While attending the 2014 STAFDA convention, Rob Foster over at Tool Skool discovered the cool new Sāf-T-Küt reciprocating saw blade. Now, reciprocating saws aren’t exactly precision instruments, but equipping your saw with one of these blades can supposedly help you cut into drywall or plaster without damaging any pipes or wires that might be hidden in the wall.
According to Sāf-T-Küt, these reciprocating saw blades produce 60% less dust compared to other methods of cutting holes in drywall. The carbide-tipped blades use a standard 1/2-inch universal shank, so they’ll fit most reciprocating saws.
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The best price I could find is over at Amazon, where two of Sāf-T-Küt’s reciprocating saw blades will run you $11 with free shipping.
Buy Now (via Amazon)
2014 STAFDA Recap (via Tool Skool)
Check out Sāf-T-Küt’s video to see a demonstration of how their blades performs while cutting drywall.
After watching the video I have a few observations:
- The blade only seems to cut the outer face of the drywall cleanly, which makes sense given the blade only has two teeth.
- Rather then cutting, the tip of the blade just punches through the back side of the drywall, ripping the paper and pushing any hidden wires out of the way.
- I would be interested to see a demonstration of this blade cutting plaster, as I can’t see it working on plaster and lathe, but maybe on plaster and blueboard.
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fred
My inventory indicates that we bought of what look like these (Saf-T-Kut – made by Ebbco – Part #974 UPC 718122009747) in January 2013. I checked and it seems like there are still 20 of the 24 we bought left – ad didn’t buy more. So it sounds like we thought they were a good idea, probably tried them but did not think they were world-beaters enough to buy as mainstream tools.
fred
My fat fingers strike again: UPC 718122009749
Benjamen
Interesting that you have stock from Jan 2013. I realize not everything shown at trade shows is new, but I could find so little info on the blades, I thought they were newer.
fred
The date they went into inventory was 1/10/2013 – and we may have bought them directly from the company or from Toolup. I think someone posted about them on Toolmonger back in December 2012
Blythe M
I can see these being useful as extra insurance to keep you from poking through the other side of the wall, definitely done that accidentally
Dave L.
I don’t know why this wasn’t thought of before. You could actually make them out of regular blades with a little careful cutting and grinding.
Tyler
When I read the article preview, I was hoping this was the answer to my problem where I want to cut drywall on an exterior wall without tearing up the Vapor Barrier. I’m afraid the point will still poke holes or cause damage. Rounding over the point/tip would likely help, but I’m guessing it would reduce its effectiveness or even the capability to cut the gypsum and inner paper.
jason. W
I bought a versa-cut from Rockwell with the sole purpose of cutting drywall. It has a nice plunge cutting ability with depth stop. I will remove 2 feet high of drywall around entire rooms in no time flat!
I cut a small section of the wall out with a utility knife to find the thickness of the drywall. I use it to set the depth just ever so slightly less then the drywall. After I have made my cuts with the saw I go back over it with a utility knife in order to cut the backing paper. Super safe and super quick.
Using the versa cut has sped up my drywall removing speed a lot.
Tyler
That’s a great tip. Some would say it takes too long but this method provides a good, clean and minimal interior damage option.
jason. w
Its a bit longer set up but it beats our old method of using utility knifes to make all our cuts.
In a water damage situation I’ve had to remove an entire buildings drywall up 2 feet high. By the time we get all the walls marked I’ve already had them cut.
Szymon
This looks like a great product. BUT..
The problem I see with this is that, because the blade is so short, you loose the accuracy as you need to hold the reciprocating saw at a 90* angle (flush to the wall).
If you mark out a specific size or an opening you need to cut, it would be hard to follow your pencil line as the view would be obstructed by the tool.
I almost bought it as I would benefit from its ability to not cut anything but the drywall. I often work in dental offices putting in network cable and other low voltage cabling. There are tons of stuff behind drywall in a dental office. (lead lining, Electrical, plumbing, different types of gas lines, suction etc).
I often need to cut a hole in the wall for a simple wall plate cover.
conan
I use a multi tool for precision drywall cutting.
James C
We occasionally use Milwaukee’s Drywall Access SAWZALL Blade (48-00-1640) when we need to go in blind on a potentially hazardous area of wall space. Doesn’t start as easy as a pointed blade, but there’s also no sharp point to graze any wire insulation and the shrunken blade design makes it highly maneuverable in any direction. They look to be slightly longer, too, which can come in handy for thicker drywall sections.
Tony Delyfer
We are an Australian National HVAC company and are interested to purchase this product as a safe product for our servicing technicians tooling / accessories.
Can someone please advise where we can get a reliable distributor for this product here in Australia.