How do you know which Circular Saw Blade is the right one for your job?
4 BASIC BLADE TYPES
FTG BLADES
• FTG Blades Have Teeth Whose Top Edges Are Square To The Saw Plate
• Also Called Rakers, These Teeth Attack The Wood Like A Chisel Chopping
• Fast Cutting And Durable
• Don’t Produce A Clean Surface
• Designed To Rip, Sawing Perpendicular To The Grain
ATB BLADES
• ATB Blades Are Angled Across The Top Edge, With Every Other Tooth “Leaning” In The Opposite Direction
• The Shape Of The Tooth Causes It To Shear The Wood Fibers Cleanly In A Slicing Motion
• The Steeper The Bevel Angle, The Cleaner The Teeth Cut, But The Quicker They Dull
• Marketed As “All-Purpose”
COMBINATION BLADES
• Combination Blades Consist Of 50 Teeth Arranged In Sets Of Five
• Four ATB Teeth Are Followed By A Raker Tooth (ATBR Designation)
• ATB Teeth Are Designed To Crosscut Cleanly While The Raker Teeth Aid In Ripping
• Also Considered “All-Purpose”
TCG BLADES
• The Teeth On A TCG Blade Alternate Between A Raker Tooth And A Chamfered Tooth
• The Chamfered Tooth Roughs Out The Cut, While The Following FTG Tooth Cleans It Up
• Meant For Sawing Dense Materials: Plastic Laminate, Solid Surface Materials Like Corian, And Nonferrous Metals Like Brass And Aluminum
