I tend to be very particular about power tool accessories, especially oscillating multi-tool blades. Over at Amazon, they have a 50-pack of carbon steel wood-cutting blades on sale for $27 and change, and I can’t tell if this is a deal or not.
The blades come out to be around 54 cents each, compared to the $6-10 I usually spend on quality brand-name blades.
Update 12/8/21: The price is now $45 and change.
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Amazon Basics says that these can be used on wood or plastic. They’re fairly basic in appearance, and feature a 1-3/8″ cutting edge.
The interface also looks to be near-universal, and can fit most brands except for Starlock-equipped tools, the Bosch MX30, and Bosch quick-release tools.
I know that readers are split on their stances regarding oscillating multi-tool blades. Some of you have brand-name preferences, and others are of the opinion that they’re all the same and that any brand will work just as well.
I’d say that carbon steel is a level lower than bi-metal, with carbide-tooth blades above that. But at around 54 cents a blade, are these worth trying?
These are a new release, and look to be priced considerably lower than the other generic blade brands sold on Amazon. I wonder if this is a way to entice sales and reviews before regular pricing kicks in.
If you have used these or similar OMT blades before, what are your thoughts?
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Price: $27.13 (as of the time of this posting
What would I buy instead? Bosch Starlock carbide-tooth blades. Starlock blades can work in many other brands’ oscillating multi-tools, and carbide teeth last so much longer in touch cutting applications. Should I try basic generic blades for cutting wood or other such materials? Maybe, but I haven’t been convinced yet.
Jared
I’ve used cheap and expensive blades on my Dewalt OMT. The expensive ones are noticeably better – but I still use both.
I think the name brand OMT blades are overpriced generally. They are better, but not THAT much better. Especially for blades that still seem to wear out pretty quickly.
Generally I use the good stuff when the quality of the cut matters – the cheap ones where it doesn’t or where I’m risking damage. Even for the blades that tell me they can deal with a nail – it ruins them fast.
Overall – I think generic blades like these have a place in a cost-conscious tool bag.
MM
I’ve been curious about these myself.
Generally speaking I prefer premium cutting tools like drill bits, saw blades, router bits, cutoff and grinding wheels. Not only do they last longer but they usually make for more precise and cleaner cuts. Furthermore they often require less force to be applied to the tool which further improves precision and safety.
But OMTs are never really super-precise tool and the oscillating motion is extremely hard on the blade and the workpiece, so I’m not so sure that the quality of the blade matters much except outside a few circumstances, i.e. cutting metal or the Japanese tooth style blades. For general purpose work these blades sound tempting. I’m 100% sure that name-brand blades are superior, but are they superior enough to justify the huge difference in price? You can buy roughly 20 of these cheapos for the same cost as one nice blade.
Leo B.
I always go to the cheaper ones first, personally. I’m usually cutting something rougher, like flushing sheathing around a window or cutting a piece of sill plate out, and hitting concrete or a nail is much more tolerable with the cheaper blades. If I’m cutting something finer, like door casing or a slot or something, than I’ll definitely move to a better, finer-tooth blade. Those aren’t what stay on the tool for a grab-and-go use, though. I think there’s definitely a place for these, and Project Farm has some recommendations for titanium edge coated blades that perform well and still come out cheaper than brand-name blades. Overall, you can do without brand-name blades, but if you do buy them, the quality is generally there. They’ll just make a dent in your wallet to get there.
Mac
I do similar. I’ve grabbed a number of large sets from knockoff Amazon brands, and like them enough at the price point, but I haven’t tried the Amazon basics. I might the next time I go under 10-20 replacements remaining. I have no issue running them more aggressively and then tossing them. I keep some nice blades for “precision” or heavy duty tasks, but they are not worth buying to just tear up in drywall. On the other hand, I wouldn’t trust cheapo blades that claim to cut metal. Wood blades are just disposable items no matter who makes them though.
A third of the cuts for a tenth of the cost is just good business.
fred
I still like the Fein (original OMT manufacturer) brand blades. But how does one compare their $8 a piece blades to these.
https://www.amazon.com/Fein-63502133290-Standard-Oscillating-Blade/dp/B01BGBMG3K/
I’m with Jared – that there is probably a place for both. BTW there is nothing like encountering a cut steel nail or cleat in an old oak floor to ruin most any sort of blade. When I’m working with reclaimed wood for furniture making or cabinetry – I scan it with my lumber wizard before running it into the planer, jointer, or any of my saws. I can probably count on my fingers the number of times that I’ve detected anything – but still think that the extra step is worth if it saves a cutter or blade.
MM
Speaking of hidden hazards: I once had to cut a number of 6 inch aluminum round bars into discs. We had a HEM automated bandsaw that would automatically make a cut, lift the blade, advance and reclamp the work, and then cut again for however many pieces you told it to make. With a 10hp motor, high pressure coolant, and a coarse carbide-tipped blade it took just a few seconds to make each cut. I get into the second bar and I hear a strange noise and run back to the saw to see what’s going on. On the next cut there is a horrible grinding sound and the saw’s safety mechanism shuts it off. It turns out that somehow a ballpein hammer head made its way inside an otherwise solid aluminum bar. The “strange noise” was the blade cutting straight through the hammer-embedded aluminum, the second was my $400 blade failing.
fred
At least your issue was resolved without injury or horrible consequences other than need to replace a $400 blade Something as simple as a screwdriver bit floating around in an aerospace assembly could have much greater consequences. I liked to think that the rigorous FOD program we applied in our Fabrication business would avoid such mishaps.
barney
Good insight Fred.
Mr. Creek
My Economics teacher in high school asked us a question, that has stuck with me for life. Which has a better value the $250 Mac Tool ratchet set or the $10 ratchet set from the big box store?
The answer is: It depends.
Personally, I prefer higher quality blades and will spend $15 dollars a blade, but I beat the heck out of my OMT (like it owes me money). But if one wants to treat their blade like a ‘One time use disposable razor blade’ well I get it. I just prefer Something more reliable.
ToolGuyDan
I bought an absurdly large assortment of cheap blades—I think it might have been almost 100 pieces—for a recent project. They performed admirably, and more importantly, I didn’t feel even a moment’s hesitation to toss them when they began to dull or if I chipped or damaged one through overuse or abuse.
At the same time, I bought three $10 DeWalt Ti-coated blades. The quality is fantastic, and they all still look brand-new.
I don’t know who said it first, but there’s a saying popularized by Adam Savage: buy cheap, and when it breaks, buy something better. OMT blades are a great application for that approach, because the assortment has shapes and sizes that I’d never spend $10 on, and the high-end blades I bought probably weren’t the sizes I would have run through first from my assortment. Once you’ve found the limits of the cheap stuff, you’ll not only appreciate the good stuff, you’ll also know what you want; having never used one before, after using a HF corded circular saw for a day, you’ll likely know whether you want left-hand or right-hand configuration, and you’ll know whether your work style would benefit from moving to cordless, or a lighter tool (despite a smaller blade), or whether you should prioritize compatibility with a track over either of those.
Also, unrelated: “touch cutting” should be “tough cutting” in the article’s final postscript.
MM
I’m not sure where that saying came from, but I remember discussing that advice when I was a teenager in the 1990’s so it clearly predates Adam Savage by a very long time. I remember hearing specifically in regards to mechanic’s tools, the advice I was given was to buy a cheap but broad tool set and then replace things with premium brands as they fail. That was more or less what I did with some tools; I bought a lot of Craftsman back then, and over the years I’ve replaced everything but the sockets and nutdrivers with better versions.
I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand it can make sense: there’s little point in buying expensive tools if you don’t need them. But that advice assumes that the buyer may not know what they need, and that isn’t necessarily true. I would never recommend a set of Snap-On wrenches to the average Joe who may have no idea if he needs good or cheapo tools. But someone who is serious about starting their career as a mechanic? That’s a whole different story, and there’s little point in such a person starting out with cheapos.
Jared
I concur. It’s not a bad shorthand rule, but careful consideration allows for exceptions.
In my home shop, I encounter this dilemma regularly. There are times where I think it’s better to have a variety of tools than a smaller selection of expensive ones – but it’s also annoying to re-buy a tool I already own because I cheaped-out the first time.
Chris
Both are fine and have their place.
The bigger deciding factor is if the end user understands how these blades work to begin with.
An expensive blade will not last any longer than a cheap blade if the user does repeated or extended plunge cuts without proper chip evacuation. That smoking/red hot $20 blade will be garbage just as easily as the $0.54 one.
MM
That’s a very good point that I think is often overlooked. In my opinion OMTs are a bit like a small rotary tool (Dremel) in that there is a bit of a learning curve involved, and that new or ignorant users end up overloading the tool due to poor technique. I’ve seen plenty of people operate the OMT in such a way that there is no evacuation for chips. The other common mistakes I see are running the tool too fast for the work at hand, or allowing the workpiece to vibrate so instead of cutting the blade just grabs the work and shakes it.
fred
Benjamin Thompson (Count Rumford) experiments on heat – may have been in part motivated by his observation that a dull tool used in boring out a canon barrel produced more heat than a new tool and also was ineffective for its intended purpose. We take that somewhat for granted today – but in the late 18th century – his observations met with skepticism or even derision. When cutting or drilling – we now realize that even given optimum bit or blade materials, use of coolant (if applicable) and tip/tooth geometry – you still need to pay attention to feed rate, pressure and debris clearing. Otherwise, as you say your blade will quickly be trashed.
DRT42
Fred, once again I amazed by your erudition. Count Rumford … designer of the Rumford fireplace. State of the art heating in 1800. The only reason I know the man’s name is because I do love a nice wood fire on a cold winters evening.
RI Guy
One thought. If I’m doing a bunch of hot plunges I always have a cup of water to keep blade from loosing temper (stays sharp longer). I to this when drilling hard wood as well….
MichaelT
My only experience with cheap OMT blades was some ultracheap blades from eBay shipped from China or Hong Kong. I think on the order of a dollar each. My experience with those was that it wasn’t worth the time it took to change the blade they dulled so fast. Worked fine for drywall cutouts, but there are better tools for that…
John Cashman
I wouldn’t touch carbon steel blades. They just wear out too fast. It’s easy enough to find pretty cheap bipedal blades that cost less in the long run.
hon cho
bipedal blades….hmm, where do I find those? LOL
fred
Ha Ha – probably can only find them in John’s spell checker.
Between my fat-fingered typing skills (or lack thereof) and various auto-correct programs – I also seem to invent new words and malapropisms very day.
RC Ward
At that price they are well worth the chance.
Nathan
do I have to buy 50 – cause then I have to store 50 until I burn though them.
are they cheaper per blade that HF cheapo’s
Normally I would pass but if I know I have a project where I am going to slag a blade on purpose then I might consider it. Like for example I might have to cut some conduit in a place that isn’t suitable for better method – so for reach and cordless tool I have to use my cordless OMT – OK then I’ll know I’m going to slag a blade or 2.
I might use this vs a better quality blade becasue I don’t want to waste away a quality 10 dollar or so blade.
But instead of ordering off amazon I might just as well get from HF.
Ecotek
I’ve gone to strictly buying Ebay blades that run about $1 each. My local hardware store charges anywhere from $8 – $20 each blade. There is just simply no way it is a blade that is twenty times better. Or lasts twenty times longer, or even five times longer. The OMT generally isn’t a fine finish tool, so the quality of cut isn’t as critical. Plus, if I really need a nice cut I grab a fresh small tooth blade. I bet the cut varies much greater by the skill of the user than the blade itself.
Julian Tracy
I bought an asst from Amazon with high hopes for the japan-tooth style. Those were pretty much useless, but the fine tooth blades in that and subsequent asst’s like the Amazon blades in this post are absolutely worth it.
They do the holy grail of cutting – plunge cuts into lumber pretty darn good and at $.50-$.80 each, I pretty much have given up buying any others styles other than the tile cutting ones.
I’m old school – have had a Fein tool for the last 30 years, so I remember buying blades at $17-25 EACH. These cheap but good quality blades are absolutely a steal.
And seriously through – has ANYONE bought a gold colored “Titanium!” Coated blade or bit of any kind that was any better than a non-coated? What a gimmick.
MM
I bought an assortment pack of OMT blades (Milwaukee) on Black Friday. I think a few of those are “Titanium” but I havent’ used them yet, my current Dewalts are still kickin’.
I suspect how well the TiN coating will perform depends on their use case. TiN coatings have been a thing for machinist’s tooling for a long time and there is no doubt it works. Though it is also a quite old coating and these days things like TiCN or TiAlN, which are odd grey/purple colors, are more common and have superior performance. But if you’re using the OMT blade around materials which are harder than the coating (i.e. drywall dust, sand or cement particles, grout, tile, hardiboard, etc.) then I doubt it will help much. And it certainly won’t help poor technique if someone is overloading the tool or failing to clear chips/dust, or using the incorrect blade for the job.
Josh Walters
I pretty much just buy the >$1 blades online now, it’s pretty rare one of them meets a nail and I can go through several vs 1 Bosch or equivalent blade.
Nathan
The blades that came with my Dewalt were TN or TiCN coated some variant of.
the 2 that I have used the most are still useful.
Meanwhile sorry but an OMT is indeed a fine finish tool if used the right way. Like said before alot of people over speed them and burn stuff – or over load it up so it doesn’t cut effectively. even pressure – reasonable speed is it makes a very fine cut that you can make a very clean joint with.
IMO.
to that end a quality blade is important. no tooth waver, no curl is very important.
Roger
These are general plunge cutting blades. I’ve recently liked opposing teeth blades (“Japanese saw”) for flush cutting wood. The most difficult type to deal with are so-called “Bi-metal” that barely make it through a single nail. Then it turns into a scraper. I think they mean copper and aluminum.
In the sample pictures they show a laughable image of the blade up against a nail of sorts.
Bi-metal blades try to emulated a hacksaw, but the swipe is very short compared to the stroke of a hack saw blade. TiN coatings help a little. Maybe a thicker blade with carbide design would work. Seems the Diablos don’t last much longer either.
Neil
Price is over $45 now.
Tristan
I’d say – if you are using the blades yourself, then definitely get a good blade. You’ll notice that cuts are easier and the life is a lot longer on these. I run a small remodeling company and definitely stock the cheaper blades too. My guys burn through blades and will wreck a nice one as quickly as a cheap one. The cheap ones cut ok for one project.
Jayne Erin Defranco
I have used these blades they work fine for me a diyer. I think pros would be better off buying a high-quality blade.