Saw blade tooth geometry: what the letters actually mean
A plain-language key to the tooth codes printed in a catalogue — WT, AT, TT, SBL, SBR, CB, WWT and the rest — and which material each one suits.
Updated 2026-11-02 · Jinfengli Tools (Guangdong) Co., Ltd.
Why the code matters more than the tooth count
Two blades can both be 300 mm, 3.2 mm kerf, 96 teeth and cut completely differently. The tooth geometry decides whether chips clear, whether the top edge stays clean, and how the blade behaves in a rip versus a crosscut.
Catalogues use short codes instead of drawings. The list below is the set used across the Jinfengli range.
The common codes
AT — Triple Chip. A trapezoidal tooth alternating with a flat tooth. The standard choice for particle board, MDF and laminate: clean two-side cuts and good chip clearance.
TT — Triple Chip Chamfer. Similar to AT with a chamfered flat tooth; used where the cut edge is visible and a slightly softer break is wanted.
WT — Bevel. A beveled tooth for solid wood rip and crosscut work, and for general purpose blades.
WWT — Double Bevel Flat. Aggressive bevel pair with a flat raker, common on rip and multi-rip blades in solid wood.
FT — Flat. Straight-toothed raker geometry for fast ripping and for scoring saws where a square bottom is needed.
SBL / SBR — Single Bevel Left / Right. One beveled face per tooth, used on scoring saws and on edge-trimming blades to control which side of the cut is referenced.
CB — Conical Bevel. Conical grinding, typical of scoring saws that cut a shallow groove before the main blade.
CT / FTS / WTS — conical variants used on two-piece scoring sets: Conical, Conical Flat and Conical Bevel.
V / VT — V Shape / Inverted V Flat. V-grooving and V-scoring geometries for aluminium composite, PCB V-cut and decorative grooves.
BG — Anti-kick Back. A restricted hook or limiting tooth that reduces the chance of the blade grabbing in solid wood.
Angle and hook
The angle column (α) tells you the hook, bevel or V angle. Low or negative hook is safer on aluminium and on machines that feed by hand; higher hook cuts faster in softwood but grabs more.
On non-ferrous metal and plastics, a small negative hook and a thin kerf usually outperform aggressive wood geometries, because they reduce heat and burring.
Reading our tables
In this catalogue the columns are C = teeth type and α = angle, next to D (diameter), B (teeth thickness / kerf), d (bore) and Z (teeth number). Every specification table on the site repeats that legend, and the tooth-type key underneath lists only the codes that table actually uses.
Categories this guide covers
- Saw Blades for the Board Industry — Chipboard, MDF and HDF, HPL
- Saw Blades for Solid Wood — Across the grain, along the grain, scoring saws
- Saw Blades for the Aluminium Industry — Profiles, rods and sheets
- Saw Blades for Sliding Table Machines — Main saw plus scoring saw set
- Saw Blades for Flooring — Single sizing and multiple rip saws