Our expert answers

Most hobbyist woodworkers can get by with a combination blade. A good quality 50 tooth combo blade will give you good rip cuts and crosscuts. However, if you’ll be doing a lot of ripping of sheet goods or rough lumber, it’s probably worth investing in a rip blade. If you’ll be making a lot of precision crosscuts then a crosscut blade is worth considering. Switching out blades doesn’t take much time, and a nice benefit of having multiple blades is that you’re combo blade will last longer between sharpening’s.