Reading a Saw Blade Spec: Tooth Count, Kerf, and Hook Angle

Blade diameter and arbor size get you to the right shelf. Everything after that decides whether the cut is clean.

Tooth Count

Tooth count trades speed for finish.

• 24–30T (10" blade) — ripping. Big gullets clear the long chips a rip cut produces. Fast, rough edge.
• 40–50T — general purpose. The compromise blade that lives on most table saws.
• 60–80T — crosscutting and sheet goods. More teeth, smaller bite per tooth, cleaner edge, slower feed.
• 80T and up — melamine, laminate, and non-ferrous. Minimal chipout, minimal feed pressure.

Running a high-tooth-count blade for a rip cut is a common way to burn stock: the gullets can't clear chips, so heat builds in the kerf.

Grind

The grind is the shape ground onto each tooth.

• ATB (alternate top bevel) — teeth alternate their bevel left and right, slicing wood fibers cleanly. The default for crosscutting.
• FTG (flat top grind) — flat-topped teeth that chisel material out. Efficient for ripping, leaves a flat-bottomed kerf.
• TCG (triple chip grind) — alternating trapezoidal and flat teeth. The tough grind for laminate, solid surface, and non-ferrous metals.
• Hi-ATB — a steeper bevel for the cleanest possible surface on veneers and melamine, at the cost of edge life.

Kerf

Kerf is how wide a slot the blade cuts.

• Full kerf (~1/8") — stiffer, tracks straighter, wastes more material. Wants a saw with real power.
• Thin kerf (~3/32") — less material removed means less power required. The right choice for portable and lower-powered saws. More prone to deflection, so a stabilizer helps on long rips.

Hook Angle

Hook angle is how far the tooth leans forward into the cut.

• Positive hook (10–20°) — aggressive and self-feeding. Standard on table saw rip blades.
• Low or negative hook (0 to -5°) — the blade resists pulling itself into the work. Required on sliding miter saws and radial arm saws, where a positive hook will climb the cut and grab the workpiece.

Putting a positive-hook table saw blade on a miter saw is a genuine safety problem, not just a finish problem. Check the blade's intended application before mounting it.

Plate and Body

Look for a laser-cut plate with expansion slots. Those slots let the plate grow as it heats without going out of flat. A blade that wobbles when hot will never cut clean no matter what the teeth look like.

Sharpening

Carbide-tipped blades are resharpenable — usually several times, until the carbide gets too short to grind. A quality blade resharpened a few times costs less per cut than a stack of cheap blades thrown away.

If you tell us the saw, the material, and whether you're ripping or crosscutting, we can narrow it to two or three blades quickly.