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It seems to me your question is really, "what will happen if I don't use the recommended type of blade for a given application?"

Simply put, if you use a blade with too many (smaller) teeth and consequently shallower gullets, the gullets will not be able to carry away enough material and will clog, resulting in burning and possibly a wandering cut, as well as possibly binding depending on the depth of your cut and power of your saw's motor. If the blade binds and the motor does not stall, there is a good chance you will experience kickback. A workaround for this, in case you really need to get the job done with the wrong blade, is to make the cut in several shallow passes and/or using a very slow feed speed.

If you use a blade with too few (larger) teeth and consequently deeper gullets, you will get a more jagged cut when cutting perpendicular to the grain, with chipout at the cut line which will be evident when crosscutting and when cutting plywood. Using a rip blade on plywood can produce an extremely splintered edge. There are some techniques you can use to minimize these effects, such as scoring or taping the cut line before making the cut, or putting a piece of sacrificial material on the side where the blade exits (e.g., on the top when using a circular saw or on the bottom when using a table saw).

Combination or general-purpose blades try to find a happy medium, and will work more or less well enough on rip cuts, crosscuts, and plywood; however, they will not produce as clean a cut in plywood or crosscutting applications as a more specialized blade, and they will not work as fast as a rip blade on rip cuts. If you only have 1 blade, it should be a combination or general-purpose blade.

Although your examples and the examples I've given focus on circular-shaped blades, the same applies to any blade, including bandsaw blades and handsaws.

It seems to me your question is really, "what will happen if I don't use the recommended type of blade for a given application?"

Simply put:

• If you use a blade with too many (smaller) teeth and consequently shallower gullets, the gullets will not be able to carry away enough material and will clog, resulting in burning and possibly a wandering cut, as well as possibly binding depending on the depth of your cut and power of your saw's motor. If the blade binds and the motor does not stall, there is a good chance you will experience kickback. A workaround for this, in case you really need to get the job done with the wrong blade, is to make the cut in several shallow passes and/or using a very slow feed speed.

• If you use a blade with too few (larger) teeth and consequently deeper gullets, you will get a more jagged cut when cutting perpendicular to the grain, with chipout at the cut line which will be evident when crosscutting and when cutting plywood. Using a rip blade on plywood can produce an extremely splintered edge. There are some techniques you can use to minimize these effects, such as scoring or taping the cut line before making the cut, or putting a piece of sacrificial material on the side where the blade exits (e.g., on the top when using a circular saw or on the bottom when using a table saw).

• Combination or general-purpose blades try to find a happy medium, and will work more or less well enough on rip cuts, crosscuts, and plywood; however, they will not produce as clean a cut in plywood or crosscutting applications as a more specialized blade, and they will not work as fast as a rip blade on rip cuts.

If you only have 1 blade, it should be a combination or general-purpose blade.

Although your examples and the examples I've given focus on circular-shaped blades, the same applies to any blade, including bandsaw blades and handsaws.

It seems to me your question is really, "what will happen if I don't use the recommended type of blade for a given application?"

Simply put, if you use a blade with too many (smaller) teeth and consequently shallower gullets, the gullets will not be able to carry away enough material and will clog, resulting in burning and possibly a wandering cut, as well as possibly binding depending on the depth of your cut and power of your saw's motor. If the blade binds and the motor does not stall, there is a good chance you will experience kickback. A workaround for this, in case you really need to get the job done with the wrong blade, is to make the cut in several shallow passes and/or using a very slow feed speed.

If you use a blade with too few (larger) teeth and consequently deeper gullets, you will get a more jagged cut with chipout at the cut line which will be evident when crosscutting and when cutting plywood. There are some techniques you can use to minimize this effect, such as scoring or taping the cut line before making the cut, or putting a piece of sacrificial material on the side where the blade exits (e.g., on the top when using a circular saw or on the bottom when using a table saw).

Combination or general-purpose blades try to find a happy medium, and will work more or less well enough on rip cuts, crosscuts, and plywood; however, they will not produce as clean a cut in plywood or crosscutting applications as a more specialized blade, and they will not work as fast as a rip blade on rip cuts. If you only have 1 blade, it should be a combination or general-purpose blade.

Although your examples and the examples I've given focus on circular-shaped blades, the same applies to any blade, including bandsaw blades and handsaws.

It seems to me your question is really, "what will happen if I don't use the recommended type of blade for a given application?"

Simply put, if you use a blade with too many (smaller) teeth and consequently shallower gullets, the gullets will not be able to carry away enough material and will clog, resulting in burning and possibly a wandering cut, as well as possibly binding depending on the depth of your cut and power of your saw's motor. If the blade binds and the motor does not stall, there is a good chance you will experience kickback. A workaround for this, in case you really need to get the job done with the wrong blade, is to make the cut in several shallow passes and/or using a very slow feed speed.

If you use a blade with too few (larger) teeth and consequently deeper gullets, you will get a more jagged cut when cutting perpendicular to the grain, with chipout at the cut line which will be evident when crosscutting and when cutting plywood. Using a rip blade on plywood can produce an extremely splintered edge. There are some techniques you can use to minimize these effects, such as scoring or taping the cut line before making the cut, or putting a piece of sacrificial material on the side where the blade exits (e.g., on the top when using a circular saw or on the bottom when using a table saw).

Combination or general-purpose blades try to find a happy medium, and will work more or less well enough on rip cuts, crosscuts, and plywood; however, they will not produce as clean a cut in plywood or crosscutting applications as a more specialized blade, and they will not work as fast as a rip blade on rip cuts. If you only have 1 blade, it should be a combination or general-purpose blade.

Although your examples and the examples I've given focus on circular-shaped blades, the same applies to any blade, including bandsaw blades and handsaws.

It seems to me your question is really, "what will happen if I don't use the recommended type of blade for a given application?"

Simply put, if you use a blade with too many (smaller) teeth and consequently shallower gullets, the gullets will not be able to carry away enough material and will clog, resulting in burning and possibly a wandering cut. A workaround for this, in case you really need to get the job done with the wrong blade, is to make the cut in several shallow passes and/or using a very slow feed speed.

If you use a blade with too few (larger) teeth and consequently deeper gullets, you will get a more jagged cut which will be evident when crosscutting and when cutting plywood. There are some techniques you can use to minimize this effect, such as scoring or taping the cut line before making the cut, or putting a piece of sacrificial material on the side where the blade exits (e.g., on the top when using a circular saw or on the bottom when using a table saw).

Combination or general-purpose blades try to find a happy medium, and will work more or less well enough on rip cuts, crosscuts, and plywood; however, they will not produce as clean a cut in plywood or crosscutting applications as a more specialized blade, and they will not work as fast as a rip blade on rip cuts.

It seems to me your question is really, "what will happen if I don't use the recommended type of blade for a given application?"

Simply put, if you use a blade with too many (smaller) teeth and consequently shallower gullets, the gullets will not be able to carry away enough material and will clog, resulting in burning and possibly a wandering cut, as well as possibly binding depending on the depth of your cut and power of your saw's motor. If the blade binds and the motor does not stall, there is a good chance you will experience kickback. A workaround for this, in case you really need to get the job done with the wrong blade, is to make the cut in several shallow passes and/or using a very slow feed speed.

If you use a blade with too few (larger) teeth and consequently deeper gullets, you will get a more jagged cut with chipout at the cut line which will be evident when crosscutting and when cutting plywood. There are some techniques you can use to minimize this effect, such as scoring or taping the cut line before making the cut, or putting a piece of sacrificial material on the side where the blade exits (e.g., on the top when using a circular saw or on the bottom when using a table saw).

Combination or general-purpose blades try to find a happy medium, and will work more or less well enough on rip cuts, crosscuts, and plywood; however, they will not produce as clean a cut in plywood or crosscutting applications as a more specialized blade, and they will not work as fast as a rip blade on rip cuts. If you only have 1 blade, it should be a combination or general-purpose blade.

Although your examples and the examples I've given focus on circular-shaped blades, the same applies to any blade, including bandsaw blades and handsaws.