Diablo Circular Saw Blades
*This post is sponsored by The Home Depot
With so many great options available from Diablo, it might be hard to decide which blade you should use for your projects. You might think more teeth will always be better, but that’s not true!
Generally with blades, you want fewer teeth for rip cuts (with the grain) and more teeth for cross cuts (across the grain).
Here’s a quick run down of what some of these different circular saw blades are made to do.
First of all, it’s important to know what size blade you need for your circular saw. The most common size is 7-1/4”, but there are smaller sizes available too.
Let’s look at the 6-1/2” 24 tooth Framing blade first. This is the perfect blade to make cuts on 2x4’s using your 6-1/2” circular saw.
With 24 Teeth this blade will cut really quickly through the material but it’s not for finish carpentry. This blade is great for framing or making rough cuts. When framing on a job site, speed is usually more important than a little tear out, so this is the blade to use.
This blade is great for rip cuts because it has a low tooth count, which allows the blade to remove material quicker. When crosscutting it has the opposite affect, not enough teeth will cause some chip out.
A great feature is that it’s a super thin kerf blade, meaning the cut the blade makes is very thin, which is awesome for two reasons. One, you will waste less material. Two, because it’s so thin and light weight it’s the best blade to use with an underpowered saw.
If you want even faster cutting, Diablo has a 5-1/2” 18 Tooth Fast Framing Saw Blade. The smaller blade means you will get more bang for your buck with a cordless tool because it uses less power to cut. Just make sure it’s the right size for your saw.
This blade comes with bushings (1/2”, 5/8”, 10mm and 20 mm), so it can be used with saws that have different sized arbors.
If you are looking for cleaner cross cuts, you’re going to need a blade with more teeth…. like the 6-1/2” 40 Tooth Finish Blade. Because this blade has more teeth, it will be a slower cut, so not the best option if you’re rough cutting or rip cutting, but great for finish cross cuts.
This is also the blade you want to use with plywood. When cutting plywood, more teeth leads to cleaner plywood cuts.
Diablo also makes some great blades that can easily cut through steel like their 7-1/4” 48 tooth Steel Demon Metal cutting blade.
But if you don’t want to get a blade that’s dedicated to metal cutting, their 6-1/2” 32 teeth Wood & Metal Blade is a great option.
Diablo is the first in the industry to make a multi-purpose saw blade that cuts both wood and metal cleanly and easily. This is great if you are cutting wood that has nails embedded in it, or straight up cutting metal that’s up to 1/4” wall thickness like, steel studs, channel, angle iron, pipe, tubing, plate and bar stock. It can also cut threaded rod up to 1” in diameter, pretty cool!
The best part about using a circular saw blade like this to cut metal is that it leaves a burr free cut. The cut is super clean, so there is no need to file anything down after you’ve made your cut.
Wait, no! The best part about using a blade like this is not having to swap out your blade when you’re working with different materials!
There are a ton of different options when it comes to circular saw blades, sometimes it could be hard to choose… but picking the right blade is easy once you break it down.
1 - Know what size blade you need.
2 - Know what material you are cutting.
3 - If that material is wood, will you be cross cutting or rip cutting?
4 - Determine what is important to you, speed or quality of cut.
After you know all those things, you just have to decide on brand. I have never been disappointed by a blade from Diablo so that is the easiest decision of all.
I acknowledge that The Home Depot is partnering with me to participate in the ProSpective 2018 Campaign. As a part of the Program, I am receiving compensation in the form of products and services, for the purpose of promoting The Home Depot. All expressed opinions and experiences are my own words. My post complies with the Worth of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) Ethics code and applicable Federal Trade Commission guidelines.