Is More Teeth on a Skill Saw Blade Better? Honest Answers on Makita Tools, Saw Blades, Hex Keys, and Chainsaws

I've been handling tool procurement for a general contracting company for nine years. In that time, I've made—and carefully documented—7 mistakes big enough to mention. The total waste came to roughly $12,000.

Most of those mistakes were small. A wrong model number. A "universal" accessory. A "let's make it work" decision that took four months to fix.

If you're sourcing Makita tools and accessories—or really any power tool consumables—here are the questions I wish someone had asked me before I clicked "order."

Is more teeth on a skill saw blade better?

Short answer: no. It depends on what you're cutting.

More teeth per inch (TPI) means a smoother cut—but also a slower feed rate, more heat buildup, and less room for chips to clear. Fewer teeth means faster cutting, better chip clearance, and a rougher finish.

I learned this the expensive way in 2021. We were cutting framing lumber for a crew, and I figured "smoother is better" and ordered 60-tooth blades. They bogged down in 2x6s and burned out faster than I'd like to admit. Same saw, same lumber, swapped to 24-tooth—problem gone.

Same wood, same saw, same hands. Just a different blade. That's when I stopped thinking of it as a "better or worse" question and started thinking of it as a matching problem.

Rough rule of thumb: 24 teeth or fewer for framing and rough cuts. Around 40 for general purpose. 60+ for finish work and trim.

Not universal by any means—which is exactly why the 80-tooth blades I see people buy "because more is better" tend to sit in a drawer after two uses.

Is the Makita HM1214C 27 lb. AVT demolition hammer worth it?

Worth it? For mid-size demolition—concrete slab work, tile removal, light breaking—yes. The 27 lb. class hits a sweet spot between "can handle real work" and "your arms still function tomorrow."

But here's how I know.

In 2019, I bought a cheaper knockoff to save about $700. The reasoning seemed sound at the time: "It's just a hammer, right?" It is not just a hammer.

The operator's hands went numb by the end of a shift. The machine died in under five months. Between the downtime, the replacement, and the crew frustration, we paid more than if we'd just gone with the HM1214C from the start.

When I finally approved the real one, I kept second-guessing myself for a week. Was this the right call? Were we overpaying? What if it didn't hold up either? Didn't stop questioning until I watched one of our foremen run it for six straight hours and still hold a coffee cup steady afterward.

The AVT (Anti-Vibration Technology) isn't a marketing bullet point—it's the difference between a tool your crew resents and one they'll actually grab.

For reference: this model generally runs around $1,700–$1,900 from authorized dealers (based on January 2025 listings; verify current pricing—tool prices shift with promotions and supply).

How do I pick the right Makita lawn mower blade?

By measuring your existing blade, not by assuming there's such a thing as a "universal 21-inch blade." There isn't.

I made this mistake in 2022. I saw a blade listed as compatible with "most 21-inch mowers," ordered it, and found out the hard way that the center hole spacing was off by a few millimeters. It wouldn't sit right.

Had I forced it on, I'd have been looking at vibration issues or worse.

What I check now before buying any mower blade:

• Exact mower model number (not just deck size)
• Blade length and center hole size
• Mounting hole pattern

And one more thing that took me too long to learn: replace blades in pairs if your mower uses two. Mismatched wear causes uneven vibration that eventually wears out the spindle—and a spindle replacement costs more than two years of blades.

Do I need a full tools hex key set, or can I get by with a few sizes?

Get the set. Here's the math I wish I'd done back in 2018.

From 2018 to 2021, we bought hex keys one at a time. Whenever we needed a size, we bought that size. Three years later, I added up what we'd spent on singles: $340. A complete set at the time: about $60.

It wasn't just the dollars. It was the 40-minute round trips to the hardware store because a 5mm hex key had disappeared from the tool bag again. Every trip ate into jobsite time, and jobsite time is the one thing you can't buy back.

I always told myself "I just need this one." Turns out "just this one" is how you end up with nine mismatched pieces and still missing the one you need when a job can't wait.

Not ideal, but honest. A full set in a case, organized by size, saves you more than it costs.

What does "390 chainsaw" actually mean?

This one's a trap. "390" in chainsaw listings can refer to engine displacement, model number, or bar length—depending on who's writing the listing.

I got burned on this once. I wrote "390 chainsaw" on a purchase order without specifying the model and displacement. What arrived was two sizes down from what the job needed. Between the extra parts and the week we lost waiting for the right saw, that vague PO cost us about $280 plus a delay.

Now, every chainsaw PO includes: exact model number, displacement (cc), bar length, and chain pitch. Four specs, four checks. Blank specs on a PO are invitations for someone else to guess for you—and they'll guess wrong.

If I remember correctly, that job was a late-summer removal that should have taken two days. Took four. Don't quote me on the exact timeline, but the lesson stuck.

One more thing—about small orders

This last one isn't technical. It's more about attitude. But it's saved us more money than everything above combined.

Early on, I was reluctant to place small orders. Anything under $200 felt pointless—like the supplier would just push it to the bottom of the pile. So I'd wait until we had enough items to justify a "real" order.

That was the wrong approach.

The suppliers who treated my $200 orders with the same responsiveness as the big ones are the suppliers I still call for $20,000 orders. The ones who let small orders sit unacknowledged? They stopped hearing from me.

Small doesn't mean unimportant—it means potential. A $200 order today, handled well, is the beginning of a relationship. Handled poorly, it's the end of one before it starts.

So we made a rule: every order gets the same process—model numbers, specs, quantities, confirmed. No skipping steps because the order is small. That discipline has caught errors on both ends, and saved us from some expensive surprises.

Every time I've seen a supplier treat a small order as a burden, I've watched them lose the opportunity to be there for the bigger one. And every time I've seen a supplier take a small order seriously, I've watched them earn the next five.