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Recommend me some hacksaw blades


reb78

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I use the hacksaw for metal. I have some old blades that my grandfather would have got when he worked for British Gas 30 years ago and they are great - will cut anything. However, my stock is running low. I bought some new ones recently (from Wickes i think) and they may as well have been made of butter. Absolutely useless and the teeth gone after very little use.

Can anyone recommend some good ones for metal?

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Sandvik blades every time for me.

Thanks - they actually look like the ones grandad had - my remaining ones are so old that the lettering has worn off but the colouring is what i remember them looking like!

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Bahco or a local brand called Evercut

One thing I will say is stay away from those expensive "unbrakeable flexy" blades they come under a few different names.... and yes they really do cut stuff you would normally snap your blade trying to cut..... catch is so long as you don't mind the cut going where it wants. I destroyed a hacksaw frame trying to tension the blade to stop it wandering lol in the end biffed the remaining blades in the scrap bin

Oh and get your tooth count right for the thickness your cutting... think it was a min of 4 teeth must contact the metal while you cut (google it, been a while since I learned all that lol) this will be why your teeth are snapping too few a teeth in contact with the work

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Is the teeth in contact thing to do with the thickness of the material? So a 3mm thick (~0.12") piece would need a blade with ~25tpi (closest available would be 24tpi)? If that's correct, wouldn't 1mm thickness technically require 75tpi?

When using decent blades, you can feel them cutting on the forward stroke. They dont do much on the backward one, so its easier to release the pressure when drawing back.

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I've always used 18tpi on aluminum, 24tpi on steel and 32tpi on stainless. As for the 3 teeth thing this is achieved by angling the cut ie thick metal cut be cut at 90° where as thin needs 45° or more. But that's just what I was taught I maybe wrong but it works for me.

Mike

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Angle the cut Richard. You should never try to cut anything thin by going across it directly, always lengthen the cut and cut at an angle.

Wondered yesterday why my hacksaw wasn't cutting very well when I know it's not all that long since I changed the blade.....then I remembered...lent it to a neighbor a few weeks ago...blade was in backwards...no wonder it wouldn't cut.....

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Having the blade in backwards can be a benefit at times. Pull saws have their uses, if you are cutting a finished surface from the rear face then reversing the blade will give a cleaner cut and on some cheaper frames pulling the blade will keep it taught where as pushing will flex the frame causing the blade to loosen.

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Thanks all. Screwfix have Irwin ones in stock, so I will pick up a few of these at the weekend.

Looking at the pictures of the ones on the toolstation website (essentially wickes), these were the blue coloured ones I bought from wickes once before that appeared to be made of chocolate. They were actually eclipse blades!

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If you generally wear your hacksaw blades out rather then snap them then by far the best blades to use are 'all hard' HSS blades made by LS Starrett. If you normally break the blade before you wear it out then bimetal blades from Sandvik are a better bet.

It's important to keep a range of tooth pitches in stock for use on different materials and thicknesses.

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Starret all the way nothing cuts or lasts as well in my opinion eclipse are useless.

Mike

What he said ^

And FYI you are incorrect. Wickes hacksaw blades are NOT made of butter, or chocolate. But cheese. Camenbert I believe.

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Thanks for all of the above, I've learned more than I thought existed about hacksaws in the last few minutes reading this!

Mike

(Off to count teeth )

Haha. Swmbo thinks it's bad that I can be so interested in a conversation about hacksaw blades. She also couldnt believe that we were actually having a conversation about hacksaw blades!

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