potential to change table saws as we know them others of course just missed the point entirely and they accused me of being either in the tank for big government or being against keeping people's fingers on their hands and their hot dogs safe in the refrigerators I suppose if people from both sides of the issue are mad it shows that you're somewhere in the middle but to be clear I'm not against any technology that makes table saws safer and as someone who loves a good hot dog I always applaud any effort to reduce the danger a table saw May pose to edible Meats of any kind yes sir but there is more than one way to accomplish this take this table saw for example if I turn this on and I reach under here and I touch that blade it is going to cut me but I still use this saw with absolute confidence in my personal safety not because I'm one of those guys who thinks he's never going to make a mistake or because I think only dumb and inexperienced people get hurt most of the nine fingered Woodworkers I know had their accidents after many years of safe table saw use they were professional skilled Craftsmen smart people who knew not to put their hand near the blade but they were also human and humans make mistakes even after 30 40 50 years of not making one so how do I know that I won't someday make a mistake that cost me my fingers on this saw because I use the blade guard I actually have two for this saw I have the standard one like this and I also have a big floating one that goes over the blade I love that one both options are better than blade brakes and flesh sensing technology or whatever you want to call it it's a big statement how can I say that because blade guards not only keep you from touching the blade by the very fact that it covers it before during and after the cut but they can also stop something that this other technology just cannot do a blade breake or a blade guard can protect you from Kickback something that is far more common than injuries from direct contact with the blade I have spoken Spen to thousands of Woodworkers at Live Events I've had comments from literally hundreds of thousands more in my Dozen Years on YouTube that's a pretty good sample of The Woodworking community and from them I've learned that the vast majority of table saw injuries are Kickback related that's when a workpiece pinches between the blade and the fence and gets ejected backwards it can result in broken fingers broken ribs broken faces and much worse no blade break or technology that senses when your skin touches the blade can prevent the majority of table saw injuries because they do not prevent Kickback on their own the manufacturers know this that's why you still get a blade guard along with warnings that you have to use it with your saw stop just like any other table saw if you want to know more about how blade guards are the Superior Solution for preventing table accidents both Kickback related and accidental contact with the blade I'll put a link to a video that I produced sometime back below you should watch it it may change how you use your saw but it wasn't my advocating for blade guards in my last video that really ticked people off no strangely enough it was the ad I ran at the end of the video I'm going to run it again here don't worry it's only a few seconds long but I just want to see if you notice what really upset a lot of people about it rich carbide is the best cut seceret in woodwork I kid you not their saw blades are second to none both in quality and performance and they're less expensive than the other Ultra Premium brands do yourself a favor use the link and the discount code below this video you will never go back to cheat blades again did you catch it I didn't have a blade guard on the saw now a lot of folks just ran to the comment section to point that out this is one of the more benign comments I got this one's not bad at all some were pretty rude calling me a hypocrite saying I was selling my viewers saf for the sake of sponsors or I didn't practice what I preached the worst ones got removed because I don't have to provide a platform for abuse at my job here any more than you do at your job but there were so many well-meaning ones that I decided to write a response that I could paste again and again because yes I do read all of these comments and I thought they deserved at least some explanation I do not believe that anyone has claimed that every single cut can be made with a blade Gard in place d grooves other non- through joinery cuts and even some very narrow rips for example may just require the blade guard to be removed in my business as well sometimes I do need you to see the saw blade better I think the guard remov for clarity excuse is way overused but there are times when it is legitimate who gets decide what those times are the user that's the freedom you and I have hopefully you're like me and you use your guard for almost every cut and hopefully in the rare instance when you do have to remove it you take other precautions including installing some form of splitter or arriving knife so you still have Kickback protection and using a pusher of some kind to keep your hands away from the exposed blade of course it's also on the table saw manufacturer to start making it possible to easily remove and replace your guard because the easier that is the more likely people are to do it and I do think it's shameful that many of the lower-end saw manufacturers make guards that are flimsy and obstructive they're not really blade guards they're blade guard shaped devices so I'm not going to come to your shop and shame you for exercising your right to decide what's the best practice for your saw but I am going to strongly encourage you to use a guard for 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