Hi guys! Since I know there are some remarkably talented woodworkers on Singletrackworld, I thought I might as well ask here. Some time ago I bit the bullet, and bought myself a Festool TS-55 track saw. The saw is fantastic, and the track system is pure genius. I have been using the saw extensively, and now it’s time for some new saw blades. The Festool blades are brilliant, and the 48 tooth version makes remarkably splinter free cuts. Even so, I was wondering wether there was something better outthere? I mainly use the saw for cutting melamine faced chipboard, OSB, and plywood for cabinets, but I see a project coming up where it will be used for cutting some laminate flooring. What are you guys using? The blade dimensions are 160×2.2×20.

If you’re not in a hurry… it’ll only cost you about a tenner to get the blade you’ve got resharpened. Even if you are in a hurry, keep the old ones and take a few to get resharpened every once in a while.

Anyway – as an alternative to the Festool own brand (or mafell in my case)… I seem to end up with something red and made by Freud in just about everything. Not nessasarily because they’re better but because theres lots of choice and they’re widely available.

I use Trend Craft Pro on my TS55, day in/out for kitchen work, laminates not a worry and plenty cheap at around £12 to chuck away when the edges go. Laminate kills blades off quickly so I’d not go for an expensive one for that reason alone.

Here you go:

I wouldn’t be touching laminate with an expensive blade. In fact, I’d probably just jigsaw (with a downward cutting blade) rather than rail sawing.

I keep my Fezzie blade for posh stuff where the cut is a finished edge or highly visible. Otherwise for basic rips, I use the multi-buy offers from Saxton. They’re el-cheapo but last for ages on just wood cuts. I’ve just used a fresh one for these cuts (i.e. cutting the border back to a straight line) through 22mm solid oak blocks. Not a splinter over 30+m of cuts.

As per above – save your expensive blade – Freud red blades available online for great prices .
Maybe practice making score cuts if you get any chipping – Mafell and Makita do this with one button , just set 2mm on the Festool, you have the later saw where you can fine tune the depth stop so getting your blades sharpened does not make the depth stop loose calibration.
Hopefully you are making use of a decent dust extractor , as getting the dust out helps a lot.

Fair point about the blades and laminate, I was planning on getting some “disposable” blades for that. Round here I can get Scheppach blades for a tenner. They seem to last quite a few cuts anyway, as long as they dont get too hot.

I think I will try the Freud blades, they are quite a bit cheaper than the Festool originals… and they seem to get good reviews. I use 48 teeth blades for almost everything, any point buying some other configurations? In theory I should have a few different types at hand, but realistically I probably won’t bother to change blades very often. 48 teeth seems to be the sweet spot for most things I cut.

I use an extractor most of the time… except when I just need to make a cut or two and I am outside in the open air.

As others have said, use cheap blades for laminate and save the good blades for jobs where the finish of the cut is important.

I used to cut a lot of 5mm thick cast acrylic on my festool and found the best blade to be a trend CSB/AP25480 Craft saw blade. Has 80 teeth.

The finished cut was incredible.

I can vouch for Key Blades. Got some for solid surface worktops (corian type stuff) like a hot knife through butter.