Selecting Guide for Reciprocating Saw Blade
Reciprocating saws are one of the foremost versatile tools available. A part of that versatility comes from the vast array of blades available for cutting through a good range of materials. With the proper blade, a saw can traverse wood, fiberglass, plaster, masonry, and metals, including aluminum, cast iron, steel, and even high-strength alloys.
But how to choose the right blade for your reciprocating saw?
There are many blades available in the market, and each of them possesses different characteristics, including blade material, length, width, thickness, and teeth-per-inch (TPI).
How to Select the Right Blade for Reciprocating Saw?
There are different types of reciprocating saw blades on the market today. Choosing the proper one is essential. Most Reciprocating Saw Blades are made from steel, hot-work steel, bi-metal, or carbide grit. Here's what you ought to know about the various reciprocating saw blade types:
Blade Material
Carbon steel blades are the main inexpensive type and also the foremost common. They're the softest of the blade materials and tend to be more flexible to permit bending without breaking within the proper application. That also makes them the smallest amount durable. They're suitable for cutting softer wood, fiberboard, and plastics. They quickly get dull when used on hardwood, metal, and other hard materials.
High-speed steel blades are made with a tempering process that creates them more heat-resistant and sturdy than their steel counterparts. These blades last up to five times longer than steel blades. The hardness of the HSS blades makes them less flexible and thus more susceptible to breaking when bent. It also allows them to chop hardwoods, aluminum, and non-ferrous metal without dulling, excessive wear, and tooth breakage.
Bi-Metal Blades include a high-carbon steel body for flexibility and break-resistance and hot-work steel teeth for heat-resistance, hardness, and sturdiness. Bi-metal blades last ten times longer than a steel blade. While the value slightly quiets HSS or HCS blades, they provide flexibility and toughness for more demanding applications. It makes them the main popular blade type among people within the trades, auto yards, and other professions.
Other bi-metal blades use a cobalt-steel alloy leading edge. It provides greater heat-resistance, wear-resistance, and overall longer blade life. These blades are suitable for multiple jobs, including demolition (nail-embedded wood), auto dismantling, sheet and pipe cutting, and standard wood cutting.
Carbide tipped Sawzall blades also are bi-metal blades, but with a carbide (tungsten carbide or titanium carbide) tip at the top of every tooth. These carbide blades are tough, heat-resistant, and impact-resistant. They also offer 20 times the cutting life of a typical bi-metal blade. They can cut thicker pieces of metal, including forged iron, chrome steel, and high-strength alloys. They are the ideal choice for cutting metals that might soon destroy an HCS, HSS, or traditional bi-metal blades, like grade 8 bolts and boron reinforced auto pillars.
Carbide grit blades (typically tungsten carbide) do not have teeth, sort of a traditional Sawzall blade. They need an abrasive strip used for cutting dense materials like ceramic tile, cement, brick, marble, other stone, and masonry. The carbide grit's hardness allows it to chop these materials without damaging them or wearing them out prematurely.
Diamond blades also are abrasive but use diamonds rather than carbide. These are the foremost expensive saber saw blades. They're used to cut concrete, glass, fiberglass, and ceramic and cut fiber cement, cast iron, and masonry. The hardness of diamonds and the abrasive grit's fineness is essential to chop brittle material like glass and hard and dense material like concrete.