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If you’re interested in purchasing a miter saw blade and already started researching to find a suitable one, you may have already noticed that there are many options to choose from. Not to mention, there’s more and more being released into the market each day. This can make choosing the right blade very daunting.
However, you shouldn’t fear as we have got the complete guide to help you choose the best miter saw blade suitable for your needs. It’s essential to understand some of the components that go into making a useful blade. For this reason, we have provided a buyer’s guide for you.
Along with this, we have also gone through the countless options available on the market to find some of the best miter saw blades for you to choose from. We have listed precisely what features you can expect to receive from the blade to help make the process of eliminating easy.
7 Best miter saw blade
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What Is A Miter Saw Blade and What Are Its Uses?
As the name implies, a miter saw blade is a blade that’s specifically designed to be used in a miter saw. The purpose of a miter saw is to make accurate miters and crosscuts in a particular workpiece. This is done by taking a mounted blade and positioning it onto a board made from wood or other material.
The earliest versions of a miter saw consisted of a backsaw that was placed in a miter box. However, the modern versions are made up of electric circular saws. These power tools can be positioned at many different angles and lowered onto wood or other material boards placed against a backstop. Another name for a miter saw is a chop saw.
A miter saw is designed with the specific purpose of making angled cuts. These cuts can either be done for rafters, trim work, molding, or other forms of general carpentry applications. However, having a miter saw equipped with the right blade can aid in making the saw more versatile.
Our Buyer’s Guide: How To Choose The Best Miter Saw Blade
Most woodworking shops use a steel blade in a miter saw. There is a variety of different blade devices that are made from contrasting materials. The use of different materials is intended to accommodate cutting metal, ceramic, and stone. If you find that the blades’ selection is overwhelming, you can always refer to the label located on the blade. This label is provided by the manufacturer, which is used to indicate the materials that the blade is specifically designed to cut through.
Steel blades have the reputation of becoming dull after limited use. For this reason, many of the blades available are designed with blade tips that are made from other materials. Blades that are known for lasting longer are carbide-tipped chop saw blades. At the same time, diamond-tipped blades are commonly used in professional environments. These tipped blades are capable of handling masonry and woodwork projects.
There are other benefits of using tipped steel blades, such as carbide teeth. These advantageous features include the ability to make straighter and sharper cuts.
Here are some things you should consider before purchasing a blade:
Miter Saw Size
One of the first considerations that need to be made is the blade’s size that can be used in your miter saw. Your saw has a size that’s assigned to that particular model. For example, a 10-inch miter saw. This helps you determine which blade size is going to be suitable for your saw.
Blades range in sizes from 5-inches to 12-inches. Out of those ranges, the most popular are the 8,10, and 12-inch miter saw blade sizes. Due to these being the most popular, this is the range where you’re going to find the greatest variety.
The benefit of obtaining larger blades, such as 12-inch miter saw blades, is that you’re given the ability to make cuts through your wood longer. Nonetheless, if you’re conducting woodworking projects as a hobby, a 10-inch miter saw blade is more suitable.
The thickness of the blade
This is another feature that you’re going to have to look at your miter saw to get the most suitable blade. Luckily, manufacturers ensure that this information is easily available in the documents that come with your miter saw when you purchase it.
Thinner blades are known for cutting wood and other materials rapidly compared to thicker blades. However, thicker blades tend to be more durable and last longer than thinner blades.
With many blade products, the blade thickness fails to be mentioned. Nonetheless, the width of the cut helps show the thickness. This cut’s width is known as the blade’s kerf. The kerf changes depending on the thickness of the blade. Thus, it’s a great way of finding out how thick a blade is. Kerf is explained in more detail below.
Tooth Count
There is a wide variety of tooth counts on blades that range from as little as 14 teeth per inch to as many as 120 teeth per inch. The teeth on blades are used to make a blade more robust. The tooth count on a blade helps to distinguish what material you can cut with that specific blade, as well as the type of cut you can expect from it.
When deciding on a blade, it’s highly recommended to go for a blade with approximately 80 teeth per inch. High tooth count on miter blades is advantageous if you wish to conduct cleaner crosscutting. These types of cuts are usually small. With that being said, the slower speed of the cut isn’t going to result in your wood-burning.
If you have any doubts about which tooth count to go for, your best bet would be to refer to the manufacturer documents that come with your miter saw.
Tooth Shape
The amount of teeth present isn’t the only factor that affects the performance of the blade. The shape of the teeth also influences the performance of a blade.
The shape of the teeth helps in making good rip cuts and good crosscuts. You can also combine blades to get the best of both worlds and help achieve both decent crosscuts and rip cuts.
When looking at blades that are going to be exclusively used in a miter saw, the best option would be to get blades with Alternative Top Bevel teeth (ATB). This is the best type of tooth shape to go for as it was made explicitly for crosscutting.
This doesn’t mean you absolutely have to use ATB teeth. You can use other tooth patterns. However, these different tooth patterns may damage the wood or other material that is cut. Otherwise, the blade is likely to leave behind rough edges.
Types of Blades
There are a variety of different blades that you can purchase. Here are a few that are commonly used as a miter saw blade. We have also included the acronym associated with that particular blade (as knowing these makes it easier when you go shopping) as well as what uses the blade can partake in. These miter saw blades are:
- Alternative Top Bevel (ATB): This blade can be used for crosscutting and produces a smooth cut when done on natural wood
- Triple-Chip Grind (TCG): This blade is used for cutting that’s deemed for general purposes on wood, PVC, metal, and other materials.
- Alternate Top Bevel – with a Raker (ATBR): This blade can be used to produce clean cuts from crosscutting on particleboard and plywood.
- Flat Top Grind (FTG): This blade is the perfect option if you wish to conduct ripping that follows against and with the grain.
- High Alternate Top Bevel (Hi-ATB): This blade is specifically used to conduct crosscutting done with a clean cut on materials such as plywood and particleboard.
Different Materials Need Different Blades
Another important consideration to make is what kind of material you wish to cut with your miter saws blades. The materials that you’re going to be cutting are ultimately going to determine the type of blade you purchase.
A common crosscut blade that you are going to use on a 2 X 4 usually causes chipping to occur when used to cut plastic veneers or plywood. However, these are blades specially designed with angles on the teeth and a hook-like tooth design to eliminate the chipping that can be used.
If you struggle to find these types of blades, you don’t need to worry. The majority of product lines offer blades that have been specially marked as ‘veneer’ or ‘plywood.’ These blades are designed with these tooth features to help prevent chipping from occurring.
Here are some blades that are used to cut different materials:
- Non-ferrous and steel: these materials require a very high number of teeth in order to cut effectively. Moreover, these blades also need to be coated to cut into these solid metals.
- Plywood and laminate: Miter saw blades used to cut laminate and plywood are equipped with a unique design that not many other blades are made with. These are specially designed to cater to the compositions of these materials. This has been previously discussed above, and you can find many blades that are specifically advertised to cut laminate and plywood effectively.
- Melamine: This is a type of wood with specialized qualities. This wood material requires the correct blade. Failing to use the right blade for this material is going to result in edges that have a splintered appearance. Blades used to precisely cut melamine are very similar to crosscut blades, as these blades occupy a higher number of teeth than ordinary blades. TCG blades are the best for cutting melamine.
Gullet Size
The gullet on your blade is known as the spaces that are placed in-between the teeth. It can also be identified as the rounded section that’s been cut into the plate. This feature is equipped to help remove the debris that is generated from cutting.
Miter saws commonly use blades that are designed to perform crosscuts. The design to provide these crosscuts entails more teeth, while minimal space (smaller gullet size) in-between the teeth. These blades are made with smaller gullets, however, there are going to be more of these gullets placed across the entire blade.
Thin Kerf blades
As mentioned above, Kerf is the term that’s used to describe the width of the cut that a particular blade makes in a piece of wood or other material. It also isn’t uncommon for people to believe that the kerf of a blade is also the thickness of that respective blade. A thinner blade provides for more precise cutting and aids in reducing wasted material.
Having a thicker blade usually results in having to carve away the extra wood that’s been left behind the first time. This is likely to cause most miter saws to use more energy. As a result, the blade can slow down and generate excessive heat. The problem with the presence of excessive heat is that it tends to lead to the wood or other material burning.
What Are The Best Miter Blades?
A variety of different miter blades out on the market can make it daunting when trying to choose the right one. However, you don’t need to fear as we have gone through all of these options and found the best blades that you can use to conduct cutting operations effectively. Here’s what we found:
Freud D12100X 100 Tooth Diablo Ultra Fine Circular Saw Blade
The Freud D12100X 100 is one of the best high-quality blades out there. Along with this, it’s also one very popular 12-inch blade. One of the reasons for its popularity is that it has a size of miter saws blades 12 inches.
One slight downfall is that it has a pretty steep price tag. However, the fantastic features that come with Freud D12100X 100 make the price worthwhile.
The Freud D12100X is equipped with a 100 tooth count. This 100 tooth count makes it possible to provide super smooth cuts. Not to mention, the Freud d12100X has a 12-inch blade that provides thin kerf. Due to this, the wastage of material is limited.
IRWIN 10-Inch Miter Saw Blade, Classic Series, Steel Table (11870)
This is possibly the best 10-inch miter saw blade on our list. The 10 in saw blade is equipped with a tooth count of 180. That’s extremely impressive as it’s got 100 more teeth than most 10-inch miter saw blade reviews, which only have an 80 tooth count.
This feature makes it one of the best miter saw blades on this list, as it provides incredibly smooth cuts, and these cuts are made very accurately. Not to mention, it’s one affordable 10-inch blade. The 10-inch blade is also extremely thin and offers a thin kerf of 0.09 inches. Due to this, the waste materials are kept to a minimum.
This 10-inch blade also offers micro-grain carbide teeth, which aid in the durability of the 10-inch blade. The carbide-tipped teeth also allow you to cut a lot of metal materials without wearing down your 10-inch blade.
Makita A-93681 10-Inch 80 Tooth Micro Polished Mitersaw Blade
These miter saws blades offer 80 teeth. This makes it one of the best miter blades as this 80 tooth count provides very clean and crisp cuts. This is the ideal 80 tooth blade if you’re looking for quality blades for your smaller miter saws. The carbide teeth are hardened to aid in durability.
The 80 tooth design is equipped with a blade that has an alternative design and alternative top, which allows the 80 teeth to provide precise cuts. The 80 tooth count also features micro-grain carbide teeth that generate the perfect finish cuts.