A mitre saw is only as good as the blade in it. You can spend £600 on a premium cordless sliding compound saw and still produce burnt timber, chipped laminate and splintered architrave if the blade is wrong for the material. Blade choice does more for cut quality than almost anything else you can change.
This guide covers how to pick one, starting with the geometry that most product listings do not explain.
Source: Toolden
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The five specifications that actually matter
1. Diameter and bore — get these right or nothing else counts
Diameter must match what the saw is designed for. Fitting a smaller blade than specified does not just reduce cut capacity; it can move the blade out of correct relationship with the fence and the guard.
Common UK mitre saw sizes:
| Diameter | Typical crosscut capacity (90°) | Typical use | |---|---|---| | 165-190mm | 45-60mm depth | Compact and cordless saws, second-fix work | | 216mm | ~65mm depth, ~305mm width | The UK domestic standard | | 254mm | ~90mm depth, ~340mm width | Site saws, general building | | 305mm | ~105mm depth, ~340mm+ width | Heavy timber, large sliding saws |
Bore is the centre hole. 30mm is the dominant European standard. 25.4mm (1 inch) appears on some imported and older machines. Reducing rings are supplied with many blades, but a reducing ring is a compromise — a blade running on a ring has more scope for runout than one sized correctly.
2. Tooth count — the trade-off is speed against finish
This is the number most people look at, and the rule is simple: more teeth means a finer finish and a slower, hotter cut.
For a 216mm blade:
- 24-40T — fast ripping and rough crosscuts in softwood. Carcassing, studwork, cutting timber to length where the end will not be seen.
- 48-60T — the general-purpose range. Good crosscuts in softwood and hardwood, decent in sheet material. If you buy one blade, buy this.
- 60-80T — fine finish work. Architrave, skirting, hardwood mouldings, veneered board.
- 80-100T+ — laminate, melamine-faced board, and non-ferrous metal. Very fine finish, very slow feed.
Scale the numbers with diameter. A 254mm blade with 60 teeth is roughly equivalent in tooth pitch to a 216mm blade with 48-50. What actually governs finish is the distance between teeth, not the count itself.
The common mistake: using an 80T blade to cut carcassing softwood. Too many teeth in the cut means chip clearance fails, the gullets pack, the blade heats, and you get burn marks and a slow, smoky cut. High tooth counts need thin material.
3. Grind geometry — the part nobody explains
The shape ground onto the tungsten carbide tip determines what the blade is good at. There are four you will meet.
ATB (Alternate Top Bevel). Teeth alternately bevelled left and right, producing a knife-like point that slices wood fibres. This is the standard grind for crosscutting timber and is what most general-purpose blades use. A Hi-ATB blade has a steeper bevel angle (around 25-40°) for very clean cuts in veneered and melamine board — at the cost of a more fragile tip.
TCG (Triple Chip Grind). Teeth alternate between a flat "raker" tooth and a trapezoidal chamfered tooth that takes the first bite. The chamfered tooth cuts a groove and the flat tooth widens it, which spreads the load and protects the tips. This is the grind for aluminium, plastics, laminates and composite decking — anything brittle or abrasive that would chip an ATB tip.
FTG (Flat Top Grind). Flat-topped teeth. Efficient for ripping along the grain; poor for crosscutting. Rare on mitre saw blades, which crosscut almost exclusively.
ATBR / combination. Groups of ATB teeth with a flat raker, for blades intended to do both ripping and crosscutting. A compromise at both.
4. Hook angle (rake) — the safety-critical one
Hook angle is the forward or backward lean of the tooth relative to the blade's centre. It is the specification most likely to hurt you if you get it wrong.
- Positive hook (+5° to +20°). Teeth lean forward and aggressively pull into the material. Fast cutting. Correct for table saws and for ripping.
- Neutral to negative hook (0° to -6°). Teeth lean back. The blade cuts by being pushed through rather than pulling itself in.
For a mitre saw you want a low positive, neutral or negative hook. On a sliding mitre saw, a high positive hook blade will grab the workpiece and try to climb, snatching the material off the fence or pulling the saw head down through the cut. It is genuinely dangerous on a slider.
For aluminium and plastics, a negative hook is essential. A positive hook blade in aluminium will bite, grab and either throw the offcut or jam the blade violently. Negative rake plus TCG plus a high tooth count is the combination for non-ferrous metal — and it is why dedicated metal-cutting blades are not interchangeable with wood blades.
5. Kerf — thin or standard
Kerf is the width of the cut, set by how far the carbide tips project beyond the blade plate.
- Standard kerf on a 216mm blade is roughly 2.4-2.8mm. Stiffer, more stable, better for heavy work and for sliding cuts in deep timber.
- Thin kerf is roughly 1.6-2.0mm. Removes less material so it needs less power — which is why thin kerf is standard on cordless saws, where every watt of battery matters.
On a cordless 18V or 36V mitre saw, a thin-kerf blade can add a meaningful number of cuts per charge. On a corded 1,800W saw cutting 100mm oak, standard kerf will deflect less and cut straighter.
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Which blade for which material
Softwood carcassing and studwork
24-40T, ATB, standard or thin kerf, low positive hook. Fast and cheap. Do not use a fine blade — it will burn.
Hardwood
48-60T, ATB, standard kerf. Hardwood is dense and heats quickly, so tooth clearance matters. Feed slowly and let the blade do the work.
Skirting, architrave and mouldings (painted finish)
60-80T, ATB. The finish off the saw should need no more than a light sand.
MDF and chipboard
60-80T, ATB. MDF is abrasive — the resin binder blunts carbide faster than timber does. Expect noticeably shorter blade life and budget for it.
Melamine-faced board and veneered panel
80T+, Hi-ATB or TCG. Chipping on the underside is the enemy. Use a zero-clearance insert in the saw table, score the cut line, and tape over the cut on the visible face.
Laminate flooring
60-80T, TCG. Laminate wear layers are aluminium-oxide-loaded and extremely abrasive — this is what destroys blades fastest. Cut with the decorative face up on a mitre saw (the blade enters from the top), which puts any breakout on the underside.
Aluminium and non-ferrous metal
80-100T+, TCG with negative hook, and always with appropriate lubrication (a cutting wax stick is sufficient). Clamp the workpiece. Never cut ferrous metal on a wood mitre saw — that needs a dedicated metal chop saw, and the swarf produced is hot and will ruin the saw's bearings.
PVC, uPVC and plastics
60-80T, TCG, negative hook. The failure mode with plastic is melting rather than chipping — the material fuses behind the blade and re-welds. Use a high tooth count with a slower feed, or reduce blade speed if the saw allows it.
Composite decking
60-80T, TCG. Composite is abrasive and contains plastic binder, so it presents both the laminate and the plastics problem at once.
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Blade care, and how to tell when it is finished
A blunt blade is the most common cause of poor cuts, and it is also a safety issue — a dull blade needs more force, which is when material gets snatched.
Signs the blade needs replacing or sharpening:
- Burn marks on the cut face where there were none before
- Increased effort needed to feed the saw through
- Increased noise, or a change in the sound of the cut
- Visible chipping on the carbide tips (inspect them; a chipped tip is not sharpenable to spec)
- Fuzzy, torn fibres rather than a clean severed edge
Resin build-up masquerades as bluntness. Pitch and resin baked onto the blade body and gullets increases friction dramatically and produces exactly the same symptoms as a dull blade. Before replacing a blade, clean it — a proprietary blade cleaner or a soak in a suitable degreaser, then a nylon brush. Do not use caustic oven cleaner: it attacks the brazing that holds the carbide tips on.
Sharpening. Good TCT blades with substantial carbide can be professionally resharpened several times, and for a 254mm or 305mm blade that is usually cheaper than replacement. Cheap blades with thin carbide are not worth sharpening.
Storage. Blades stacked loose in a van knock their tips together and chip them. Keep the card sleeve the blade came in, or use a blade case.
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What to buy
If you own one mitre saw and do varied work: a 48-60T ATB general-purpose blade in the saw, plus a 80T+ TCG negative-hook blade on the shelf for aluminium, plastics and laminate. Two blades covers almost everything.
If you do second fix all day: a 60-80T ATB is your everyday blade. Fine finish straight off the saw saves more time than the slower feed costs.
If you do first fix and carcassing: a 40T blade. It will cut faster, run cooler and last longer than a fine blade abused on structural timber.
If your saw is cordless: thin kerf, and accept the slight reduction in stiffness for the runtime gain.
On price: the gap between a budget blade and a premium one is largely carbide quality and grinding accuracy. A cheap blade in MDF or laminate will be blunt within a few sheets. A cheap blade in softwood carcassing is defensible. Match the spend to the material, not to the saw.
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