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Find the Best Circular Saw Blade for Every Cut

Photo credit: Staff
Photo credit: Staff

From Popular Mechanics

Many people disdain the 7-1/4-inch circular saw. They say that it’s only good for cutting lumber for house framing or concrete forms. While the saw is ideal for those purposes, you can also use it to make furniture-grade cuts in wood, cut steel or aluminum, reduce unwieldly sheets of plywood to more manageable sizes, and do heavy demolition cuts through lumber that has nails in it.

The saw’s versatility is enabled by the right blade, matched precisely to the job, whether it’s cutting a thick piece of structural steel or guiding the saw along a fence to cut plywood cabinet parts to finished dimensions. Of course, proper technique helps, and you need a heavy-duty extension cord, a pair of safety glasses and some hearing protection. And we have some selections to help with that, too.

What we’ve done below is match the saw blade to the job and material that you’ll be cutting. We’ve selected these blades based on our experience with the product or having made cuts with the predecessor product by the same manufacturer.

Scroll through this report to find the right blade, but then keep scrolling to the bottom for safety tips and insights that will help you safely and efficiently cut any material.


Cut Framing Lumber

Almost all cuts in framing lumber are across the grain. And there are two ways to cut it: rough and fast or a bit more slowly and with a higher cut quality. As with any saw blade, the fewer the teeth, the faster but rougher the cut. Conversely, with more teeth and more sophisticated tooth geometry, you give up cut speed but increase the smoothness of the finished surface, and along the way you also gain a little extra versatility to cut something that needs to look good when you’re done. Think of the carpentry skill required to make storage and shelves, fences, and decks. You want to have some semblance of cut quality here, rather than have everything look like it was cut with a chainsaw.


Avanti P0718R000000002

Number of teeth: 18 | Purpose: Rapid cuts in framing lumber

This is your basic carbide-tooth blade for cutting framing lumber. It permits a rapid but coarse cut. You don’t need anything special for this work; just a good quality, tough blade that doesn’t cost a lot of money. That’s what you have here.


Diablo D0724R

Number of teeth: 24 | Purpose: Rapid cuts in framing lumber, fence building, deck construction, shelves.

The manufacturer says this blade’s unique triangular tooth geometry, that it calls a tracking point, provides five times the cutting life of standard carbide tooth blades. We haven’t verified that, but we have been impressed with every other 24-tooth Diablo blade that we have used for wood and metal, so it seems plausible to us.


DeWalt DW3191

Number of teeth: 18 | Purpose: Rapid demolition cuts in framing lumber with nails in it, cutting lumber for concrete forms, recycling salvaged lumber.

In remodeling, framing and demolition may go hand in hand. You have to be prepared to move seamlessly from one to the other. Cut some clean lumber and build; cut through some existing structural components and remove. Then back to framing. Rinse and repeat until the job is done. This coarse-cutting DeWalt blade has an extra stout shoulder behind each tooth to handle the impact that occurs in nail-embedded lumber.


Cut Plywood, Hardwood, Vinyl, Melamine

Plywood, particle board, and particle board covered with a thin skin of melamine plastic or plastic laminate can be more difficult to cut than framing lumber. In most cases, it requires saw blades with a carbide tooth and a tooth geometry shaped to endure the abrasive nature of this work.


Diablo D0740R


Number of teeth: 40 | Purpose: Primarily crosscuts in plywood and hardwood but will also rip.

This blade splits the difference between ripping and crosscutting by providing enough teeth to make a smooth crosscut, but angling them relative to the saw’s circumference to enable it to rip. In both cases, the blade is designed to leave a smooth edge, requiring little work with a sander or plane.


Craftsman CMAS2725140

Number of teeth: 140 | Purpose: Rip and crosscut plywood, door skins, veneers and vinyl siding.

This is about as simple and traditional a high-tooth-count blade as you can find. Its tooth configuration (height of each tooth, shape, and angle relative to the saw’s circumference) allow it to predictably rip and crosscut most types of plywood with a minimum of tear out. This is particularly important with very thin applications (1/4 inch or thinner) such as door skin material or those used in boatbuilding. The same features that allow it to cut thin plywood also help it to cut vinyl siding.


Freud LU79R007

Number of teeth: 60 Purpose: Crosscuts melamine, plywood and laminate-covered.

Melamine (particle board faced with a veneer of melamine plastic) is notoriously difficult to cut cleanly with a circular saw, a deficiency this blade aims to correct. In the case of this blade, it’s not so much the tooth number or hook angle, but the geometry of each tooth which is ground to a specialized variation of the tooth profile known as alternate top bevel (ATB) that produces a shearing cut as it moves through the material.


Cut Steel and Non-Ferrous Metals

You can safely cut steel and aluminum with a circular saw, providing you have the right blade. These blades are rated for steel plate, pipe and conduit, and shapes such as L, U, and squares; some blades are also designed for cutting the same shapes in aluminum, and a few blades are even rated for making the cut in stainless steel, a notoriously difficult material to cut. Note that if wearing eye protection is important when cutting wood, it’s even more important when cutting steel. You’ll also need cut-resistant work gloves and hearing protection. Finally, watch your feed rate. Cutting steel requires a slow and steady feed rate and be sure that the cutoff piece is either adequately supported so it doesn’t pinch against the blade or that it can freely fall away.


Diablo D0748R

Number of teeth: 48 | Purpose: Cuts various types of steel pipe and tubing, and steel shapes and plates up to 1/14 inch. Rated to cut threaded rod up to 1-1/2 inches maximum diameter.

Each of the 48 teeth on this blade are tipped with a ceramic-carbide material known as Cermet. It’s about as tough a material as you can find on a circular saw blade, which explains why this blade is rated for even stainless steel.


Irwin 4935560

Number of teeth: 68 | Purpose: Thin sheet steel, metal roofing, exterior metal trim.

Not all metal-cutting circular saw blades will cut thin sheet materials such a roofing and metal trim. To cut thin materials, you need a blade with more teeth and a tooth configuration that will not grab and tear, but that will act like a sheet metal nibbler. Those characteristics are what Irwin designed into this blade.


Oshlun SBNF-0725650

Number of teeth: 60 | Purpose: Aluminum shapes such as rod, plate, tubing and shapes such as L and U, also cuts copper plate, pipe and tubing.

Aluminum is not a particularly hard material but it can be difficult to cut unless the blade has teeth shaped specifically to deal with the loading problems that occur with aluminum (metal chips can stick to the blade, create excessive heat, and prevent it from cutting). Oshlun’s blade cuts aluminum and other non-ferrous materials such as copper and bronze.


Safety First

Having the right safety gear is as important as having the right saw blade. Never operate a circular saw without safety glasses. Work gloves are optional, but they can save you from a nasty splinter–wood or metal. Hearing protection is advised, too. Cutting wood is loud; cutting metal is even louder.

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