+1 for Freud: I have one for my tablesaw and several of their router cutters. In all cases the quality of finish (and longevity of the cutting edge) has been excellent. But a tablesaw isn't a tracksaw...
... I'm not convinced that a thin kerf blade on a tracksaw is a good idea, necessarily. Festool and Makita could have chosen to use a 1.7mm kerf instead of the 2.2mm they usually have. I suspect they went with the fatter blade for cut quality reasons - they'll resonate at a higher frequency (probably), because the saw plate is stiffer, so probably will vibrate a lot less than a thinner blade might.
I suspect manufacturers have been forced to use thinner-kerf blades on the battery-powered tracksaws, because of the power requirements - it requires a lot less. The trade-off is probably finish quality, but that's deemed acceptable for the utility of not needing a mains connection.
My Makita has no riving knife, and I've managed to induce kickback on a couple of occasions. Not good, and definitely not clever on my part. Thankfully in both cases I had a normal thick-plate (and wide kerf) blade fitted - stronger and more rigid. Significant flexibility might well have resulted in more energy going into the "kick" rather into damaging the workpiece. Which is worse - starting again with a fresh bit of stock, or avoiding an airborne saw blade (or pieces thereof)? Of course I never intended, nor expected, to cause kickback - nobody does. With 20:20 hindsight I was just being stupid.
Festools have riving knives. Their cordless version has a 1.7mm kerf (IIRC). I've no doubt they've safety-tested the living daylights out of their design. I'd probably buy one. But I'm now very wary of using thin kerf, or more specifically thin saw plate, blades in my Makita.
And the other annoyance is that you're committed: unless you are really, really clever with your choice of blades, the overhang of the teeth outside the saw plate is different between the 2.2mm and 1.7mm blades: the cheap 1.7mm ones I have overhang more than the 2.2mm ones do. The saw's arbour is the reference point - it stays in the same position with respect to the track irrespective of the blade fitted. And the inner face of the saw plate is snug to the arbour.
If you're not following me, just remember this one point: the tooth overhang alone is the thing that determines exactly where the blade cuts the rubber strip.
And having the wrong overhang really messes up the geometry: When you tilt the saw, it pivots around the bottom edge of the cut rubber strip, as designed and with a standard blade in place. But a larger-overhang tooth cutting a bevel wil undercut the rubber strip, too, by an amount depending on the tilt of the blade and the overhang. Even if you only used a cheap blade for bevels, it would still mess up the rubber strip: it'll be no good for vertical (90deg) cuts in future, because it would have been undercut where it needs to meet the workpiece snugly.
This may not matter to you, but it matters to me, as one justification for buying one in the first place was to get a near-perfect finished edge, to save on finishing, make better use of offcuts, etc.
If there is a Fred blade of the right dimensions (diameter, kerf and plate thickness) to match the maker's specifications, I'd certainly consider using it. If not, find the best-performing exact dimensional match you can, and go with that, so that you don't mess up the rubber strip unintentionally, and the saw is as safe as it can be.
Regards, E.
