Anti-Kick Saw Blades: Saw Blades with anti-kickback shoulders that limit the amount of material that can safely be cut by each tooth. This virtually eliminates the kickback caused by overfeeding. Also called safety saw blades.

Anti-Stick Coatings: As used on saw blades, these coatings decrease friction and heat buildup and help provide cleaner, smoother  and quieter cutting action. Anti-stick coatings also resist resin and pitch buildup and improve safety conditions.

Arbor: The shaft, driven by the saw's motor, which turns the saw blade. Also called a mandrel.

Chipper: In dado sets, small cutting tools with varying widths. Chippers are places between the cutters, or the outside blades, of the dado set to adjust the width of the cut.

Chipping: The condition caused when the saw blade lifts and tears the wood fibers as it exits the material. This causes the edge of the cut to be ragged.

Clearance Angle: The angle between the lower face of a saw blade and the material being cut.

Combination Saw Blade: Saw blades used for both ripping (cutting with the grain of the wood) and crosscutting (cutting across the grain).

Crosscut: A cut made across the grain of the wood.

Cutoff: Refers to the smooth cutting of wood, plywood, chipboard, paneling, pressboard, etc.

Cutter: In dado sets, the two larger, outside blades.

Cutting Angle: The angle between the upper face of the saw blade and the material being cut. Also known as a rake angle.

Dado: (1) A flat-bottomed recessed cut made across the grain of a board. (2) A b> Dampener: Used to improve saw blade performance by stiffening the saw blade plate and dampening sound and vibration caused by the saw's belt, motor, and bearings. Dampeners are mounted on the saw's arbor directly next to the blade. Also called a saw blade stabilizer.

Ferrous: Of or containing iron.

Finishing Saw Blade: A saw blade with higher tooth counts to provide smoother cuts. Typically refers to 7 1/4 inch blades with more than 40 teeth and 10 inch blades with more than 60 teeth.

Framing Saw Blades: Carbide tipped saw blades used to make fast sizing cuts in all types of wood. (the fastest cutting is achieved with thin kerf saw blades.)

General Purpose Saw Blades: Saw blades with low tooth counts used for fast crosscutting and ripping in most woods and wood-related materials. This designation is commonly used with opening price point carbide blades.

Groove: A recessed cut made across the grain of the wood. A groove has two straight sides that are at a 90 degree angle with a flat bottom. See also Plough.

Hollow Ground: A concave bevel edge on a tool.

Miter: The process of cutting material for an equal angle joint.

Nonferrous: Materials and metals not of or containing iron, such as aluminum, copper, brass and lead.

Plane: In woodworking, to make a surface smooth or even.

Plough: A recessed cut made with the grain of the wood. A plough cut has two straight sides that are at a 90 degree angle to a flat bottom. See also Groove.

Precision Finishing Saw Blade: Precision sharpened saw blades with a high tooth count and thicker kerf. These blades provide very smooth cuts in hardwood, softwood, plywood, chipboard, paneling, and Marlite.

Rabbet: An open-ended cut made along the edge of a workpiece that receives or interlocks with another piece to form a joint

Ripping: The process of sawing a board in the direction of the grain of the board.

Runout: The amount of wobble in a saw blade, or how much the blade moves from left to right during use. Also called wobble or warp. Our saw blades have very little or no runout.

Shim: (1) A thin, often tapered piece of material such as metal or wood used to fill in space between things. (2) A round, usually magnetic disc used with a dado blade to provide a wider cut.

Stopped Groove: A cut made along the grain that stops short of one or both ends of the workpiece.

Tear-out: A condition in which the saw blades tears out the grain of a workpiece.

Thin Kerf Saw Blades: A saw blade with a kerf, or cut width, between .065 and .070 inches.

Worm Drive Saw: A saw that has a diamond-shaped arbor instead of a round arbor.