How to choose the right diamond blade for cutting and grinding tiles

More and more people are asking me this question. As the range of flooring, cladding and tiles grows, it’s increasingly important to choose the right cutting blade. From my experience, there is no truly universal blade for everything, even though some come close.

Each manufacturer and type of blade has different properties and life spans. Today there are many brands and blades on the market for cutting or grinding tiles and paving.

Personally, I use a wide portfolio of brands and types, and before every job I set aside a piece of the material and test how each blade cuts that material and what its characteristics are. The brands I use most often are Montolit, Distar, Sigma, DiaSegment, Pro5 and several blades of my own design. Below I'll discuss which brands and blades are used for what.

Montolit’s blades aren’t very well known, yet they’re among the best on the market both for straight cutting and mitre cuts. Their DNA series is available even for table saws, so it’s not limited to only 115 mm and 125 mm diameters. Their cutting performance is very good across various types of tiles and paving, regardless of hardness. However, they do have trouble with soft ceramics, where a dry cut without water can be a bit rough.

Distar is probably the most recognised brand and has a very wide range of products for tilers. I’ve tested almost all of their blades up to 125 mm and I must say that many of them aren’t quite perfected. The Perfect blade cuts amazingly but doesn’t perform well under mechanical and thermal load, and the same goes for the Scalpel and Colibri blades. In contrast, the Edge Dry blade is a fantastic tool for cutting mitre joints. Excellent blades include the series for Proxxon and mini grinders — the Butterfly 0.6 mm and 0.45 mm, or the new MasterCUT — as well as the Shine series for wet cutting with a thickness of just 0.6 mm.

Sigma and Raimondi don’t focus directly on blades, but both have blades designed for their straight‑cutting systems, such as the Raimondi Raizir and Sigma KERA‑FLEX. These blades are matched to those products, and they cut extremely well. So even though the brands don’t primarily develop blades, the ones designed for their systems are excellent and cut exactly as you’d expect.

Pro5 is a young brand under the Bat Nářadí company. In my view they match Distar blades and far outperform those from BIHUI. Whether I tested blades for straight cutting or for mitre joints, they performed very well even over the long term. I use their hexa‑segment blades in my slider where there is a conventional blade mount and I’m satisfied.

From my perspective, a tiler should have a wide range of blades for cutting tiles and paving so they can always choose the one that offers ideal characteristics in the given material. No universal blade exists, and if you want your work to be top quality you can’t rely on just one brand.

I increasingly encounter the use of cordless grinders with lower RPM. Most blades are designed for 11,000 RPM or more, while common cordless grinders range from 8,500 to 9,500 RPM. The blade therefore doesn’t reach sufficient peripheral speed, spends more time in contact with the material, heats up more, the bond doesn’t wear away properly and the blade becomes polished and dull. Therefore, when choosing a cordless grinder pay attention to the RPM. There are now cordless grinders available with 11,000 RPM+/min, or you can use blades designed specifically for cordless tools.

I hope this article helps you understand how to select a cutting blade. 😊