Electric and cordless jigsaws remain one of the most popular saws for cutting wood and other materials such as plastic and thinner metals. Irrespective of which brand of jigsaw you own, or planning on buying, the jigsaw will need to have a good quality jigsaw blade. Below we explain the different types of jigsaw blades that are currently available on the UK market.
There are 2 main types of jigsaw blade known as t-shank and u-shank. These two types then come in versions suitable for cutting woods and laminates, cutting metals and cutting plastics.
Jigsaw Blade Buying Guide
There is quite a lot of information to understand but to make things just a little bit easier we will start with the basics. Let's start with the way that the blade gets attached to the jigsaw.
Blade Shank Type
T shank blades are the most common and in most cases if you have bought a jigsaw in the last 3-4 years these are what you will need to buy. Older jigsaws may use U shank blades so these are still available.
Older type of jigsaws used a clamping system that was tightened by a screw or by an Allen key and these took U-shaped blades.
More modern jigsaws have a simple click into place system which uses a quick release chuck so the t-shaped blades simply click in and out making for really easy blade changing.
Makita Fitting Jigsaw Blades
There are also Makita fitting jigsaw blades which are of course designed to fit into Makita branded jigsaws. Other brands are considering doing something similar as it helps differentiate them in the market.
Just in case you thought that was all cleared up Makita also make universal fitting blades.
Best Jigsaw Blade Set
The Bosch professional jigsaw blade set is the best seller on the UK market and also has the highest buyer satisfaction rating.
It has 30 t-fit blades suitable for straight cuts and curved cuts in wood and also has blades for cutting thin metal sheets
There are 10 x T119BO (83mm) jigsaw blades for fine curved cuts in wood, 10 x T111C (100mm) jigsaw blades for straight cuts in wood, and 10 x T118A (92mm) jigsaw blades for cutting metal
These are very high quality blades and come in a very handy plastic storage box. They are colour coded for ease of identification and use.
Best Jigsaw Blade for Straight Fast Cuts in Wood
These blades are designed for straight and very fast cuts in wood, such as OSB and plywood 1/4 In. to 2-3/8 In. thick.
They have a 6 TPI tooth profile and a high carbon steel blade body for exceptionally fast cutting in wood and they are made to last
They are t-shank blades so will fit most modern jigsaws
These are 4" long (100mm) so a working length of around 3" (76mm).
Best Jigsaw Blade for Laminate Floors
This is a set of 3 quality jigsaw blades designed specifically for cutting laminate floorboards
They are excellent for making fine precise cuts
They are also very good for cutting skirting boards
As you may know most laminate floors are made from high density fibre board, and that type of board needs to be cut with a downward stroke, so the teeth have to point in the right direction
Two of the blades cut fine and one of the blades is even finer for detailed cuts.
Best Jigsaw Blade for Cutting Plastic
For the general cutting of plastic you can use any jigsaw blade.
Certain plastics and acrylics will need a blade designed for cutting those
The Trend blade shown to the right is designed for those tougher acrylics
It is made from chrome vanadium steel with 12 TPI and have u-shanks.
Best Jigsaw Blade for Cutting Thin Metal
When it comes to cutting metal, there are of course different type of metal. The most common metals that jigsaws can cut are steel sheets, stainless steel sheets, aluminium sheets, tubes and profiles and metal pipes and profiles
Bosch have a range of different metal cutting blades depending on which type of metal you want to cut
The ones we have shown on the right are for cutting metal sheets. The blades also slightly change depending on what thickness of metal (Gauge) you want to cut.
Best Jigsaw Blade for Down Cuts
These are the same blades as we have shown for cutting laminate flooring
These cut on the down cut and for finer cuts in any type of wood that is exactly what you want
These Bosch professional blades are a little more expensive than other blades, but not that much and we think they are worth paying that little bit extra for.
For neat and fine cuts with a great finish these are hard to beat.
Key Features of a Jigsaw Blade
Once you get the type of blade that you need to attach it to the jigsaw, then when it comes to buying blades there are the really important features that you should consider. We have explained those below.
Types of Jigsaw Blade Cut
When people buy jigsaw blades it is usually for a particular task. These can include cutting wood, cutting metal or cutting plastic. These are considered to be general cuts.
Jigsaws were made primarily to do curved cuts though they can also be used for straight cuts. Some people also want a really fine cut when they are cutting something such as laminate flooring as they want a very neat edge.
So as you can see, not every blade type is going to be the exact same.
What Material is the blade made from?
Jigsaw blades can be made from one of five materials:
- High Carbon Steel (HCS) - suitable for cutting soft wood, plywood and fiberboard - these are the most popular choice
- High Speed Steel (HSS) - are suitable for cutting thin metal.
- Chrome Vanadium - good for long straight cuts in wood
- Tungsten - used mainly for cutting tiles and plastic and can take a lot of abuse
- Bi-metallic (an alloy of high carbon steel and high speed steel) - mainly used for hard woods and cut very fast without deflection
Teeth per Inch (TPI) and why that is important
Now that we know about what the jigsaw blades are made from, we will take a quick look at the teeth on a jigsaw blade.
The teeth on most jigsaw blades have upward facing teeth. This pulls the sawdust to the top of the material and can then be easier removed by some form of dust extraction.
There are some down cut and double tooth blades but these are used in specialised industries, so we will not discuss those in detail here.
A more important consideration for most users in the number of teeth per inch. TPI) As a general rule of thumb, the more TPI, the finer and neater your cut will be.
Typical TPI ranges are 8TPI to 12 TPI
Length of the blade
The right blade for the right material
This is really just common sense but a few people can get this wrong. In the vast majority of cases a jigsaw is used to cut wood. Depending on how fine you want that cut to be you can use different blades. You can also buy fast blades to do quicker cuts in wood.
You would not use a blade for cutting wood to cut metal because it would struggle to do that, and you would also ruin your blade. There are jigsaw blades made specifically for cutting thin metal.
There are also specialist blades for cutting certain type of plastics as we have explained above. For most plastic though a jigsaw blade that cuts either wood or metal can be used to cut plastic such as conduit or plumbing pipes.
