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Combination v. General Purpose: Table Saw Blade Face-Off

Infinity Cutting Tools |

The Infinity Tools Super-General Table Saw Blades deliver precision cuts that are glass-smooth to the touch and feel. Upgrade your table saw with our award-winning woodworking blades and enjoy the highest quality rips and crosscuts in your shop.

Ripping and cross-cutting on a table saw are still best done with dedicated blades, but if you're looking for one premium quality saw blade that performs very well in both operations with very little sacrifice, Combo-Max Blades are the answer!

A good Combination or General-Purpose saw blade can handle the majority of cuts woodworkers make. The Combo-Max (010-050), left, and Super General (010-044), are both capable of handling a variety of cuts in your woodworking shop.
A good Combination or General-Purpose saw blade can handle the majority of cuts woodworkers make. The Combo-Max (010-050), left, and Super General (010-044), are both capable of handling a variety of cuts in your woodworking shop.

We get asked a lot of questions about our saw blades; table saw, miter saw, and specialty woodworking blades. The two most common questions are; "do I need a combination saw blade or general-purpose saw blade?" and, "what exactly is the difference between the two?" As always the answer depends on what type of woodworking you do and the types of material you typically work with. Both of these saw blade types fit the "jack-of-all-trades" description of one blade for all cuts. But choosing either the Super General 40-tooth blade or the Combo-Max 50-tooth blade can be a little tricky. Let's look at each of these saw blades so you can choose the one that best suits the type of work you do.

Before we dive into what makes these blades different, let's take a look at what they have in common. All Infinity Tools saw blades are made of cold-rolled, laser-cut steel bodies and have extra thick C4 micro-grain carbide teeth that take a sharper edge, stay sharp longer, and can be resharpened more times than most other saw blades on the market.

All Infinity Tools saw blades are made from the highest quality materials and with industry-leading precision manufacturing processes and equipment.
All Infinity Tools saw blades are made from the highest quality materials and with industry-leading precision manufacturing processes and equipment.

Each saw blade also features our Chrome Armor plating. Rather than paint, we chrome plate each saw blade for multiple reasons including aesthetics, corrosion resistance, ease of cleaning, durability, and lubricity. If you want to learn more about our saw blade manufacturing process have a look at our Saw Blade University blog post.

Both the Super General and Combo-Max sawblades measure 10" in diameter, have a 5/8" arbor hole and are 100% compatible with SawStop safety technology.

Now for the differences.

The Infinity Tools Super General 10
The Infinity Tools Super General 10" saw blade (010-044) is the ultimate 40 tooth general-purpose table saw blade and is perfect for cutting a mix of hardwoods and cabinet grade veneered plywood.

The Super General (010-044 standard kerf & 010-045 thin kerf) is a 40-tooth saw blade with a 30° ATB (Alternate Top Bevel) grind. This tooth configuration easily rips hardwoods up to 1" thick and absolutely excels at crosscutting hardwoods and veneered plywoods.  The 30° bevel on each tooth acts like a knife that scores the material and reduces tear-out on even the most splinter-prone materials. With a 10° positive rake angle, the Super General has a fast feed rate with reduced feeding pressure that makes it ideal for sizing large sheets of plywood and for long rip cuts in solid wood.

The Infinity Super General saw blade (010-044) has resin-filled vibration dampening slots that absorb harmonic vibrations and make this one of the quietest and smoothest cutting saws on the market.
The Infinity Super General saw blade (010-044) has resin-filled vibration dampening slots that absorb harmonic vibrations and make this one of the quietest and smoothest cutting saws on the market.

The Super General is unique because it has resin-filled vibration dampening slots. This greatly reduces harmonic vibration and helps produce an extremely clean cut, not to mention it is one of the quietest running blades you will find.  If you work with a mix of both solid wood and veneered plywoods and love the finish you get from an 80 tooth crosscutting saw blade, the Super General is the blade for you.

The Infinity Tools Combo-Max 10
The Infinity Tools Combo-Max 10" saw blade (010-050) features an ATB-R tooth pattern and excels at cutting hardwoods and notoriously tough man-made materials like MDF and particleboard.

The Combo-Max (010-050 standard kerf & 010-150 thin kerf) is a 50-tooth saw blade that gets its name and distinct look from its combination ATB-R (Alternate Top Bevel - Raker) tooth pattern. The Combo-Max has 10 sets of 5 teeth. The first tooth in each set is a chamfered raker and has a deep gullet. This tooth works like a plow which helps when ripping thicker stock and the extra deep gullet gives all that material a place to go. The small chamfers on the raker tooth make it extremely durable and help it stay sharp longer especially when working with materials like MDF, particleboard, and melamine that are notorious for dulling blades quickly.

The Combo-Max saw blade (010-050) features a combination tooth pattern with a chamfered raker tooth followed by two pairs of ATB teeth.
The Combo-Max saw blade (010-050) features a combination tooth pattern with a chamfered raker tooth followed by two pairs of ATB teeth.

The remaining 4 teeth have a 15° alternate top bevel that excels at scoring fibers when making crosscuts in solid wood but are not so aggressive that they dull quickly in those pesky man-made sheet goods. The ATB-R design also has the advantage of producing an almost completely flat bottom cut, so it can be used to nibble out small dadoes and grooves when needed for a lot of situations as long as the surface doesn't need to be absolutely flat and bat ear free.

An advantage of the ATB-R tooth Pattern on the Combo-Max (010-050) saw blade is that it creates an almost perfectly flat bottom kerf with just a hint of
An advantage of the ATB-R tooth Pattern on the Combo-Max (010-050) saw blade is that it creates an almost perfectly flat bottom kerf with just a hint of "bat ears". This is a very handy feature when you need to nibble out a quick dado or groove.

If you find yourself working with mostly solid wood and man-made materials like MDF and particle board that are notoriously hard on saw blades the Combo-Max is perfect for your table saw.

Both the Super General and Combo-Max saw blades are available in standard 1/8" kerf and thin 3/32" kerf widths. If you are not sure which kerf you should choose we recommend going thin. A thin kerf blade removes 25% less material and will give a boost to table saws with 1-1/2 HP or smaller motors with no trade-off in cut quality or performance. If you stop by the Infinity Tools shop chances are you will find a thin kerf blade installed on our 3 HP cabinet saw.

Comparison chart.

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