Blades for Wood

Wood cutting jigsaw blades are typically available in two versions, High Carbon Steel (HCS) and Bi-Metal construction which uses a HCS body with a High Speed Steel (HSS) cutting edge welded onto it. HCS jigsaw blades are relatively low cost but offer limited service life, Bi-Metal blades are more expensive to purchase initially but offer far greater service life making them more economical in the long run. Jigsaw blades used to cut wood have different tooth geometries and teeth arrangements depending on two main factors, speed of cut and quality of finish. Ground teeth are used on virtually all wood cutting jigsaw blades as this manufacturing method provides the tooth with a sharp cutting edge. Clearing the waste material during the cutting process is very important in order to keep cutting speeds high, reduce burning and prevent machine overload, this is normally achieved by having alternate teeth point slightly to the left or right known as set or by grinding the back of the blade to be slightly thinner than the front cutting edge, known as taper ground. Side set blades offer the fastest cutting speed but limit the quality of finish, taper ground blades are slower to cut but make very clean cutting possible. The cutting action of all jigsaws is performed on the up-stroke which is why the teeth on all jigsaw blades point upwards towards the tang (with the exception of a handful of blades that have special triple ground teeth permitting a horizontal tooth arrangement). Laminated board materials such as worktops are prone to splintering when cut with a jigsaw as the decorative surface laminate is pulled upwards during the cutting action which often causes tiny fractures of the very brittle surface covering leaving tiny chips at the cut line. This can be overcome by using a blade that has the same taper ground teeth as an upward cutting jigsaw blade but has its teeth pointing downwards, forcing the brittle laminate back into the base board and therefore eliminating any surface chips, these are known as downward or reverse cut blades. Jigsaw blades are completely unsupported once the blade reaches below the base plate of the machine, this makes achieving a 90 degree cut difficult, particularly in thick substrates such as work top. Despite the best efforts of power tool manufacturers to improve the straightness of cut using roller guides and blade clamps the simplest solution is to use a blade which is thicker and therefore less prone to waiver. Mafell has taken this concept one step further by removing rollers and guides from their jigsaw completely and welding two blades together to eliminate any flex in the blade ensuring 90 degree cuts are made each and every time. As jigsaw machines are primarily designed to make contour cuts, the width of the blade can have a significant affect on how tight a curve the machine can follow. Narrow blades, often referred to as scroll blades are approximtely half the width of a traditional wood cutting jigsaw blade allowing the machine to make tight turns and even cut circles which can be ideal for cutting around pipes and scribing skirting and trim. Protrade have selected a range of wood cutting jigsaw blades to suit every wood cutting application possible, choosing upcut jigsaw blades, downcut jigsaw blades, double thickness jigsaw blades, scroll jigsaw blades, HCS jigsaw blades and Bi-Metal jigsaw blades from Lenox, Maxitek, Milwaukee and Mafell.