circular saw blades

[Ferny1]

Hi
What are the best cordless circular saw blades. I am a site joiner and most of my work is 1st fixing , roofing and flooring. I currently use Dewalts extreme blades which are good just wondering if anyone knows of better.

[sammy.se]

DeWalt is good.
Ferm, Trend, Freud, Festool are good also.

If you get them sharpened (e.g. at Leitz) instead of replacing, they come back sharper than new.

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[Job and Knock]

Conclusions

It's all dependent on size of blade and type of machine, I'd say. TBH for general use I doubt that you can go far wrong with saw blades from Bosch Pro, Makita, deWalt or Freud (who in any case are owned by Bosch these days). It all comes down to personal preferences and price - and price is a case of rummaging around the 'net where there are some brilliant bargains. In general I've tried and been underwhelmed by the cheap blades like Silverline, Toolpak, Hilka, etc even for "rough work", which are generally not as well balanced (meaning the saw runs and cuts rougher), have less carbide (so last less long) and in any case most saw doctors don't seem to want to touch them, so they are throwaways. Pro blades generally have more carbide, better noise attenuation (e.g anti-whistle slots, less tendency to "ring") and cut more cleanly. They are also better ground. Makita Specialized are a special case - they are thinner than conventional blades, have less teeth and the tooth shape is peculiar (meaning that not everyone will sharpen them) but in my experience they are just a bit too fragile for site use

For cordless saws and specialised saws such as Festool TS55, Kapes, etc it may take some experimentation to reach your optimal saw/blade combination(s)

I tend to buy blades which can be resharpened multiple times (thin kerf excluded - they generally can't be resharpened), in which case a good sharpening service is a must, preferably someone with 5-axis CNC automatic grinders these days which are similar to the machines that the blades were originally produced on. In the North West I'd recommend my own sharpeners, Harrison Saw and Tool in Haslingden who I've dealt with for 15+ years. They also make bandsaw blades to any length. No connection other than being a satisfied customer

Specifics (long and detailed, skip if you have a life.....)

The following are my personal observations:

After experimentation with Saxton, Trend, deWalt, Makita and Freud blades I found that for me the deWalt Xtreme thin kerf 24t (general) and 40t (clean cuts in plywood and MDF) blades worked best for Makita DSS610 and DHS680 cordless saws at 165mm diameter. Other people I know have tried these blades on similar size DW and Milwaukee cordless saws and agree that for general site carpentry both blades really do last longer and are less likely to be destroyed/damaged if you hit embeded metal. To save any confusion about which blade I'm referring to, it's this one (here in 40t version):

deWalt Xtreme 165mm 001_01.jpg (58.63 KiB) Viewed 5155 times

The 40t is OK on laminates, but IMHO you are pushing it trying to get a cordless rip saw to cut that sort of stuff without some chipping.

For my Festool TS55, having tried various saw blades from Saxton, Bosch, Festool, Atkinson-Walker, Leitz, Freud and Stehle I have to admit to going back to Festool (OEM) saw blades. With rail/plunge saws there is a need to have your blade kerfs for different saw blades identical in order that you avoid having to replace or move the anti splinter strip each and every time you change blade. Saxton blades are OK, but don't give the best of cuts on laminates (in high tooth counts) I found, the Bosch blades are too thick (at 2.5 to 2.6mm kerf - OEM are 2.2mm) but otherwise work well and the same goes for the Freud blades (although they do make a single, solitary thin kerf blade with a 2.2mm kerf which I haven't yet tried). The Atkinson-Walker 48t 2.2 kerf blade as well as the equivalents from Stehle and Leitz (I still have one of each) are all much of a muchness, but then I'd expect that from these firms as they are all top grade industrial saw makers (and in any case Leitz indeed manufacture the Festool blades). Ultra thin kerf blades that I've tried on the TS55 actually seem to degrade the performance (blade wow and flutter/distortion/vibration?). For general work I often use the 28t blade over the 48t one - it cuts faster and burns less on awkward materials but I find the cut quality isn't good enough for laminates.

Still experimenting with the 165mm thin kerf blades on the Makita DSP600 cordless rail saw. The OEM stuff, including the sexy pale blue ultra thin 1.45mm fine tooth blade the saw comes with, I don't rate at all I'm afraid (cuts beautifully, can distort badly if you hit a nail or screw when it will also shed teeth). I've tried the thicker Flexvolt 165mm blades (designed for DWs plunger) but I found them to be a bit fragile when you hit metal (such as a staple in a fire door) and the 42t didn't perform at all well on laminates after relatively little use on MDF in contrast to my experiences with the Xtreme blades noted above as general blades for cordless rip saws. For laminate I'm currently using a Freud blade with 48t (?) and 1.9mm kerf# which is quite promising, but otherwise I'm still testing

On bigger rip saws, such as my 230mm Hilti WSC85, I've generally found that Bosch Professional and Makita Professional (NOT the Specialized blades) work well enough. The "Nail Proof" Bosch Construct blades really can deal with embedded metal quite well and are my favourites.

On the general chop saw (DW771, 216mm diameter) I also stick with Bosch Pro and Makita blades (again, not the Specialized) with a preference for 48t Bosch Construct for general work and 60t or 72t for mouldings. Tried Saxtons and they are OK if a bit stingy on the carbide (but at the price....) and Dart whilst good have a shorter life because they also have less carbide

Site table saw (DW745, 250mm diameter) I've kept on DW blades (24t rip in the main) as they perform well enough (and somebody else is buying them in any case). In the past on my Makita MLS table saw I used Bosch Pro and Makita blades more or less interchangeably.

The Kapex chop saw I run solely on Festool blades at present although next blade will probably be a Tenryu (Japanese) from the USA which I've heard good things about. Again when I had a Makita LS1013 I ran it interchangeably on Bosch Pro and Makita blades

So buy cheap, buy twice, and possibly reduce your bearing life into the bargain. Also search the net for bargains - there are all sorts of blades on eBay, etc which are dirt cheap because they are last year's packaging, etc

[sammy.se]

Amazing write up. Thanks

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[Job and Knock]

Thought I might as well cover the lot! Incidentally, we did a back to back comparison today with a DW DCS691 18 volt brushless saw (fitted with the 24t XRP blade) and my Makita DHS680 18 volt brushless saw. The DW is physically quite a bit bigger, but the two saws are similar weights with the DW having 5 to 10% more power. The XRP blade (DT1209), however is no match for the Xtreme blade (DT10624-QZ) - on both saws it struggled to rip down 44mm thick C24 stuff in a single pass on a freshly charged 5Ah battery, whereas the Xtreme blade was a lot better. Both saws produced similar results with the DW saw being a tad faster as befits the tool with greater power.

As anaside the QZ blade I used is currently on offer at Toolstation for £11.99 and whilst that is not the absolute lowest price you can find them for it's still a darned good walk in and pick one up price

deWalt Xtreme DT10624-QZ 165mm 24t 001_01.jpg (157.83 KiB) Viewed 5118 times