Thin and Long – Bosch Extra Long Jigsaw Blades Review & Corbel Test

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Just like certain “movie” stars, some tool accessories are known for their girth, and others for their length. Jigsaw blades aren’t typically known for either. If you’re looking to cut a meaty piece of wood and you don’t happen to have a bandsaw handy, your options have been pretty limited. Bosch recently released their Precision line of extra long 10 inch jigsaw blades and we found ourselves wondering whether they had much practical use, particularly for doing what you often do with jigsaws; cutting curves. With our curiosity piqued, we asked Bosch if they could send a few blades our way to review. We were pretty sure they could cut a thick piece of wood straight, so we set out to test these with curvaceous cuts that would have been a challenge even with a portable bandsaw.

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Handy Bosch blade codes – this one is good for cutting bunnies but not so good for cutting turtles

Not long ago, we did a roofing repair project. Like most projects around our old home, what started looking manageable quickly spiraled into more work and, of course, more expense. As the roofer pulled up the old roof tile on one section of the roof, he discovered our friendly neighborhood termites had devoured all but the paint on our custom cut roof corbels. Luckily, our roofer knew better than to put his weight over the corbels. If he had it would have been a fast and likely painful ride down to ground level.

bosch-jigsaw-blades-longThanks to the unspeakably evil termites, we needed to buy some nice sized timber and have the corbels custom cut at our local lumber yard. Thanks termites! A few weeks ago, I got the silly idea to mimik the look of our larger roof corbels with a slightly smaller variation for some decorative garage trim. Rather than pay our lumber yard or use a tool actually designed for this, I thought I’d take the Bosch extra long jigsaw blades for a spin. To be honest, I thought they’d fail pretty miserably, mainly due to blade deflection. The wood I was cutting measured a full 3 1/2″ thick, so I’d be cutting through more than twice the thickness of doubled-up 2x material.

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We discovered these el grande blades were a little too big for our jigsaw’s blade guard
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I used a screwdriver to gently and temporarily remove the blade guard

Step one was to copy the corbel curve from an old piece the termites only ate half the insides of. I traced the profile to a scrap piece of cardboard, which I then carefully cut along the lines of the profile. From there, I held the cardboard template to the beam and traced the profile back to the wood. Using the cardboard allowed me to fine-tune the curves and was easier to work with on multiple pieces than the half-eaten sample corbel I had.

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Copying the profile onto the beam
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Sawdust is flying!

Once I had the profile traced, I locked the timber into my trusty Jawhorse and prepared put the Bosch long jigsaw blades in action. One thing I immediately noticed with the blades (aside from their extreme length) is that they were surprisingly rigid thanks to an extra thick kerf. That’s a good thing when it comes to cutting thick material. If these blades were as flexible as a typical scroll blade, the blade on a thick cut would be more bendy than a Russian contortionist. Since I wasn’t going for a Dr. Seuss-Renaissance look on these corbels, I still had some hope these blades might actually make a somewhat vertical cut.

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The blade did suffer some wear from the blade guides

The extra width on the blades (which contributes to their strength and rigidity) also means you’re not going to be cutting ultra-tight radius curves. I made up for that by starting my cuts from multiple locations on the outside of the piece and essentially carving some space for the blade to pivot. This took a little longer, but then this wasn’t your grandma’s typical thin plywood jigsaw cut.

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Not too shabby for a jigsaw blade – this shot is before sanding to smooth out the cut

Amazingly, several minutes and a fair bit of sawdust later, I appeared to have two decent looking corbels. Did the long blades deflect and wander a bit? Sure. But they did so far less than I expected. These Bosch extra long jigsaw blades aren’t accessories you’re likely to use every day, however they can come in very handy for particular projects where you need a little more fine control than your reciprocating saw delivers. In addition to the the wood blade we tested, there’s also a metal devouring blade that can munch right through a sandwich of light metal.

Pricing and Where to Buy

These extra long Bosch blades run about $21 per three pack and are available in both wood and wood/metal blade styles.

Buy Now - 6 TPI for woood via Amazon


Buy Now - 24 TPI for wood/metal via Amazon

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About Marc Lyman

Marc grew up under a brave single mom who "encouraged" home improvement on the family home. Early toddler gifts included a tool set, and even a cordless Bosch drill when cordless drills first came out. In grade school (give or take a few years), Marc's mom said, "We need to cut down some trees. . . . here's a chainsaw." A father figure also involved Marc in many home improvement projects, including a summer of home remodeling in Palo Alto, CA. Toss in some Obsessive Compulsive personality traits researching everything home improvement related. The end result: a genetically pre-disposed, socially sculpted home improvement machine! For his complete profile, please visit our About page. Really, it's worth it.

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10 thoughts on “Thin and Long – Bosch Extra Long Jigsaw Blades Review & Corbel Test”

    • Marvin and Daniel, Bosch just updated us on availability. Check out the Amazon purchase link at the end of the article. We have the wood blades linked there, and will add the metal versions once we get a link for those as well.

      Reply
  1. I can’t find these blades (T1044DP according to Bosch’s website) anywhere in the U.S. (including the stores you mentioned). Any idea where I can get them?

    Reply
  2. hey Marc!! Turtles are hard, man!! Unless you get one of those Ironman bunnies, they should be mega soft.
    B-)
    billw

    btw (and i know you know this) the “ride down to ground level” is not the painful part – it’s that stop at the end!
    The ride is the ‘scary’ part
    From my experience, i mean

    Reply
    • I’m expecting hate mail from PETA shortly! Disclaimer – please do not use Bosch precision extra-long jigsaw blades for the sawing of bunnies or turtles.
      😉
      And, you’re right, landing is the hard part!

      Reply

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