MK Diamond158434 7" MK-225 Hot Dog Premium Thin-Rim Blade

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 this 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 this blade out and then bought the black widow anyway. So i have first hand experience with both.Up front i will say the blade you buy may end up being irrelevant depending on several other factors. Including the quality saw your using, how well it is aligned, 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 anyway... Or the material your cutting a hard porcelain vs a soft ceramic.That said, what i found...The hot dog is made in korea is manufactured better to a higher tolerance.The blade is more flat measuring less that 10mil overall run out.Where the QEP 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 near a 1 mm strip, where the QEP would wobble and vibrate enough to break off a piece twice as thick...So if you need to make very thin cuts, you want the hotdog.Others have stated their hotdog blades are too thin and will tend to wander, but i believe that is more of a function of the saw they are using and unknowingly letting the hotdog blade wear unevenly that will cause a consistently worsening cut drift.What no one states is that if their wander is consistently to one side or the other... a true problem with a thin kerf blade would cause wonder in either direction indiscriminately.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 the QEP.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 the QEP mostly i think becuase of the blade runout (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.That said, because the hotdog is a thinner blade with finer diamonds, I would guess that ultimately it will wear out first, but this is only a guess...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.And since you can get the this blade on subscription for just a few dollars more than the black widow, price should be less of an issue.Neither blade is a bad product, but this is a review for buyers, so i would buy this blade again.As far as blade wander, I found that as my saw tended to wear the blade unevenly, thus initially why i replaced this blade with the black widow, it is not as much a fault of the blade as it is the saw. In my case, because of the nature of a sliding carriage bridge saw, pulling the blade along with the right hand leaves the right side of the material unsupported. The right side would break away and leave the left side wearing while the other did not...The problem cause a slight wander to the right as the less worn 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)If you find your blade wandering to one side consistently, dress it by squaring it up with diamond blade on an angle grinder.If you find your blade wandering when its new, slow down, if that doesn't fix it, your saw is misaligned.

It is thin and works well

We ordered "Modern Large Format 10x30 White Glossy Pattern Porcelain Wall Tile" to replace our kitchen backsplash. The plan was to cut these in half and install it vertically.I have installed several backsplashes over the years, but this was my first time working with large format porcelain tile. Plus, this is Spanish porcelain with a rippled texture, which, according to other reviewers, is harder to cut without chipping. So I followed reviewer suggestions and got a MK Diamond Hotdog thin blade (well worth the price) for my QEP 7-inch wet saw. This blade allowed me to make some very thin adjustments (1/8 inch) and angle cuts. Another suggestion is using quality thin-set rated for porcelain. Since this was a COVID project, I wasn't too rushed to finish, but it was good to finally get the kitchen back to normal. Best of all, my wife loves it.

So I ran this wheel against several others including equivalent Rigid, Black Widow and DeWalt XP4. The tile cutter was an overhead 7 inch system with a moving bed I bought from Lowes (Kobalt I believe). The tiles were all porcelain, originating from South America and Spain. The Spanish tiles, which I personally imported, were a severe challenge as they are a 1/2 inch thick, rectified. They are staggeringly resistant to cutting and prone to chipping. I also cut Galaxy black-granite tiles with these blades.The XP4 and Black Widow were prone to chip tiles during "first cuts" but quickly stabilized and remained good until they reached end-of-life. The Rigid blades stabilized faster and seemed more durable until presented with the Spanish tiles which quickly ended the life of this blade despite great care being taken. Head and shoulders the MK Diamond proved to have the best life-span and had almost no "bedding in" period. The Spanish tile chewed up the Rigid and Black Widow blades but the NK Diamond soldiered through to the end (and I'm still getting good cuts from the blade). Overall this is now my preferred 7inch blade. I did like the Black Widow blades on "normal" tiles but they faded quickly with the Spanish tiles and with the granite.Please note I am an amateur and the sample size of disks was low (typically 2 of each) so statistically you cannot take my experiences as definitive. I also did not try cutting ceramic tiles.

I bought this  MK Diamond 158434 7" MK-225 Hot Dog Premium Thin-Rim Blade  and the  Bosch DB743S 7-Inch Continuous Rim Diamond Blade  after the MK-255 failed on me cutting tile. It was probably my fault because I did not install the blade properly in the first place and I tried to use the edge of it to cut sideways on the round edge of the toilet cut out.I probably should give it 5 stars because I could actually cut my tile FACE UP with this blade and I couldn't with  Bosch DB743S 7-Inch Continuous Rim Diamond Blade . The Bosch just kept chipping the face of the type of tile we were installing. I have no idea what type of tile it was. I thought it was porcelain but then I realized it was not.We had this cheap Yellow tile saw with a 4" blade before this one and the blade on that one cut everything! I'm sorry I loaned that one out and never got it back. Yes it was slow. But it didn't chip my tile. We installed our entire downstairs in Travertine with that saw.I would order another MK Diamond Blade before another  Bosch DB743S 7-Inch Continuous Rim Diamond Blade  blade.