Thread: Thin or Std Kerf Blades

IMO, there's no reason for thin kerf blades unless your saw is incredibly underpowered (cordless), the material you're cutting is incredibly expensive, or you need to cut narrow grooves.

If you have the cash it's better to have dedicated blades, but a combo will do the job well enough in most cases. That being said, you're much better off buying one good combo blade than 2 average dedicated blades.

The other issue with thin kerf blades is that they can wobble if the stock is pushed too fast into the blade particularly in rip cutting
you will need to get a riving knife the same thickness as the blade otherwise the stock will jam
I only ever bought one thin blade,didn’t last long in the table saw

Thanks Guys.

There appears to be so many different blades to choose from.

What do you think of something like this one?

https://www.amazon.com/CMT-215-050-1...gateway&sr=8-2

That looks like a good combination blade to me.

I bought this one and I'm pretty happy with it. https://www.amazon.com/Freud-Thin-Co...ud+comb&sr=8-2

Agree with other posters, thin kerf blades can flex/wobble. Which can make cuts inaccurate. Obviously the biggest downfall is std kerf blades wastes more material. The additional mm may not seem like much but if you're making end grain boards for example it adds up fairly quickly.
Having said that I still prefer full kerf due to accuracy.

The wood waste is in the original saw milling kerf. 3 mm kerf is diddly, even in a whole house.
Canfor is always looking for ways to reduce that kerf loss. It's worth millions $$$$$.

Every one of my 25 cm saw blades has a 3.1 mm kerf. I measure them in the store.
I don't make much use of a TS or even a power miter saw so knowing a fixed kerf fact dimension is useful.