Selecting Saw Blades for Table Saws
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There are hundreds of different table saw blades available from many, many different manufacturers so how do you begin by selecting the one you need. There are probably a number of blades that will work for you so narrowing down what works best for the amount of money you want to spend is a simple matter of knowing the basiscs. This article along with the video will help eveyone new to woodworking, gain the knowledge to make wiser choices when selecting table saw blades.
There are 3 questions you want to ask yourself when looking for table saw blades, 1) - What material will you be cuting 2) - What machine do you have (table saw, mitre saw and what size, 9 inch, 10 inch, 12 inch and is horse power or amperage of the saw) and finally 3) - what is the purpose of what you are doing - furniture making, building a fence or a chicken coup or installing crown molding. 3 very relevant questions that will all come together to help you find the best blade(s) for your use.
Watch this and other similar videos on YouTube - https://youtu.be/qUHxMsL-e6o
Easily the most popular table saw blades on the market right now are 10 inch blades and also the widest selection. There are basically 2 types of blades, Full Kerf - approx 1/8" (kerf referrs to the width of the saw blade tooth) and Thin Kerf - approx 3/32".
Full kerf blades are thicker teeth, thicker steel bodies and heavier blades. They are used in bigger more powerful saws. Full kerf blades have more carbide in their teeth which means the teeth stay sharper longer, and they can be resharpened more more times than thin kerf. Full kerf blades will cut a wider swath so they will use up more material and will create slightly more saw dust and shavings. Full kerf will be slightly harder to push material through as the width of the blades is slightly wider. Full kerf blades are often preferred by commercial and industrial businesses that are using saw blades constantly as these blades withstand harder more rugged use and can be resharpened more often.
I do not know of any other working medium that uses more tips and jigs than woodworking. There are so many tricks and adaptions that can be made to make woodworking easier and safer ... the whole thing could be an industry of it's own.
as invented way back in the early 1920s by a company that later changed it name to Skil. The tool was SO POPULAR that for decades people referred to every circular saw as as "skil saw", which is the same kind of thing that happened with Hoover. The company name became synonymous with what it did. Even today I hear people sometimes calling circular saws "Skil Saws" and if you tell someone you need to do some "hoovering" they know you really mean vacuum cleaning. Funny how that goes ... but I digress. The circular saw is arguably one of the most popular power tools on the planet. The only thing that might bump it would be the power drill.
