Milwaukee Circular Saw Blade Review

Milwaukee is flying deeper into the cutting accessories sector with a whole host of carbide options from hole saws and Sawzall blades to a full line of circular saw blades. You can find links to those reviews at the bottom of the page. For now, our muse is the Milwaukee circular saw blade – specifically their 7-1/4″ offerings for framing and fine finish.

Both the Milwaukee framing blade and Milwaukee fine finish blade share some characteristics we’re used to seeing at the Pro level. Here’s a quick breakdown:

• Anti-friction coating: helps reduce corrosion, gumming, and heat buildup. It’s what starts to smear on premium blades after you’ve made a few cuts in a row.

• Laser cut body: It’s more accurate than stamping out of the same steel. A more precise blade will have better balance and cutting quality.

• Laser cut vibration slots: Vibration slots reduce the slight blade wobble that can occur and gives you a cleaner, faster, more accurate cut.

• Thin kerf: Thick blades are more stable, but thin helps improve the runtime of cordless saws and gives you faster cutting in corded saws. Finding a balance between the two gives you the best combination of cut quality and efficiency.

• ATB (Alternate Tooth Bevel): Alternating left and right tooth bevels help reduce the amount of tearout and promotes chip removal.

There’s also something each Milwaukee circular saw blade touts that’s not so common – cobalt infused tungsten carbide. Every circular saw blade uses tungsten carbide, but most manufacturers don’t talk about the specific blend they use. Some are likely sourced from elsewhere and companies like Diablo keep their in-house blend a close secret.

Milwaukee may not be the only one with the additional cobalt in their carbide, but they’re the only ones bragging about it at the moment. So what does that do for the teeth?

In a steel alloy, cobalt’s main benefits come in the form of heat and wear resistance – something very beneficial at the literal cutting edge of a saw blade. It’s one of the reasons cobalt blend drill bits are a popular choice on the premium side.

But How Well Do They Cut?

Fresh off our framing nailer shootout, there’s plenty of scrap wood lying around for me to make some test cuts with these new blades. My main concern is the ability to make a fast, accurate cut with the Milwaukee framing blade. Cross-cutting a 2 x 4 or 2 x 6 doesn’t tell me much aside from the cut quality, so I fired up one of our Skilsaw circular saws and made a few rip cuts.

On the accuracy side of things, I’m able to follow my Inkzall line easily. That’s par for the course as it should be. What strikes me is that this Milwaukee circular saw blade allows me to cut pretty fast as well. I’ll have to set up a rig to test it against other framing blades, but my first impression is that it’s going to be among the top performers. Regardless, I don’t have any complaints.

I can pretty much echo the same sentiments about the Milwaukee fine finish blade. Obviously, the cutting speed is slower with its 40 teeth. However, it’s doesn’t feel sluggish compared to other ones I’ve used. Its ability to follow a straight mark on the board is satisfactory as well.

While it’s not conclusive, the “ding test” can give you an idea of a blades ability to absorb vibration. Sound comes from vibration and a blade that deals with it well will deaden the sound quickly. Milwaukee does it well, but Diablo does it better. On some of our cheap blades, we might as well set them up as cymbals for a drum set. Food for thought…

Application

I like the framing blade as a primary blade in any corded or cordless circular saw and the fine finish blade is a win if you’re going to have one on a handheld saw.

What I really like the fine finish blade for is on the compact cordless miter saws we have running around. It works well as a primary blade there, though it’s not specifically a miter saw blade like some brands offer.

I’d love to see Milwaukee start packing their 7-1/4″ circular saw with the framing blade and 7-1/4″ miter saw with the fine finish blade as stock blades.

Price and Value

Milwaukee framing blades currently run $9.49 each and the fine finish blade is $14.99. It’s pretty obvious each Milwaukee circular saw blade is targetting the premium end of the market, including the massively popular Diablo brand. So how does it compare?

Diablo’s framing blade (not the Demo Demon) is $8.99. That’s just one brand, though. Irwin’s Weldtec is the same price while DeWalt and Hitachi move in at $9.99. On the framing side, that puts Milwaukee squarely in the middle and close enough to Diablo to make it worth giving it a shot.

On the fine finish side, other 40T blades run $12.99 for Diablo with DeWalt just under $20 for their miter saw specific blade and Irwin at the $24 mark for their Marathon blade. Milwaukee and Diablo are certainly the most appealing from a price perspective with Diablo saving you $2 per blade. That might be enough of a price swing to make some people shy away from making the switch. But again, buy just one Milwaukee fine finish blade and give it a shot – I think you’ll find the performance and finish are right up there with what you expect at this level.

The Bottom Line

Milwaukee circular saw blade options in the 7-1/4″ diameter for framing and fine finish have the performance and quality to make them a legitimate option for Pro use. With a slight price increase over their major competitor, Diablo, time will tell how if Milwaukee is able to start pulling some of the market share away from them.

Milwaukee Circular Saw Blade (7-1/4″, 24T Framing) Key Features

• Milwaukee’s anti-friction coating keeps the blade cool while cutting and resists corrosion & gumming.
• Laser cutting technology from 100% sheet steel increase cutting accuracy.
• Laser cut vibration slots minimize wobble and warping.
• Cobalt Infused Tungsten Carbide
• Thin Kerf Blade
• Optimized for Both Cordless & Corded Tools
• 24 Tooth; 5/8″ Arbor Hole with Diamond Knock-Out
• Great for use with: Softwoods, Hardwoods, Wet Lumber, Treated Lumber and Laminated Woods such as Plywood, OSB, LVL, PSL, LSL & OSL

• Model: Milwaukee 48-41-0720
• Width: 0.063″
• Diameter: 7.25″
• Arbor: 5/8″
• Tooth Count: 24
• Price: $14.20

Milwaukee Circular Saw Blade (7-1/4″, 40T Fine Finish) Key Features

• Model: Milwaukee 48-40-0726
• Width: 0.063″
• Diameter: 7-1/4″
• Arbor: 5/8″
• Tooth Count: 40
• Application: Fine Finish
• Price: $51.71

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