Saw Blade

• Flat-Top (FT) Saw Blade - used for cutting through hard and soft woods. A FT saw blade is known for being efficient at cutting and raking material out of a cut that it has made.

• Alternate Top Bevel (ATB) Saw Blade – means that the teeth are alternating between right and left hand bevel. Forms a knife like edge on either side of the blade and creates a smoother cut when crosscutting natural woods and veneered plywood.

• Combination Tooth (Comb) Saw Blade – achieves both crosscutting and ripping as the teeth are put in groups of 5-4 ATB teeth with a large amount of space between the groups.

• Triple Chip Grind(TCG) Saw Blade – is perfect at cutting hard and rigid materials including: laminates, medium density fiberboard (MDF), and plastics. It includes a flat top and a trapeze tooth. The only difference between these teeth is that a trapeze is is going to have slanted edges. This combo can also be used for non-rigid metals.

• High Alternate Top Bevel (Hi-ATB) Saw Blade – known for cutting materials that are surfaced with melamine, which is known to chip easily. The high angle of the teeth improves its sharpness.

Choose between a crosscut and rip blade for your project.

• Rip Saw Blades – has fewer teeth than a crosscut and is not designed to get a smooth cut. But it will move through hardwood with little effort and leave little scoring.

• Crosscut Saw Blades – these are going to have around 60-80 teeth, more than a rip blade. This blade is going to produce a smooth cross cut along wood without breaking or cracking it, but it does require a slower feeding rate.

The higher the tooth count, the cleaner the cut. The steel quality of the blade will also determine how durable and how well the saw blade is able to perform. 

When purchasing a saw blade it is important to know the type of material you will be cutting and how clean the cut needs to be. Different metals have a tendency to dull at different rates and some metals, like bi-metals, are more suitable for cutting wood than others. The tooth count tells you whether there will be a clean or rough cut.