Recip Blade Update

[Jronman]

I recently posted in the what tools did you buy about getting these blades.

 

I have finally opened up the packages. I suppose I'll give my pre-use review. Both blades look good.

 

The Bosch EDGE Demolition Wood/Nails:

feels sturdy and not likely to bend. The blue finish is not your typical glossy finish like a Milwaukee blade but more like a metalic finish. When you feel the blade in your hand the texture feels almost like a brushed aluminum or steel. The finish so far seems fairly durable. In terms of blade design it appears to be a fairly standard demo wood with nails blade design. Apart from the finish they seem fairly similar to a Milwaukee Ax blade in shape.

 

The Lenox Gold Nail Embedded Wood with Power Arc:

The blade feels a hair thiner than the Bosch Edge. I would say the blades flex is a bit more than the Bosch but not by much. I've noticed on Lenox blades the finish is lacking and tends to wear off much quicker than the Milwaukee blades I have used. It's a glossy finish similar to Milwaukee blades. The coverage is lacking on the corners and edges but decent everywhere else. A feature I have been wanting to try is Power Arc. Power Arc is what Lenox calls it's curved blades.

 

Here is a picture of how curved they are. I wonder how different they will be when cutting. 

 

 

Hopefully I can get to use them soon and get a final review up.

[BMack37]

I know it's stupid but I wish they'd standardize how they put logos on blades. Milwaukee and Diablo are opposite too...not that the label lasts more than a few mins after you use them.

[Jronman]

51 minutes ago, BMack37 said:

I know it's stupid but I wish they'd standardize how they put logos on blades. Milwaukee and Diablo are opposite too...not that the label lasts more than a few mins after you use them.

I used a brand new Ax blade last summer to cut a conifer tree and the coating barely wore by the time I was finished. Lenox blades wore noticeably quickly. 

[Jronman]

Got around to testing my new blades. I will include my Milwaukee Pruning blade as well.

 

The test: Cut live tree limbs after the trees have been rained on.

 

The Lenox:

Power arc may seem like a gimmick to some but I think its the real deal. The curved Lenox blade seemed faster than the average wood with nails blade. I almost thought the Lenox was as fast as the pruning blade but I think it is a bit slower. Another thing I noticed about the Lenox Blade is when I wore the coating to the bare metal I noticed the teeth were yellow. I thought I remembered reading they were zinc coated. 

 

The Milwaukee Pruning:

Fastest of the 3 as expected but surprisingly not much more than the Lenox. I noticed the blade is prone to flexing and bending unlike the others. It was easy to straighten the blade out though.

 

The Bosch:

It is noticeably slower than the other 2 blades. I wasn't surprised because it was just your standard wood with nails blade. The coating on the Bosch is impressive. Possibly as tough as a Milwaukee Ax blade. I didn't use it as much as the other two but for as much as I used it, the wear was unusual. One side wore to the bare metal a bit but less wear than the Lenox. The other side didn't really have any coating that wore off. This was the strongest blade of the three. No noticeable bend in the blade after use. 

 

Here they are after todays use. You can see how bent the pruning blade is compared to the other 2. This is the side of the Bosch blade that didn't wear to the metal.

 

 

Heres a close up of the other side of the blades. You can notice the teeth on the Lenox are Zinc plated. It's interesting that some teeth on the Bosch had the coating worn off but other teeth still have the coating. 

 

[BMack37]

Pruning blades are made to flex a lot, that's a design feature. They typically only harden the teeth, you can really see it on the Diablo blades. When you think about it, that's exactly what you want in a pruning blade.

 

BTW, don't throw away pruning blades. When they get old I use them to cut roots, you can jam the damn things in the ground and cut a weed's roots no problem. We have a lot of weed(and those damn palms) problems in FL but it's a damn back saver. With the palms if you see one of these guys that are only a few inches tall, the roots are like six or more feet. Normally by the time you notice, it's going to be a pain to dig out. 

[KnarlyCarl]

i like the idea behind the curved blade, it gives the recip saw a little edge like the orbital mode would do... at least that's what it appears to do... I wonder how much quicker those are vs straight blades in the same recip... or if they could improve a non-orbital recip performance such as it acts like a recip with orbital... 

I think i'll get those lenox and try it against some similar blades on my non-orbital sawzall... Not that i ever really benefit from orbital, but i'm intrigued.. I forgot about these blades, although i've heard of them before...

[Jronman]

2 minutes ago, KnarlyCarl said:

i like the idea behind the curved blade, it gives the recip saw a little edge like the orbital mode would do... at least that's what it appears to do... I wonder how much quicker those are vs straight blades in the same recip... or if they could improve a non-orbital recip performance such as it acts like a recip with orbital... 

I think i'll get those lenox and try it against some similar blades on my non-orbital sawzall... Not that i ever really benefit from orbital, but i'm intrigued.. I forgot about these blades, although i've heard of them before...

From my test the curved Lenox was noticeably faster than the straight Bosch. I would recommend.

 

I dont have an orbital recip saw so might be worth testing them in an orbital vs non orbital?