power saw blade thin kerf wood ripping cut diameter from 140mm up to 600mm w punched expansion slot

There are four basic blade types, determined by the shape, or grind, of their teeth. They are flat top grind (FTG), alternate top bevel (ATB), combination (ATBR), and triple-chip grind (TCG) [Figure 1 and Photo A].

FTG blades have teeth whose top edges are square to the saw plate. Also called rakers, these teeth attack the wood much like a chisel chopping out the ends of a mortise. They’re fast cutting and durable, but don’t produce a clean surface. They’re designed to rip, sawing perpendicular to the grain.

The teeth on ATB blades are angled across the top edge, with every other tooth “leaning” in the opposite direction. The shape of the tooth causes it to shear the wood fibers cleanly using a slicing motion. The steeper the bevel angle, the cleaner the teeth cut, but the quicker they dull (Figure 2). Most 40-tooth ATB blades are marketed as “all-purpose” blades.

Combination blades consist of 50 teeth arranged in sets of five, with four ATB teeth followed by a raker tooth (thus the ATBR designation.) The ATB teeth are designed to crosscut cleanly while the raker teeth aid in ripping. Combination blades are also considered “all-purpose” blades.

The teeth on a TCG blade alternate between a raker tooth and a chamfered tooth. The chamfered tooth roughs out the cut, while the following FTG tooth cleans it up. This tooth configuration is meant for sawing dense materials: plastic laminate, solid surface materials like Corian, and non-ferrous metals like brass and aluminum. Pointy ATB teeth would blunt quickly from this stuff.