2011 Street price: $210
Chippers: 6 (1/16″, four 1/8″, 3/32″)
Maximum cutting width: 29/32″
Outer blades: 24-tooth
Chipper style: Four-wing
Carbide: C4; Hook angle: -5°
For $210, CMT outfits your saw with a lot of steel — look at the size of those big four-tooth chippers! Anti-kickback humps should make this a safer blade to use, and with a 3/32″ chipper, it’s ready to go after today’s thinner sheet goods. I also appreciated the sturdy hard-plastic case with star knobs to hold blade parts on either side. This “heavy hitter’s” strengths were in melamine and oak ply, where it delivered almost flawless cuts; it left more splinters in soft cedar and some blade tracks in maple. Still, there’s no question that it deserves positive marks as a premium blade choice for general use.
