Uploaded April 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
If you’ve ever wondered why your grooves aren’t flat, or your crosscuts tear out—your blade… it has a lot to say. Are you listening? Let’s talk FTG vs ATB—the two tooth grinds that decide how clean your cut really is.
FTG stands for Flat Top Grind, where every tooth looks like it’s got a military-grade flat top. If you’ve got a stacked dado, you’ve seen these before—and there’s a reason. This shape is perfect for partial-depth cuts. It scrapes and crushes, leaving clean, flat bottoms. That means your dados don’t suffer from uneven depths. And when ripping with the grain, they cut clean and fast. But crosscutting? Not their strong suit.
ATB blades, on the other hand, are shaped to slice.
Their teeth alternate angles to shear fibers cleanly—perfect for plywood, which tends to tear no matter which way you cut. But those angled teeth leave ridges on the bottom of grooves—like a dado chewed out by a pack of Rottweilers. And that means glue joints will have gaps and poor contact.
ATB blades are everywhere—they’re the standard and a great all-around option, just not when clean grooves matter. FTG blades are more specialized, so use them selectively. They’re not pricey, just a little harder to find.
The CLEANEST flat groove you can make is with a DADO blade, but these work well as a single blade → amzn.to/44bkmxW
Check out my other channel! → @makethingswithrob
Become a patron! → patreon.com/makethings ←
Huge thank you to my patrons that keep this thing going!
*MAKER TEAM*
Michelle B
Keith Current
William L McNally
Rich Lightfoot
Tutor the Barbarian
Aubrey G.
Nukebert
Sam W.
Aaron Knows DIY
G. Salazar
David B.
Make Things
#MakeThings #mtbitesize
If you’ve ever wondered why your grooves aren’t flat, or your crosscuts tear out—your blade… it has a lot to say. Are you listening? Let’s talk FTG vs ATB—the two tooth grinds that decide how clean your cut really is.
FTG stands for Flat Top Grind, where every tooth looks like it’s got a military-grade flat top. If you’ve got a stacked dado, you’ve seen these before—and there’s a reason. This shape is perfect for partial-depth cuts. It scrapes and crushes, leaving clean, flat bottoms. That means your dados don’t suffer from uneven depths. And when ripping with the grain, they cut clean and fast. But crosscutting? Not their strong suit.
ATB blades, on the other hand, are shaped to slice.
Their teeth alternate angles to shear fibers cleanly—perfect for plywood, which tends to tear no matter which way you cut. But those angled teeth leave ridges on the bottom of grooves—like a dado chewed out by a pack of Rottweilers. And that means glue joints will have gaps and poor contact.
ATB blades are everywhere—they’re the standard and a great all-around option, just not when clean grooves matter. FTG blades are more specialized, so use them selectively. They’re not pricey, just a little harder to find.
The CLEANEST flat groove you can make is with a DADO blade, but these work well as a single blade → amzn.to/44bkmxW
Check out my other channel! → @makethingswithrob
Become a patron! → patreon.com/makethings ←
Huge thank you to my patrons that keep this thing going!
*MAKER TEAM*
Michelle B
Keith Current
William L McNally
Rich Lightfoot
Tutor the Barbarian
Aubrey G.
Nukebert
Sam W.
Aaron Knows DIY
G. Salazar
David B.
Make Things
#MakeThings #mtbitesize
