TPI (Teeth Per Inch)

TPI (teeth per inch) counts how many teeth a saw blade has in each inch of its cutting edge -- most relevant for band saw and jigsaw blades, where it's the main spec choice. A low-TPI blade (say, 3-4 TPI) removes material fast with a rougher cut, good for resawing or cutting thick stock; a high-TPI blade (14+ TPI) cuts slower but leaves a smoother edge and handles thin material and tight curves better. Picking TPI is fundamentally a speed-versus-finish tradeoff, matched to the material and cut at hand.