QEP 7" Black Widow Premium-Grade, Thin Rim Diamond Blade for Wet Cutting of Porcelain, Ceramic, Granite and Marble Tile

I just reviewed the MK hotdog, which was basically a comparison to the this Black widow, so this is the crux of the matter.I read just about everything i could trying to find out what the best blade was, and if the premium blades were worth the premium price.The decision was basically between the MK hotdog and the QEP Black widow which had the second best ratings for the price...So due to a bit of inexperience I thought i had worn the hotdog out and then bought the this one anyway. So i have firsthand experience with both.Up front i will say the blade you buy might be irrelevant depending on what quality saw you have, a good blade wont fix the problems of a bad machine...Or depending on the kind of cuts you are making, if your cutting up your own mosaics that need fine edges vs just cutting end pieces that will be covered up with caulk anyway... Or the material your cutting a hard porcelain vs a soft ceramic, then the blade just might not matter much in the end.That said, what i found...The hot dog is made in korea is manufactured better to a higher tolerance.It is more flat measuring less that 10mil overall run out.Where this QEP run out was about double that, and showed a visible wobble side to side which i tried but couldn't easily fix.A flat blade helps the finished cut quality. The hotdog could cut down to about a 1.5 mm strip, where the QEP would wiggle and vibrate enough to break off a piece more than twice as thick...So if you need to make very thin cuts, you want the hotdog.The hotdog having a thinner kerf around 50mil, to the QEP was about 64 mil, so with my 1.5 hp rated, 8 amp saw, i did notice a difference cutting a very hard Italian porcelain. Both blades would cut but a weaker saw would benefit from the hotdog.Also, the hotdog being thinner, you will be able to squeeze that much more material when cutting down from larger pieces.As i was resizing larger tile, and had lots of cuts to make, slight slower speed of cut was noticed with this black widow.i would also stack 2 or 3 on top of each other, there you could feel the difference even more. Your saw needs to work harder with the thicker blade, which may be a concern for some saws.You will also see a finer grit diamond on the hotdog which also helps in the finished cut quality. The hotdog certainly has the edge in quality of cut also, where it would often result in not the slightest of chipping, i cant say the same for this QEP mostly i think its because of the blade run-out (wobble).As far as longevity is concerned, even having done hundreds of feel of linear feet, mostly with the QEP, i didn't come near wearing out either blade after all.But because of my own ignorance, I did unevenly wearing the hotdog at first, thus replaced it with the QEP.But since then i realize it was not the blades fault, but because of the nature of a sliding bridge saw, pulling the blade along with one had left right side of the material unsupported. Then the right side would break away and leave the left side wearing unevenly on the blade...The problem being this started to cause a slight wander to the right when the unworn side would more aggressively cut.(This is why i can not recommend a bring saw unless you have large tile and need to make long supported cuts. On a push sled type saw you support both sides of the material evenly)That said, because the QEP is thicker and has larger diamonds I would guessthat ultimately it would last longer than the hotdog,but this is only a guess... as i said it has cut hundreds of feet in hard Italian porcelain, and has nearly all its rim left.Similarly, when making cuts where there is more material on one side or the other, like a 45° cut, potentially the thinner blade has more of a tenancy to bend in the direction of less resistance, and wander, a potential disadvantage of the hotdog.But since you can get the hotdog on subscription for just a few dollars more than the black widow, price should be less of an issue.This QEP blade isnt offered on subscription...Neither blade is a bad product, the hotdog is overall better (for me) so i would buy that one again.But for many DIYers reading this, i would imagine they would ultimately see a difference

This will bail you out if you need a quick job done but if you’re using some sort of poor porcelain material it’ll easily get used up, usually premium blades are good for about 4 to 5 jobs but this one only lasted two jobs(not really the blades fault it was the poor condition of the porcelain itself very cheap this was because it even had a cheap paint job on the surface as opposed to a real good high-grade porcelain material that’s almost porous on the surface) so there was a lot of chipping going on on the edges but I’m sure this blade will work just fine overall.

I recently purchased a Rigid wet saw for use on a 400 square foot tiling project using 12x12 porcelain tiles. On part of the project, I was cutting 45 degree angles off each tile's corner to create the space into which to inset smaller 4 inch tiles on the diagonal as accents. This made for a lot of cutting.The blade supplied with the saw worked okay for a while, but I noticed that I was spending more and more time cutting as that blade apparently wore out. A friend of mine, who is a professional tile setter, had advised me to get a Black Widow blade, so I had one on hand. When I changed to it, the cutting went from from perhaps 15 seconds or more per cut to 3 or 4 seconds per cut. I was very sorry that I hadn't just installed the Black Widow from the start because I had wasted a lot of time cutting with the OEM blade.I'll know better once I do another job if the Black Widow continues to out perform, but my sense is that I cut less than half the job with the OEM blade, and the Black Widow was still cutting quickly at the end, so I'm pretty certain that the Black Widow is going to have a much longer lifetime than the OEM blade. Given the roughly $25 I paid for the blade, and the increased productivity of the blade, the Black Widow is a real money/time saver in my opinion.

Excellent blade. Did hexagon marble backsplash and after about 20 cuts, 25% project complete, went to Big Box store for new blades (just in case this one gave out, I wanted to be ready for the next day). Purchased two blades - both 50-100% more than this one - and the Black Widdow was FAR superior. Could have been the marble, but one of the blades I bought didn’t even cut, basically just gave out. I actually ended up putting the Black Widow back on and finished the entire project with it.Highly recommended blade for the price.

This blade cut through my 20" porcelain tiles like they were butter. I began using this blade when I was on the last 200 square feet of a 1000 foot diagonal install. I had gone through several other blades when I finally ordered this blade. I was thrilled at the fine cut it was making and the ease of which it made the cuts. It was quite a bit more expensive than the "cheaper" blades I had been using but the ease that it made the cuts was well worth the price!Yes this blade was amazing - at first. Then it began to dull and cause chipping even at a very, very slow feeds. Some of the cheap blades I had used lasted much longer than this one. I was barely able to make it through the last leg of my install with this blade. I probable should have just tossed it and got another one but I was so close to finishing and being very rural I would have had to order a new blade or take a day and go where I could buy one.My conclusion is that this is an excellent blade for a small job or maybe larger job with ceramic tile. It just didn't compare cost wise to some of the cheaper blades that may have had a little wider kerf but lasted longer. Thats why I'm giving a 3 star rating.

la use en un equipo profesional de corte de piso a 24" de longitud, esta era para sustituir mi hoja anterior y que decepcion mi hoja con mas de 3 anos cortaba mas limpio que esta hoja si buscan cortes limpios profesionales en porcelana esta no es su hoja indicada paguen el doble por una hoja de mejor reputacion que esta

This blade will cut porcelain quickly but will chip the glaze due the segmented rim. Best to find a continuous rim or glass blade for cutting chip free porcelain

Best tile blade I have ever used.. Cuts 7/16" porcelain tile with ease. Had to cut a finished edge, on a tile that was cut with a tile cutter.I cut about 1/8" off it and expected it break into pieces as I cut it.Amazingly it stayed together...Was left with a strip about 3/32"....The blade cut is on the left, tile cutter on the right.Definitely will buy another when I need a new one...

I'm not in anyway an expert on wet saw blades, but the reason I bought the blade was that the diamond edge had gone from my old blade and my saw would come to a stop when cutting tiles. I only had 6 more 8'' tiles to cut with this blade, but the edge came off of it before I had gotten through all 6.

I purchased a different brand from Home Depot, but it performed terribly and there was a lot of chipping. It couldn't even cut straight lines. I decided to try this Black Widow instead and I was able to finish my project with very little chipping. It's not a perfect cut, but it's much better than other brands. For this price, I recommend it.