Cut to the chase

When it comes to choosing reciprocating and jigsaw blades, it’s not always in the customer’s best interest to take a one-blade-fits-all approach.

The way a contractor selects blades for reciprocating saws and jigsaws reveals a great deal about how to please that customer. Some don’t want workers stopping to replace blades as they move from gnawing through studs, wallboard and conduit. Other contractors see the value in matching the blade to the specific application.

Savvy distributor salespeople can keep both kinds of customers happy. All they need is a basic understanding of how blade material, the number of teeth per inch (TPI), the width, thickness and length of the blade affect performance.

Most blades are made from either high-speed steel (HSS), high-carbon steel (HCS) or bi-metal, which is a combination of HSS and HCS. In general, HSS blades are ideal for cutting metal, aluminum and non-ferrous metal; HCS blades cut wood, laminated particle board and plastics; and bi-metal blades can cut a variety of material, including wood, metal, non-ferrous metals, aluminum and plastic. For specialty applications such as cutting fiberglass-reinforced plastic or other abrasive materials, blade manufacturers offer blades coated with tungsten carbide or other abrasive materials.

“A lot of people think there’s one blade for every job, but they can be more efficient when they choose the correct blade for the application,” says Kurt Honaker, brand manager for Bosch Accessories.

Understand your customer
The key to making the right blade recommendation is knowing what material your customer cuts, the thickness of the material and the performance characteristics desired such as speed, accuracy or multi-purpose.

Generally speaking, blades with large tooth spacing (3 to 6 TPI) produce coarse, fast cuts in soft material such as wood and plastic. Blades with smaller tooth spacing (14 to 32 TPI) make clean cuts in hard, thin material such as metals and non-ferrous metals. The lower the TPI, the faster the blade will cut, but it makes a rougher cut in wood. A 10 to 14 TPI blade will make a smoother cut but cuts more slowly.

“Anything under 14 TPI is typically a wood-cutting blade and anything over 14 teeth is typically a metal-cutting blade,” says Nick Morrisroe, Lenox director of marketing for power tool accessories.

It’s important to match the tooth size of the blade to the depth of the material being cut. A 6 TPI blade will cut effortlessly through a 2x4 while 14 TPI slices smoothly through 1/4-inch sheet metal.

“A rule of thumb is you want to have a minimum of three teeth in the material at all times. Sometimes that’s not possible to do, but you want to stay away from the obvious mismatch of a very large tooth in a very small section, or the other way around,” says Dave Burkhart, manager of technical sales support for M.K. Morse.

What happens if someone uses the wrong blade for the application? Using a 24 TPI blade to cut a 2x4 would be like trying to file through the wood. On the other hand, using a 6 TPI blade on thin sheet metal would generate kickback and vibration as the teeth get hung up on the metal, and the user might end up bending the metal instead of cutting it.

Blades come in a variety of thicknesses. The most popular metal cutting blade is 0.035 inches thick, while 0.050 thickness is preferred for wood cutting blades because of its stability in thicker materials. Thicker blades generate greater stability but aren’t as flexible as thinner blades. Manufacturers offer a broader range of products than ever before to satisfy specific customer demands.

“If a contractor is flush-cutting base board at the bottom of a wall with a reciprocating saw, he would not want to use a 0.063-inch demolition blade because it won’t bend. He would want to use as thin a blade as possible because it’s flexible. So, it’s important to know what performance characteristics a user is looking for in a blade,” says Burkhart.

Users aren’t necessarily aware of the various options available to them. To avoid confusing customers, blade manufacturers go to great lengths to educate end-users through color coding and application identification.

“As more options become available, it can become complicated for end-users, so we’re trying to simplify it for them,” says Colleen Karpac, product manager for jigsaw and reciprocating saw blades for Bosch Accessories, which plainly labels blades to identify the type of cutting each blade is designed to perform.

Bosch also uses a color-code system to further identify its blades. For example, metal-cutting blades are blue, all-purpose blades are white, gray blades cut wood and black blades are for specialty applications, such as plaster.

“Some people take one blade and use it for everything. We wanted to introduce them to the idea that there are several blades out there that will save them time and be better solutions for the application, such as flush-cutting materials, or cutting new materials on the market such as cement board. For example, the Bosch carbide blade will last much longer cutting cement board than a bi-metal blade,” says Karpac.

Blade length is another characteristic to consider before making a final recommendation. The blade must be long enough so that teeth are engaged in the work at all times. You wouldn’t want to cut a 4-inch pipe with a 3-inch blade. Some manufacturers extended the length of a standard jigsaw blade from 3 inches to 3 5/8 inches to accommodate larger shoes and longer stroke lengths on jigsaws. For even more extreme applications, such as cutting a 4-by-4 post, Bosch is the first company to offer a 6-inch long jigsaw blade.

So, with the seemingly endless array of blades, how many SKUs should a distributor stock?

“We’ve come up with a clever solution for reducing blade SKUs while simplifying user selection,” says Ray Jack, saw coordinator for Starrett, which introduced the Unified Shank jigsaw blade. It is compatible with both universal shank and Bosch shank jigsaws, eliminating the need to have different blades for different power tools.

One final key to maximizing efficiency is to remind customers to let the blade do the work.

“If we put two users side by side and let one guy push as hard as he can and have the other guy let the tool do the work, the guy who’s not pushing hard will typically cut faster because the blade works more efficiently,” Morrisroe says.

This article appeared in the March 2005 issue of Progressive Distributor. Copyright 2005.

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