BPM Toolcraft Magazine - Are Premium Saw Blades Worth it - Article - BPM Toolcraft Magazine - Magazine - Page 20
BPM Toolcraft Magazine - Are Premium Saw Blades Worth it - Article
ARE PREMIUM
SAW BLADES
WORTH IT?
While circular saw blades vary in
tooth count, material use and
application, they vary widely in price,
too. A premium saw blade can cost
up to 4 times more than an entrylevel product!
So, is it better to buy a high-quality
saw blade you can sharpen several
times or a budget blade that's
cheap enough to throw away when
blunt?
If sales numbers are an indication,
budget blades noticeably outsell
premium products, pointing to most
users seeing value in low-cost
blades. The general belief is that
when the saw blade is blunt, it'll
simply be replaced with a new one.
However, industry users see things
differently.
In an environment where branding
and marketing are substituted for
spreadsheets and profit margins,
industry users measure a blade's
value (not price) based on its cost
per running meter.
Figure 1
Freud's bright-red coating isn't just easier to
see from a safety perspective; the patented
Perma-SHIELD coating also stops rust,
reduces resistance, and prevents resin from
building up / binding to the blade.
That is to say: The cost of the blade
+ the cost to sharpen ÷ the number
of meters the blade cuts in its
lifetime.
This information is tracked by largescale sawmills that exclusively use
premium-quality blades and base
their product decisions on where
value can be extracted.
On that note, few names stand out
more than Freud when it comes to
industry-preferred saw blades.
So, what makes Freud circular-saw,
table-saw, and mitre-saw blades
different from other brands and
budget buys out there? Incidentally,
that information starts at the tip…