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Long story short: Black & Decker Parana blade cuts through MDF like butter.

A bit longer: I tried cutting through 2 foot of 3/4 inch thick Medium Density Fiberboard. It took about 20 minutes and produced a lot of smoke. It also heated up my 30 year old circular saw to the point that the metal warped, and the metal of a thumb screw broke off.

I went to Home Depot, Lowes, Ace hardware stores and no body knew what kind of blade it took to cut through MDF. One lady said that this blade that only had 3 cutting blades on it would do the job. When I asked her if she was sure, she left that blade and started pointing out a different blade. Uh-huh, she had no idea. Off to find a different sales person and store.

My last stop was an Ace hardware store. He sold me a masonry cutting blade saying that should do the trick. I also bought the Parana blade with medium sized teeth just in case.

I also bought a new circular saw. I tried the masonry blade first. Nada. Worked about as fast as the old blade on the other saw. Tried the Parana blade. Ta-da. This only took me about 3 seconds to cut the 2 foot length.

Whoa Whoa! Brian. Glad it worked out, but...

In future, Black and Decker nothing, ever. MDF wasn't prevalent when your saw was made, (neither were some fourm members). 20 minutes isn't a number within the most remote realm of consideration for a single pass with any power tool, unless it's like a 1700 foot pass, which would put it in tiny mountains somewhere.

The instant there's smoke, the incorrect something (tool, tool accessory, etc.) is being employed for the task at hand. (For all saw blades, consider correct tooth rake(s), correct # of teeth, and carbide. No Marathon, CMT, or bargain-priced Freud or DeWalt blades.) A good circ. saw with a good cond. blade can cut full 1" MDF (try lifting a 4 x 8 sheet of that) with no fight at all.
Every good quality 7 1/4" circ saw blade in a decent saw will easily cut MDF, even the wrong blades, like an 80 tooth veneered plywood/melamine blade. The only differences should be the quality of the final cut.

Home center MDF is crap. Go to a lumber yard with a chunk of the home center junk and compare. Look at how tighly packed the particles are in the good stuff. Also, it may come from China at the home centers. No home building material from China is worth your time and effort.

I haven't been burned, but I've had friends who had jobs go south because if it. If it's a (non-exotic, of course) wood product that didn't come from the US or Canada, just keep walkin.' Canadian was better for a long while. Now it's about even, since some Canadian wood products have declined in quality in the past 4 or 5 years.

MDF dust is highly toxic to inhale and will still be found on a dust mop weeks later, so be careful. I take absolutley no workplace precautions, because my death wish has been ignored for so long.

This was some old MDF I bought around 10-11 years ago and never used. Hard to say exactly what it is. This is the first time I've tried cutting through MDF. I was surprised at how hard it was. I also found it amusing that none of the sales force in any of the local hardware stores had no idea what to cut it with. One of them was an old-timer. Looked to be near 70 years old. He's the one that suggested the masonry cutting blade (which didn't work).

Yes! Tax refunds are all in. I've got $1580 that I can apply towards a new TV. Either the Panasonic TC-P50GT50 or the Samsung PN51E7000 (I think). Both are the next to top of the line plasmas for 2012, but not being sold yet.

Hey Brian,

There are lots of good guides in the Interweb for choosing blades. One good thing, is that for the most part, you can even read an article on explaining table saw blade types and apply the same logic to your circular saw blades, chop saw blades etc.
Understanding stuff like why a different number of teeth, what's kerf mean, ripping vs. cross cuts, etc. are pretty universal across any round blade.

I mention this because I'm guessing you may have found difficulty trying to web research circular saw blades in particular, as many Average Joe's never find the need to swap away from a good combo blade on a circular saw. People with miter saws and table saws tend to change blades more often to suit their purpose so you may have better luck searching under the guise of say table saw blades and then applying much of the same logic. That is if you are interested in more info now that the original dilemma has passed..

No DeWalt? So is DeWalt the Bose of power tools? I always thought they were good...

DeWalt makes fine tools. Their blades are OK. Their bargain line of blades is very poor.

I've heard both DeWalt is bad and is good. I have a DeWalt reciprocal saw and so-far so-good. The circular saw I just bought was an $80 Porter-Cable with a laser light. So far, the gripe I have with it already is the tool they supplied to loosen and tighten the nut that holds the blade. It's very hard to keep it on the nut while turning it. Wants to keep slipping off.

I've never researched blades. Seems odd I haven't done that because I research just about everything else. But then I'd probably have to order one, because the stores near me seem very limited on what blades they sell.

DeWalt made their strong name on contractor grade tools. Later on they started a consumer line. The visual differences and packaging were purposefully made subtle so it's tough to tell the difference.

Other top brands aside... Although it's important to know which DeWalt you are getting, I think it would be safe to say that the consumer DeWalt models will still beat a Black & Decker or similar brand just about every time.

I don't know enough about blades to comment.

The Blade is a lot like speakers. You can have a killer receiver but if the speakers are budget, the sound is budget....