Broke a $120 circular saw blade on a hidden nail last Tuesday

I was cutting some old oak flooring in a 1920s house over in Portland and hit a nail buried under the finish. The blade chipped three teeth and threw a piece of carbide across the room. Had to stop and swap to a cheap blade just to finish the job. Anyone else run into hidden fasteners in older homes and have a trick for finding them before you cut?

3 comments

3 Comments

alices1617d ago

Stop acting like this is some kind of tragic accident. You hit a hidden nail, you broke a blade, it happens. It's a tool, not a family heirloom. Paying $120 for a saw blade in the first place is kind of wild to me. You could buy three decent utility blades for that price and not even sweat it when one takes a hit. I've been cutting floors in old houses for years and I just use a cheap carbide blade and expect to replace it every few jobs. The hidden nail problem is overblown, you know? Just keep a metal detector handy if you're that worried, or better yet, stop cutting blindly into old wood without checking first. It's not that deep.

hayden58716d ago

Heard a guy on a podcast the other day saying the same thing basically. He was talking about how people treat their tools like they're sacred objects now and it just makes the job way more stressful than it needs to be. I've been there with the hidden nails too and yeah it stings for a second but then you just move on and grab another blade from the pack. Spending big money on a single blade that you're scared to use is kind of backwards if you ask me. Half the fun of working with old wood is the surprise of what you'll find anyway.

aaron67716d ago

@alices16 nails it honestly. This whole thing reminds me of how people treat everything like it's made of gold these days. Bought a nice phone? Better wrap it in three cases and a screen protector. Dropped a saw blade? Time to mourn it like a pet. Just part of the "everything is precious" trend in life right now I guess.