I've been using Vallorbe blades for a long time, but over the last year or so, my stock of old blades has gradually been running out, and as a result I've had to buy new ones.

And they're rubbish.

I thought it was just me at first, but no, pack after pack (in all sorts of sizes) which break, and more importantly, which blunt long before they should. Whilst I'm not in James' league, I spend a lot of time with a saw in hand, and this was getting to the point of being silly.

So I bought a selection of blades in the same size (4/0) and did some experimenting. In all cases I cut gold, silver, copper and aluminium sheet, as well as jump ring coils in silver. For reference, I use a Knew Concept saw with a tensioning lever.

I tested:
  • vallorbe
  • cookson own brand
  • crocodile
  • razor
  • herkules
  • relentless
  • laser gold (rio grande)
  • platinum king (grade 1)


The best, by a fair way, were the laser gold blades from Rio Grande. Next best were the relentless blades, which I managed to source in the UK (from alchemy and ice). Only these two compared favourably to my old stock Vallorbes. The herkules blades were OK, but wore out faster.

All the others became blunt and pretty much useless long before they broke - especially when cutting copper.

I included platinum king blades for cutting steel and heavyweight alloy, and these remained my first choice for these materials.

What did surprise me was how badly the vallorbe blades, which I had always considered to be the benchmark, performed. Their useful cutting life was amongst the shortest, and they were more inclined to break (yes, I did deliberately try to torture them into breaking) than almost any of the others tried, despite being amongst the more expensive choices.

I suspect that as a result, I'm going to be ordering a fair number of the laser golds from Rio, topped up with relentless blades when I need them in a hurry.

I'd be curious to know if anyone else has had any similar experiences, or can suggest any others I should try out.