The two blades are quite individual in their design and purpose, and that’s evident in their shape. The Wood Flush Cutter is a much deeper blade that sits below the bottom of the saw itself, allowing it to be held horizontally while cutting – meaning you don’t have to angle the blade into the floor, where damage to both the blade and floor can occur. The blade is inserted into the saw upside down, allowing for complete flush cutting.
In comparison, the Wood Plunge Cutter recipro blade is 187mm long but relatively narrow, allowing it to turn while cutting in a vertical position. The slimmer design makes it much easier to turn the blade for a clean cut out in nogs and frames, and for any recipro cutting task that requires angles or curves cut into timber, ply or other woodbased panel products.
TEST #1: LET’S GET FLUSH
We kicked off with the 304mm 5TPI Wood Flush Cutter blade, and to help with our testing for both blades, WTW enlisted the help of Ben Rosinski from Timbaworx, a second-level-addition specialist company. Ben’s site was the perfect choice as the roof structure and metal roofing had just gone on, and their door openings still hadn’t been cut out of the framework. The boys had put a blue tarp down and installed the framework over the tarp to help keep things dry in the living areas below on the ground floor. Whether or not the blue tarp would be cut during our test was the perfect indicator of just how flush the Flush Cutter was.
The tall frame of the blade itself provided the ideal support to guide a nice straight cut, and within 5-10 seconds, Ben was 75% through at full speed. As he approached the bottom of the cut, he backed off the speed and eased the blade right down slowly to 1mm above the blue tarp. This last little section he finessed by eye until, with a little push of the bottom plate, it was cleanly cut all the way through. Ben repeated this process on the other side, with the whole process taking little more than a minute or two. As he pulled the cut-out from the doorway, he revealed a super-clean cut-out without a single slice, cut or tear in the tarp.
Very nice work, Benny!
TEST #2: TAKE THE PLUNGE
To test the 187mm 5TPI Wood Plunge Cutter, we installed a few ‘dummy’ nogs and let Ben rip in with some neat cut-outs.
The starting process involved allowing the blade to sit along with the nog horizontally, then, as the plunge tip did its job and bit into the timber, slowly angle the back of the recipro up until the blade had cut all the way through the nog or timber. Once through, it was merely a matter of guiding the recipro in a circular cut to the desired opening for the intended purpose.
The Kango did a superb job.
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY
Ben shared his thoughts on the two blades: “My favourite of the two was the 304mm Flush Cutter. We would typically use a hand saw for this task, but using the recipro saw produced an excellent clean cut in next to no time. When you have a half-dozen door openings to cut out, this timesaving adds up quickly. The features I liked were, of course, the flush design that makes it possible, but the Tooth Armour provided extra protection against nails, and the Surface Shield, which protected the teeth from coming into direct contact with the floor.
“On the 187mm 5TPI Wood Plunge Cutter, there could be many potential uses for this blade. Like a jigsaw, it allows you to cut curves and shape your cuts as required. But for your rough-in work, where your hole saw is out of action, or you need a quick hole cut for a rough-in, you will have your hole cut with this blade before you even find your hole saw and drill. Other features I liked with the Plunge Saw were the Sabre Tooth, which provided quicker and more efficient plunge cutting, and the short blade height, which enabled the curved cuts with excellent control.”
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