If you’ve recently bought yourself a circular saw you might be interested to know that you can also buy a range of different circular saw blades for it, to maximize its effectiveness for the different jobs you might want to do with it. With the price of power tools being so reasonable now it really is pointless laboring away with hand saws when a circular saw can do the job in no time at all. Of course having the right circular saw blade will help so, whether you’re an occasional DIYer or a home enthusiast that just can’t stop improving your home, read on.

Circular Saw Blade Sizes

There are three main types of circular saw that you’ll most likely have, which often accommodate different sizes of circular saw blades. Not surprisingly the most popular circular saw is also the least expensive to buy; the standard one. The standard circular saw, that will simply cut through timber and will typically take blades up to 6 inches in diameter, meaning that you will have a cutting depth of around 2 inches.

You can also get an advanced circular saw that takes blades up to about 71/2 inches, giving a deeper cutting capability. These can often be adjusted to cut at an angle for miters and bevels. However, the professional standard circular saw is a compound miter saw that will enable you to make precision cuts, miters and bevels through a variety of materials. The very best compound miter saws will even have laser guides for cutting accuracy. Any of these circular saws can come with, or have added to them, a vacuum dust extraction hood system.

When picking a blade for your circular saw there are some basics you need to follow. Firstly, do make sure you’re buying the correct size of circular saw blade, otherwise you will feel embarrassed, not to say inconvenienced, if you have to return to the DIY store to exchange it for the correct size.

When checking the size of the blade at the DIY store also check the bore of the blade, that is to say the diameter of the hole in the center that you will fix the blade to the saw through - these can be anything from ½ inch to 11/4 inch. Finally, make sure you choose a tooth size, number and pattern to suit the job you need to do, which we’ll now discuss in some more detail.

Blade Types

The pattern, or arrangement, of the teeth on your blade is what really determines the type of circular saw blade you’re using. As with a hand saw; off-set teeth give medium to fine cuts whilst the cleanest cuts will be made with lots of fine, flat, trapezoid shaped teeth. A rip saw blade will have a few flat but large teeth, that will give a coarse cut, but will also cut through even the toughest of woods quickly.

A chisel tooth blade is pretty well considered to be the universal circular saw blade for timber cutting, and is suitable for most jobs. The teeth on this blade look like chisel ends being rectangular in appearance. If you want to cross-cut timbers you should use a pointed tooth blade to get a reasonable finish; whilst for laminated boards and things like engineered woods a fine toothed blade is ideal.

Finally you can get carbide tipped circular saw blades. These are also a universal saw blade capable of cutting most materials with a fine finish. However, they are particularly effective if you want to cut laminates.