Many people don’t change blades as often as they should, and as a result, work themselves and their saws harder than they need to. If you were going to use your circular saw for cutting trim or paneling, you could get a 40- or 60-tooth finish blade, and of course, there are specialty blades for cutting plastic, steel, cement board, masonry, tile, or just about any other material you might have. I keep a stack of used ones for demolition jobs too. These cost about $10 and do most cuts well enough.
But now, with specialty saws taking over many of the other jobs that we used to adapt our saws to, most of us just use the same basic 24-tooth thin-kerf carbide blades for all of our carpentry. It used to be that we’d routinely use a handful of different blades for our circular saws, depending on what we were cutting. Holding the saw up vertically keeps the weight of the table from moving the saw while you lock it in (above right). Calibrated markers on the front of the saw are used to set the bevel angle. Most circular saws have a blade-depth setting, but it’s faster to hold the guard up and set the depth visually (above left). I’m always after my crew to run power cords-but they don’t care as much about speed as I do, and they’re not the ones buying the batteries. But corded saws are still faster, more powerful, and better for heavy-duty cutting. They’re unbeatable for carrying around the job, working on staging or on the roof, trimming sheathing, cutting openings, and all sorts of light-duty work. I know many people are framing with cordless saws now, and I certainly have a whole fleet of them on my truck. A cord that’s at least 9 feet long is nice, as is a saw that can handle an 8-foot drop to the floor. Features I look for are comfort, balance, a sturdy base that will stay flat, easy adjustments (even when I’m wearing gloves), a blade guard that retracts easily, and a blade wrench that stays on the saw. Most of the major manufacturers make good saws for less than $150, and the difference between cheap junk and a good saw is a small part of that. Don’t ask me why I’m one of those few bi-coastal guys who don’t think that one is any better than the other.
But here in the East, where I’ve spent most of my working life, the standard saw is the 7 1/4-inch right-bladed sidewinder. I spent a few years production framing on the West Coast, where wormdrive saws-especially the venerable Skilsaw Model 77-ruled the jobsites.