Diamond Blade 101

What is DIAMOND BLADE?

A Diamond Blade is a circular saw blade for cutting a wide variety of materials with special cutting equipment. It consists
of a Steel Core containing special Diamond Segments. There are several different types of Diamond Blades: Segmented Diamond Blades, Continuous Rim Diamond Blades, Turbo Diamond Blades (Serrated Continuous Rim), Turbo Segmented Diamond Blades (with serrated segments).

The core of the diamond blade is made up of precision steel and may have several gullets (spaces between segments) depending on the usage of the blade. These gullets allow a cooling process through air and water circulation between the segments. They also allow the blade to bend under high tension cutting.

The diamond segments are a mixture of diamond crystals and metallic powders. The diamonds used in the blades are synthetic or natural industrial diamonds of several different grain sizes, shapes or qualities.

How Do DIAMOND BLADES Cut?

A diamond blade doesn’t cut like a knife, it grinds. Through the fabrication process, diamond crystals are exposed on the surface and the sides of the segments. These exposed diamonds do all the grinding. The bond of metal powders hold the diamonds in place throughout the cutting process. Behind each diamond crystal, there’s a “tail” (like a comet) which helps hold the diamond crystals in place.

Through the cutting process, the operator will push the blade through the material. The blade will begin to cut through the material, and the material being cut will begin the wearing process of the diamond blade, at the rate of which the blade advances.

The exposed diamond crystals will break into smaller pieces while cutting. Harder, Dense materials will fracture the diamonds faster. As this happens, the material being cut also wears down the metal bond through abrasion. Highly abrasive materials will wear the bond faster, exposing new diamond crystals to continue cutting.

How to Select a DIAMOND BLADE?

Before you begin. The contractor should decide which is more important: whether it’s the initial cost of the blade or the cost per foot/meter. For smaller jobs or occasional use, you may prefer a lower priced blade. For larger more important jobs the cost per foot/meter is generally much more significant than the initial cost of the blade.

Identify what you will be cutting. This is the single most important factor. The majority of diamond blades cut only a specific variety of materials. For more efficiency (of cutting speed and duration), you should be sure to select the best type of blade for your application.

Choosing between dry/wet cutting. Using some equipment you may not be able to use water due to electricity. For floor saws (walk behind) it is preferable to use water to reduce dust levels and act as a coolant for the blade.

For high speed saws, dry cutting blades are recommended, however sometimes water may be used to control dust levels.

While wet cutting blades and core bits must be used ONLY with water, dry cutting blades on the other hand can be used with or without water (depending on the job situations or the equipment).