Differences In Saw Blade Tooth Count?

Our Expert

A forty tooth general purpose blade, such as the Amana Prestige, uses an alternate top bevel, or ATB, grind. The top of the teeth are ground left and right which shears the wood for very clean crosscuts. However, this type of grind is a bit slower when ripping. Most of the time I keep the Amana Prestige, an ATB blade, on the tablesawbecause I'm cutting furniture parts to size and cutting joints. The ATB grind of the Prestige provides clean cuts regardless of the wood, the type of grain, or the grain direction. This is important to me because I'm often cutting expensive highly figured stock. The forty teeth on the Prestige are enough to create very clean crosscuts but, unlike a 60 or 80-tooth crosscut blade, the Prestige will do a good job of ripping, too. However, the trade-off is that the ATB grind is not as efficient at ripping as a 4-and-1 grind, combination blade.

The traditional "combination" blade, such as Amana no.610504, uses a 4-and-1 grind, or four ATB teeth in a group with a flat topped raker tooth. The four ATB teeth shear the grain for clean crosscuts; as the name implies, the raker tooth rakes the kerf to clear away sawdust for more efficient ripping. The large gullet behind each group of five teeth also works to efficiently remove the sawdust from the kerf.

Whenever I have a lot of hardwood stock to rip, I switch to a true rip blade such as the Amana no.610240. The flat top grind and large gullets make ripping fast and efficient.