The Test Cut

Accessories

Blade Guard

A clear guard sitting over a table saw blade -- it keeps hands out of the blade path without hiding the cut line.
A clear guard sitting over a table saw blade -- it keeps hands out of the blade path without hiding the cut line.
Patrick Fitzgerald, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A blade guard is a clear plastic (or, on older saws, metal) cover mounted over a table saw or other blade, shielding the operator from incidental contact with the spinning blade above the table's surface while still allowing the workpiece and a view of the cut through it. Standard guards typically combine with the riving knife and anti-kickback pawls as one integrated safety assembly on modern saws, rather than a single standalone shield.

Guards do get removed for specific cuts they genuinely can't accommodate -- a non-through cut like a dado or rabbet, where the blade doesn't fully exit the top of the workpiece, is the classic case -- but that's meant to be the exception for that one cut, with the guard reinstalled immediately after, not a standing modification to how the saw normally runs.

Images

A clear guard sitting over a table saw blade -- it keeps hands out of the blade path without hiding the cut line.

Product: A clear guard sitting over a table saw blade -- it keeps hands out of the blade path without hiding the cut line. — Patrick Fitzgerald, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons