Have saw blades ever been more high-tech?

I spent a few hours at the Mississauga office of Freud, the saw blade people, yesterday. They gave me demos of their new and forthcoming circular saw blades. And they showed my some carbide tipped recip saw blades that were cutting through thick galvanized nails embedded in lumber as if the nails were made of plastic (seriously, they barely paused when cutting clean through them).

There was a time when tools came in “good, better and best” categories. You basically had about THREE levels of quality when you went to buy a tool at your local hardware store.

Now, “good” and “better” isn’t being marketed to pro contractors like you any more. Now the words you hear often are “best in class.” And then you sometimes hear “next generation.”

Freud’s efforts to reach “best in class” and “next generation” in the circ saw blade market includes, on their “Premier Fusion” saw blades line, what they call “Fusion Trio Tooth Design.”

This means that there are three different geometric angles to the carbide tips on these particular saw blades…

– A 30-degree cutting face that makes the surface of the cut razor-sharp and clean.

– An “axial sheer face grind” that speeds up the feed rate

– A “double side grind” that polishes the face of the rip or cross-cut lumber.

A further point of interest is how Freud has more or less taken over the “red blade” marketing angle. The next time you see a home improvement show and see a celebrity contractor wielding a Milwaukee, DeWalt, Bosch, etc. circ saw, take a look to see if there is a red blade in there – which is most likely a Freud. You may not notice the blade, which is why blade manufacturers have a tougher time getting name recognition that the power tool manufacturers do. But, from this angle, Freud is doing a pretty cool job with their marketing.

If you have a favourite circ saw blade/brand, feel free to tell us about it here, and why you think it gives you the right balance of price and performance.