Carbide saw blades: only the tips are carbide.

What part of a saw blade is carbide

A carbide-tipped saw blade has two metals in it. The teeth — the little cutters brazed around the rim — are tungsten carbide. Everything else — the big round plate, the center with the arbor hole, the expansion slots — is steel. The steel gives the blade its flatness and toughness; the carbide tips do the actual cutting.

This is the most misunderstood carbide item sellers bring us. A full 10-inch blade might weigh a few pounds, but the carbide in it is just the set of small tips around the edge — grams per blade. That is the honest math, and it decides everything that follows.

How saw blades are bought

Worn carbide-tipped blades are bought whole — tips still on the steel body. Cutting the tips off first is not worth it: each tip is tiny, brazed hard onto the steel, and the labor to remove dozens of tips per blade costs far more than the carbide they contain. Buyers factor the steel body into the deal and value the blade for its carbide tips.

There are two kinds you will run into. Carbide-tipped blades have separate visible tips brazed onto each tooth — these are the blades this page is about. Solid-body carbide or abrasive blades are different products entirely. And plain steel or high-speed-steel blades with no carbide tips are just steel scrap — not this market. Carbide vs. HSS, tested tells you how to check a tooth before you assume.

How to spot the carbide on a blade

Look at the rim: carbide tips are the small, blocky segments sitting on top of each tooth, usually a slightly different shade from the blade body — steel-gray against the darker steel plate. They feel glass-hard if you scratch a nail file across one. On a worn blade the tips may be chipped or missing; missing tips just mean less carbide, not a different category.

Where used saw blades come from

Circular saw blades from wood shops and framing crews, miter-saw and chop-saw blades, table-saw blades from cabinet shops, and cold-saw blades from metal shops all show up as sellers clean out shops and plant closings. Cabinet and millwork closings in particular leave stacks of blades behind — exactly the kind of lot worth a phone call about.

Keep reading.

Brazed vs. Solid Carbide — why brazed tooling sits in its own tier. Selling Carbide Inserts, End Mills & Drills — the solid-carbide end of the line. How to Identify Carbide — the magnet, spark, and weight tests.

Questions, answered.