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What Saw Blade Do You Need?

 

Choosing the right saw blade for your project is easy once you know what to look for. We explain what you should look for when buying saw blades.

If you’re looking to purchase replacement blades for your saws, you’ll need to consider the type of saw and your specific cutting needs and applications.

What Tooth Count Means

When working with wood, you may need a gas chainsaw, log splitter, or miter saws.

Depending on which material is being processed, you will need a different saw blade. There are 6 different tooth shapes, each of which is suitable for different materials.

  • Flat tooth

A saw blade with a flat tooth shape is particularly suitable for work on wood. In this case, the saw blade is intended for hardwood and softwood, where longitudinal cuts can be made. It is particularly interesting that a flat tooth saw blade can be used for rough cuts in the direction of the grain. The teeth themselves are always aligned in the same way.

  • Alternate tooth

Should you be confronted with the term “universal blade”, then it is an interchangeable tooth saw blade. This is often supplied with saws and offers you the advantage that you can perform both longitudinal and crosscuts. If you want to cut your workpiece across the grain of the wood, then this tooth shape is very suitable for this. The result is that the material is cut evenly on both sides when it is cut.

  • Hollow tooth

If your workpiece is not solid wood but, for example, veneered chipboard, then a hollow tooth saw blade is the suitable choice. This saw blade variant will enable you to work without tear-out. However, keep in mind that this saw blade requires a special cutting speed setting.

  • Trapezoidal tooth

There is also a suitable saw blade for painted and coated workpieces. A trapezoid tooth saw blade is angled in shape, which allows it to cut well through such coated materials.

  • Trapezoidal Flat Tooth Combination

The mixture between a trapezoidal tooth saw blade and a flat tooth saw blade allows another field of application.

Plastics up to 3/8″ or also panel materials can be processed with this design. The advantage of this saw blade is its shape, as increased chip clearance and tear-free cutting are made possible.

  • Roof tooth-flat tooth combination

Chipboards consist of wood chips and are held together by an adhesive. If these boards are also coated with plastic, then a roof tooth flat tooth saw blade helps to get through the workpiece.

Saw blade Form Application
Flat tooth Flat teeth have a horizontal cutting edge. The flat tooth is suitable for longitudinal cuts in solid wood. Other materials can quickly fray.
Alternate tooth In contrast to the flat tooth, alternate teeth are slightly beveled. The interchangeable tooth saw blade can be used universally, as it enables both longitudinal and crosscuts.
The alternating tooth is particularly characterized by its high precision.
Hollow tooth The hollow tooth is characterized by its inwardly curved cutting edge. Hollow teeth are particularly suitable for very delicate woodwork. Furthermore, they facilitate the processing of veneered wood.
Trapezoid tooth The cutting edge of the trapezoidal tooth slopes regularly on both sides and thus resembles a trapezoid. Saw blades with trapezoidal teeth are mainly used for painted and coated workpieces. Their shape also prevents fraying.
Trapezoidal tooth-flat tooth combination With this saw blade, trapezoidal and flat teeth alternate in regular sequence. A trapezoidal flat tooth saw blade cuts through hard materials without any problems. Even foreign bodies in the material can hardly harm the robust combination of trapezoidal and flat teeth.
Roof tooth-flat tooth combi A roof tooth-flat tooth saw blade is composed of pointed roof teeth and flat teeth. Saw blades with roof tooth-flat tooth combination cut smoothly through chipboard coated with plastic.

Saw Blade Buying Advice:

Choose the right product from the above Saw Blade test or comparison. We recommend keeping a few circular saw blades on hand that will cover just about any job that may surface in your DIY life. We recommend one for general use, finished plywood, and one for metal cutting.

Best Saw Blade for Home Workshop

How to choose Saw Blade

Best Saw Blade Review

All our reviews are based only on expert judgment or practical experience with most of the Saw Blade we consider. We strive to ensure that our leadership is independent and as detailed as possible.

Best Saw Blade for Soft Wood, Hard Wood, Chipboard & Plywood

TWIN-TOWN Saw Blade

TWIN-TOWN Saw Blade
  • 7-1/4-Inch Saw Blade.
  • Number of Teeth: 60.
  • Made of tungsten carbide.
  • With expansion slots to ensure the blade runs straight and true.

 4,9 Rating

View on Amazon

Ideal for ripping & crosscutiing in softwood, hardwood, chipboard, and plywood with fine finishing. Use on Circular Saws, Miter Saws and Table Saws, Max RPM 8,300. 1.8 mm thin kerf design for fast cut and smooth cutting action allows extremely durable with minimal material waste.

Best Circular Saw Blade for Paneling & Vinyl

DEWALT Circular Saw

DEWALT Circular Saw
  • 90-Tooth.
  • Ultra-thin kerf blade for fast cutting.
  • 10 mm arbor.
  • 5/8-in arbor with diamond knock-out.

 4,9 Rating

View on Amazon

Featuring tungsten carbide teeth for maximum durability and a thin kerf for fast, smooth cuts, DEWALT small diameter construction saw blades power through a variety of building materials with ease. Ribbed heat vents allow blades to run at cooler temperatures, reducing blade flexing and binding. Anti-stick coating minimizes friction and gum-up.

Best Saw Blade for Hard and Softwoods

WEN Professional Woodworking Saw Blade

WEN Professional Woodworking Saw Blade
  • 12-Inch.
  • 80-Tooth.
  • Rating of up to 6000 RPM.
  • Ultra-thin 1/10-inch kerf (2.6 mm) provides clean and efficient cuts.

 4,9 Rating

View on Amazon

The WEN 12-Inch Saw Blade provides reliable and accurate performance, maintaining its straight shape and sharp edges for longer than the competition. The machine-cut carbide-tipped teeth slice through woods of any kind, making easy work out of pine, oak, poplar, cherry, maple, walnut, and more. The 1-inch arbor allows for compatibility with the majority of 12-inch miter saws, job site saws, and table saws on the market.

Best Saw Blade for Engineered Wood

Overpeak Circular Saw Blade

Overpeak Circular Saw Blade
  • 60 Teeth.
  • With 5/8-Inch Arbor.
  • RPM up to 6000.
  • 4 Laser cut expansion slots.

 4,9 Rating

View on Amazon

With 4 Laser cut expansion slots and 4 Laser-cut stabilizer vents trap noise and vibration, keeping it cool and reducing saw blade warp. The 10 inches saw blade with a unique tooth design provides straight cuts and cutting smoother.

How to Choose the Right Saw Blade For Your Circular Saw

Choosing a saw blade according to use

Basically, you can distinguish between several saw blades. Among them, there are different designs that are commercially available:

  • Strip steel or high-speed steel saw blades.
  • Composite saw blades

For each of these types, the application is slightly different, which brings individual advantages and disadvantages. Depending on what you’re using a plunge cut saw for, for example, and what material you’ll be cutting, a different type of saw blade will be best suited for your machine. Basically, however, there are no special saw blades for common plunge-cut saws. The same saw blades are used for a plunge saw as for a hand-held circular saw.

If you already own a hand-held circular saw, you can also use it with the plunge-cut saw, depending on the saw blade diameter and bore. In the following sections, we would like to help you find out which versions are best suited for your needs.

Advantages and disadvantages of the Band Steel Saw Blade

A band steel or high-speed steel saw blade is less expensive and is stamped out in one piece. This design is particularly relied upon for solid woodwork. For example, if you are considering work on a solid wood workpiece, you should get a strip steel saw blade. These saw blades are stamped out of a piece of metal and are therefore cheaper.

Advantages:

  • Inexpensive
  • Work on solid wood possible
  • Cutting with small width

Disadvantages:

  • Less durability
  • processed from one piece of metal

The teeth of this saw blade design are alternately bent apart, which results in shorter service life (durability) during your sawing work. Especially important in this design is the fact that this saw blade cuts with a small width.

What is a Compound Saw Blade?

These so-called compound circular saw blades consist of two materials and are of higher quality in terms of workmanship. They have a good price-performance ratio.

In the middle of this saw blade is a metal support body surrounded by a carbide or diamond.

These two variants are sold as carbide or diamond saw blades.

Advantages:

  • Made of two materials
  • High-quality workmanship
  • Good price-performance ratio

Disadvantages:

  • Expensive

The processing in these saw blades is of higher quality, as the two components are joined together by soldering or welding. Most often, a carbide saw blade is purchased because it has the best price-performance ratio.

Choosing the Right Blade for Saw

In the following, we would like to show you which factors you can use to compare and evaluate saw blades. This will make it easier for you to decide whether a particular blade is suitable for you or not.

In summary, these are:

  • Quality levels
  • Number of teeth
  • Tooth position
  • Speed

In the following paragraphs, you can read about the individual purchase criteria.

Quality levels

A distinction is made between 4 different quality levels. These indicate in each case which material can be processed and how fine or coarse the cut will ultimately look. With quality level A or 1 (depending on the manufacturer), very coarse cuts are achieved, whereby this saw blade is very well suited for quick cross and longitudinal cuts on workpieces made of softwood, hardwood, chipboard (coarse), and shuttering boards.

Quality level B or 2 are just as suitable for longitudinal and crosscuts, with additional sawing on workpieces made of plywood. Level C or 3 achieves finer cuts in cross-section. Saw blades of this level are therefore well suited for materials such as parquet, chipboard coated on one or both sides, plywood, softwood, and hardwood.

The last level D or 4 is intended for very fine work. Ideally, this saw blade is used for crosscuts on MDF fiberboard, fiber materials, parquet, plywood, softwood, and hardwood, respectively, also blockboard and chipboard.

The following table summarizes the different quality levels, once again:

Quality level Material Use
Quality level A or 1 Softwood, hardwood, coarse chipboard, shuttering boards. Very rough cuts, very good for fast cross and longitudinal cuts
Quality level B or 2 Plywood, softwood, hardwood, chipboard, shuttering boards Longitudinal and crosscuts
Quality level C or 3 Parquet, chipboard coated on one or both sides, plywood, softwood, and hardwood Finer cross-sections
Quality level D or 4 MDF fiberboard, fiber materials, parquet, plywood, softwood and hardwood, blockboard, particleboard Very fine cutting

Number of teeth

A saw blade can have between 16 and 72 teeth. Depending on the material being processed, more or fewer teeth are required to process the workpiece. The first category includes saw blades with a tooth count of 16 to 24 teeth. With this, you can make fast rip cuts, but achieve a fairly rough cut.

The higher the number of teeth, the slower you have to saw.

With the second category between 36 and 48 teeth, you can make crosscuts and your work will look a bit cleaner. Compared to saw blades between 60 and 72 teeth, you can make even finer and cleaner cuts. You’ll also get through harder materials well with this. Note, however:

Tooth position

In connection with the quality level and the number of teeth, the tooth position is high on the list when making your purchase decision. The teeth of a saw blade can be oriented either positively or negatively. A positive angle means that the tip of the tooth points diagonally forwards and negative means the opposite, i.e. diagonally backward.

The more teeth a saw blade has, the cleaner it can cut.

As a result, the clamping space becomes clogged more quickly because it is smaller. If you are cutting lengthwise to the wood grain, you should ideally use saw blades with few teeth and thus a large clamping space. When cutting across the grain, it is better to use saw blades with more teeth. This results in only a small tear-out on the top side of the workpiece.

If you are working on wood, for example, a positive saw blade will glide through your workpiece more quickly but is more suitable for softer material. For particularly clean work, a negative saw blade is recommended, although more force must be applied here, and sawing should be slower.

Speed

Each saw blade has a maximum speed. This tells you how many revolutions per minute your workpiece can be processed. On plunge saws with speed control, you can set how fast the saw blade should rotate to avoid damaging your material. Basically, the larger the saw blade, the lower the maximum speed, and the smaller the blade, the higher. It’s especially important to pay attention to what you’re sawing. The harder your material, the slower you should work.

Saw Blade Price:

Saw Blade Under $30

  • Overpeak Circular Saw Blade
  • WEN Professional Woodworking Saw Blade

Saw Blade Under $15:

  • TWIN-TOWN Saw Blade
  • DEWALT Circular Saw

How to Select Table Saw Blades - Video

FAQs About Table Saw Blades

✅ Is more teeth on a saw blade better?

Standard circular saw blades are typically used to cut wood or wood composites. The number of teeth on the blade helps determine the speed, type and finish of the cut. Blades with fewer teeth cut faster, but those with more teeth create a finer finish. Combination blades can make both rip cuts and crosscuts.

✅ What do the numbers on a saw blade mean?

Number of Teeth – How many teeth in a blade determines its cutting action. More teeth mean a smoother cut, fewer teeth mean that the blade removes more material.

✅ What is the difference in saw blades?

Blades with more teeth yield a smoother cut. Blades with fewer teeth remove material faster, but tend to produce a rougher cut with more “tearout”. More teeth mean you will need to use a slower feed rate. No matter what type of saw blade you use, you will likely wind up with residue on the saw blade.

✅ Which saw blade makes the smoothest cut?

Crosscut blades. With fewer spaces between the teeth, crosscut blades remove less material, resulting in a smoother cut. It also means it takes these blades longer to move through wood. Crosscut blades are an excellent choice for finish carpentry and other applications that require precision and a smooth finish.

Max Welder

Max Welder

Hi! I'm Max Welder (toolsproper.com). I always wanted to work with my own hands, repair something, do things. Now I combine my knowledge with computers and my own knowledge in the field of mechanics in order to understand which tools I like the most. I hope to convey some knowledge and experience.

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