Choosing the best table saw blade largely depends upon the types of cuts you’ll be making and the material you’ll be cutting. To clarify things better, we would like to let you know about some of the cuts you usually need to make with the table saw blade; they are ripping, crosscutting, joinery, and sawing. These cuts are performed on different materials, such as plywood, hardwood, metal, plastic, and various boards like melamine, MDF, etc.
The next thing you need to know about the blade is its type. In general, four types of knives are used on table saws, such as:
FTG Blades
The Flat-Top Grind blades are usually the low tooth count (22 – 24 teeth) blades that are mostly used to work long rip cuts quickly. These blades can get through the materials quickly while you have a long piece of lumber or plywood to feed into the saw. But the cuts are not as smooth as you would want them to be; however, they are subjected to further sawing, which makes them pretty alright even if they are not stable.
ATB & ATBR Blades
The ATB (Alternate-Top Bevel) & ATBR (Alternate-Top Bevel Raker) combination blades are two different types of blades that work well for ripping and crosscutting by producing much cleaner cuts. But these 40, 50, or the 80-tooth ATB or combination blades are much more slow-going, especially for hardwoods. As a result, they will be prone to binding if you do not use the right quality blade. For the crosscuts and the mitres, you generally face problems with tear-outs; in that case, you need to use a comparatively high tooth count (more than 50) ATB blade or one premium quality (ATBR) combination blade. Despite being great shearers producing cleaner cuts, the ATB’s main setback is the slow feeding, making them impractical for longer rips.
TCG Blades
When you look to get a clean cut on particleboard or plywood, you will have to use a 50 or higher tooth count ATB blade. However, getting a tear-out is very much likely if your blade is not imperative. In such a case, you should use a TCG (Triple Chip Grind) blade that can withstand dense and rugged materials like non-ferrous metals (metals except iron and steel) and plastic. Therefore, the TCG blade can also call as a metal saw blade.
In this buyers’ guide, we’ve taken a thorough look at some of the best table saw table blades out there. In addition, this guide helped us develop a shortlist of the best-reviewed ones, which are also the top-rated picks by customers.
Here you may be looking for an excellent all-purpose saw blade or one that can improve the quality of your cuts over a broader range of materials. We are sure that you would be able to find something from the list that can help upgrade the overall performance of your table saw.
The best type of blades for Rip-Cutting
When you are up for a rough-ripping to break down a board into little-oversized parts, you will love to have a 24-tooth FTG table saw blade as it quickly rips down even through the thick hardwoods. It doesn’t provide smoother cuts, but that should not be a problem as they are supposed to be sawn for the final dimensions later. If you want cleaner cuts and an almost finished surface, then the 40 to 50-tooth ATB and combination blades will do the trick for you. However, it won’t rip as quickly as a 24-tooth blade, and feeding the thick hardwoods will be much slower going.
The best type of blades for Cross-Cutting
The more teeth your blades have, the cleaner the cut will be; this is why most of the crosscutting blades have around 60 to 100 ATB teeth. This kind of blade excels at getting the cleanest mitres and crosscuts.
The slicing with the 40-tooth ATB or 50-tooth combination blade will not be as clean as the 80- or 100-tooth blade, but they are good enough for regular crosscutting jobs. An excellent quality 40-tooth ATB blade can match the performance of an average 80-tooth blade. But again, it is better to have these all-purpose combination blades if your job includes crosscutting, mitring, or cutting delicate sheet-like plywood.
The best type of blades for cutting joinery
Sawing joints require you to have a premium quality table saw blade that can cut across or with the grains to create the glue-ready joins. Unfortunately, if you’re sawing joints, you have no getting around that a high-quality blade is needed. In that case, you may need to spend more money on something like the Woodworker II to get halfway decent results.
The best type of blades for sheet goods
Sheet goods include particleboard, MDF, melamine, and Corian board. Here, the best table saw blade performance mostly depends on the materials. These boards are all reasonably dense materials that can be hard on saw teeth. To cut these kinds of stuff, you need an ATB blade that can wear down the pointy tips more swiftly than most of the solid woods will. The shearing action of the blades provides cleaner cuts in this type of chip-prone material, making it a fair trade-off; however, they will get worn out quickly if cut with the standard ATB blades. So investing in this TCG blade for this kind of purpose is instead worth spending money on. Otherwise, your ATB blades would be taking trips to the sharpeners sooner than you would expect.
Blades for the non-ferrous metals, plastic laminates, and other composites
When it comes to any non-wooden materials like non-ferrous metals or plastic laminates, or other similar composites, you should not leave with any alternative option except using an excellent Triple Chip Grind (TCG) blade.
Reviews of the Best Table Saw Blades
Freud Thin Kerf Rip Blade (LU87R010)
Best Table Saw Blade for Rip Cuts
You can get frustrated while making rip cuts unless you have two critical things: the right table saw and the right table saw blade. It’s generally tricky to make a good quality rip cut than it is to make a good quality crosscut. When folks rip the boards to width, most of the time, you will see they’re creating many long passes on the bigger sheet of materials; this is why you want to have a blade with fewer teeth to go through any content quickly.
The 24-tooth Freud FTG blades are the unique option you have for the long and trickier rips. You have the option of using the all-purpose ATB blades or the combination blades, but you will find a slower in-feed that will make you run into binding much more often.
Features
- 10 Inch Blade Diameter
- 24-Tooth
- Flat Grind
- .625 inch Arbor
- .094 inch Kerf
- 20-degree Hook Angle
- Premium Quality TiCo HI-Density Carbide Ripping Blend that allows maximum performance
- Thin Kerf provides a quicker feed rate and reduces waste
- Blades’ ideal thickness ranges from .75 inches to 2.75 inches, allowing you to use it on the plywoods and the normal lumbers.
Advantages
- Top-rated ripping blade (perfect 5-star Amazon rating)
- Thin Kerf provides a quicker feed-rate and the least amount of waste
- The blade comes in many different sizes, starting from 8 inches to 12 inches, and mitre saws
Disadvantages
- Not purposed nor even works well on the chipboards or laminates
Freud D1060X Diablo Table Saw Blade
Best Table Saw Blade for Plywood
We have seen above the 22-24-tooth table saw blade Freud Thin Kerf review, which can produce somewhat alright results on 0.75-inch plywood, but unfortunately, you’ll get tear-out at a point in time. So, it’s time for ATB blades with a higher tooth count to produce much smoother results on plywoods thinner than 0.75 inches.
The best in the business is the Diablo 1060X ATB blade with 60-tooth that has proven its high-performance capabilities time and time again. So it has been the top choice for a wide range of plywoods belonging to different materials.
Even though this is the #1 choice we have for cutting through the plywoods, the blade can also prove a perfect all-purpose blade that can produce excellent results on a wide range of woods. It can even show good performance on different stubborn type species like mahogany, oak, walnut, and maple (and it is even harder than people using it on bamboo and getting good results).
Features
- 10 inch saw blade diameter
- 60 Tooth ATB Fine Finish Saw Blade
- .625 inch Arbor and PermaShield Coating
- It is a 10x60T Diablo Blade
- Easy to use on hard things
- Manufactured in Italy
Advantages
- It provides a great finish-quality cut on plywoods as thin as .25 inch
- It provides good cuts on tough hardwoods as well
- Available in a pack of 5 for larger projects
- It works pretty well on any thin veneer sheet goods
Disadvantages
- Available in only one size (10 inches for the table or mitre saws)
Diablo d1050X Combination Blade
Best ‘All-Purpose’ Table Saw Blade
If you have a multi-purpose woodworking shop, you’re probably looking for the do-everything kind of saw blade; then the Diablo d1050X is our pick in the category of the best all-purpose blade.
However, sometimes the “do it all” kind of recommendations and claims can consider as a negative complement, and we prefer not to come up with anything like this. Yet, we recommend it because we know that many DIYers try operating on a minimum basis in terms of woodworking jobs and are not interested in spending a lot of money on anything too premium.
We want to inform you that if we were to pick any single blade for the remaining table-sawing jobs in our lives, it would have to be this particular blade. This blade can produce rip cuts, crosscuts, and satisfactory results on almost every material, from plywoods to laminates measuring 2 x 4 inches.
This blade is called the (ATBR) combination blade. These 50-tooth blades pack in 10 different sets of 5, including 4 ATB teeth and one FTG blade. They feature little gaps to minimize the vibration.
Features
- Arbor and PermaShield Coating
- 10-inch table saw blade diameter
- 50-tooth ATB Combination Saw Blade
- .625 inch Arbor and PermaShield Coating
- 10x50T Diablo Blade
- Easy to use ATBR blade
- Manufactured in Italy
Advantages
- Great value for the price
- Stabilized gaps between the sets of 5-tooth disallow any real vibration
- Unique engineering that helps to expand when the blade is hot and maintain a perfect cut by reducing warp on the longer rips
Disadvantages
- Available in only one size (10 inches for mitre or table saw)
Forrest WW10407125 Woodworker II
Best Pro-Quality Woodworking Table Saw Blade
Are you more than a rookie in your DIY woodworking career, or have you taken it as a profession where you feel you have reached the pro level and need a transition to pro equipment? If you have, then this Woodworker II ATB table saw blade is the one with the best general-purpose blades ever made for woodworking.
It would be best if you had come up to see this blade has been used in numerous professional carpenter shops. This blade is probably the best choice for furniture makers and professional carpenters. One of the top-rated tables saw blades for hands down and joinery.
Why is it unique?
To put it simply, we would say that this blade was built with fantastic craftsmanship and materials. This blade is hand-made one by one, using the C-4 carbide teeth. This hand brazed to the plate, and also, each unit is hand tensioned to perfect specifications before striking the shelf.
It provides a sanded finish for the long and tricky rip cuts, and the crosscuts are also guaranteed to appear as the splinter-free ones. Also, the performance of the blades is exceptional on the plywoods and other similar thin-veneer sheets, which can be notorious for getting tear-out.
We do not say getting this blade is enough for you to be a master carpenter, but one thing it truly deserves is the appraisal for its guaranteed and safe performance.
Features
- 10 inch 40 Tooth ATB blade
- .125 inch Kerf Saw Blade with .625 inch Arbor
- A thin kerf saw can save up to .25″ on the wood loss for each cut.
- Tooth style:15-degree ATB, 20-degree face hook
Advantages
- This woodworker II is an ‘all-purpose’ blade that can use to make rip-cuts or also make crosscuts or trim plywoods or any other boards with a thickness of up to 2 inches.
- Made in the USA
- It is possible to send the blade back into the Forest
- Minimum Kerf can save .125 inches of material on each cut
- From the least to no – jump, burning, splintering, or tear-out saw
Disadvantages
- Very expensive
- Available in only one 10 inch size
IRWIN Tools 1807381 Marples Triple Chip Grind (TCG Blade)
Best Table Saw Blade for Sheet Goods: MDF, Particle Board, and Non-Ferrous Metal
The average DIYers do not usually come up with materials such as metals, plastics, or other different composite materials and spend some good time with them on the table saw. It is also essential to inform you that there will inevitably be a point when you need to cut a piece of some chipboard like aluminium, copper, melamine, Corian, or similarly different ones. When you do, you know you are up against a strong enemy, and you certainly do not want to use the excellent woodworking blades on them and go for some harsher treatments. These materials provide wear down of teeth a lot faster than the jackrabbit does on the ice skates.
After such a long preface, we would like to inform you that these ‘non-wood’ conditions require a TCG blade to get them through. These blades are specially engineered and designed to smoothly tear through the plastic laminates, particle boards, dense composites, and non-ferrous metals. To cut through steel and iron, you will need to use a ferrous blade like this or the grating cut-off disc.
The IRWIN Marples comparatively prices a bit high. Still, at the same time, you should realize that the price is more than justified for its exceptional performance, and this has to be your top choice when it is about going through sturdy materials like this.
This IRWIN is a premium blade made and finely crafted in Italy, and it is also one of the top-selling table saw blades on the Amazon website, which has more than 600 4/5-star customer reviews.
In the main, if you’re in search of the best cutting table saw blade for metal, plastic/PVC, or particleboard, then this is the perfect one for you.
Features
- Laser Cut blade
- 10-inch table saw blade diameter
- 84-Tooth Triple Chip Grind (TCG) Circular Saw Blade
- Designed for cutting Non-Ferrous Metals, Laminates, and Melamine on a Table Saw or Miter Saw
- Triple Chip Grind Tooth that alternates between the flat raking tooth and the Trapezoid shaped tooth
Advantages
- Available in a lot of different sizes to fit the table, mitre, and circular saw blade
- Provides amazing results on the veneer plywoods and the fragile composite mouldings
- Made in Italy
Disadvantages
- It’s hard to find one, but you may say the price, although it isn’t too bad for such a quality blade.
#1 Top Pick for the Best Table Saw Blade
Our hand-picked top table saw blades are applicable for various materials and cuts. This way, making a list should help you choose the right one for your job. But again, if you want the best, best means the overall best, or we can say the #1 pick regardless of criteria, you should go to the below section to find out which is our winner for this competition.
We have one recommendation for you as the #1 top pick among all of the listed above. Generally, we don’t like to recommend any specific product or tool as an end-all, be-all solution to any obstacle or situation you are supposed to come across. However, people want to see one clear winner without really bothering about the whole research. In this case, the clear winner is the single blade that we would love to pick for our table saw to use over the broadest range of materials and different cutting scenarios; we will go with the Diablo 1050X Combination Blade. As we have mentioned earlier, this is a fantastic, high-rated blade that can produce great results on just about anything. It has to be the go-to workhorse nine out of ten times when you headed to the garage for busting out the table saw.
Conclusion
The blades can consider as the life of any saw. Without having a proper saw blade, the cutting tasks will not be enjoyable, and they will be rather frustrating. Our article intended to save you from such frustration by helping you to choose the best table saw blade for your woodworking job. There are several blades for the table saw, but here we have mentioned the top picks for you to make things much more convenient. Besides discussing the types of blade, material, and some top picks, we also recommended our #1 pick for the overall table saw blades. We hope this has been a complete guide to help you choose the best blade for your table saw and make you a better carpenter.