Just curious as to your preferences for circular saws and best blades for framing… I like the DeWalt 368’s for everything but cutting OSB, cuz it sends sawdust and splinters flyin like crazy….My old, heavy DeWalt 364 seems to cut down on this annoyance. Also have a left hand Porter-Cable but it’s taken some getting used to. As for blades, I’ve found the Irwin Maraton 24t and DeWalt 20-series 24t cuts the fastest and lasts the longest (about two houses); tried an Oldham Super Duty 24t and it sucked! Any different opinions? BTW, I work in the Southeast, so the preference here is for direct-drive saws instead of worm-drives.
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I have a righty PC 347 ............ like it much and the stock Riptide blade ain't half bad. Picked up some B+D Pirhana blades for spares. They're not much but for $3.00 ea. I won't lose any sleep over it. Best blades I've used were Freuds. They had a combo set some years back ........ combo, rip, and a finish blades .......... all worked well- they were not thin kerf. They had enough carbide that they could be resharpened. They've been replaced by the Diablo line which I haven't tried.
Freud TK103 - the difference when I switched was dramatic.
Phill Giles
The Unionville Woodwright
Unionville, Ontario
We usually end up with either the Dewalt or Irwin Marathon blades. I can't say that these are my favorites but they are just for framing. We seem to get more life out of the Marathon blades.
Was in Woodcraft yesterday and they had some CMT framing blades that I had never seen so I picked one up to give it a whirl. We'll see if their framing blades are nearly as good as their other blades.
This is a bit off topic, but I bought a 10" milwaukee 24 tooth framing/rip blade for my tablesaw. I bought it to do some ripping, and it's still on the saw. It is as sharp as new, and it crosscuts pretty good too. I use if everything except trim, which I usually cut on the miter saw. I think I paid about 12 bucks for it, so I didn't expect that it would be a very high quality blade. Give one a try if you need a tablesaw blade. It is not a thin kerf, but I don't like them for ripping anyway.
We use the Marathon blades because they last the longest. Has anyone used the newer Bosch ultrathin 7-1/4" blades? I'm going to try that next. I've heard good things about them.