About to buy a sawzall for cutting large yamadori roots, hoping for reco's on what TPI blades to get

I'm guessing I'd want a higher TPI (tooths per inch) on sawzall blades for a bonsai tree than I'd want for cutting tree-trunks up for the trash, but don't know what would be best and instead of trial&error I was hoping someone could give me a recommendation! I know higher TPI will make cutting-through roots slower, but obviously it'll give far less 'kick-back' and transmit less energy into the tree with each pass of the blade so want to get the highest TPI that will still be effective!

To be clear on what I'm doing, I'm not referring to cutting yamadori out of the ground, I've already had the tree (1'-wide bougainvillea stump) for >6mo in a box, it's time to re-box it* and I'm going carve its top with die- and angle-grinders before un-boxing it (maybe even use the sawzall on the top, it needs a lot of wood removed!), then I'm planning to use the sawzall w/ a higher-TPI blade/saw to cut-back the roots, as this is the 2nd large yamadori I ever collected and didn't cut the roots back nearly enough in the first place so will be hacking them back again and know how useful a sawzall is here!)

Thanks for any reco's here!
[*it's not the most ideal time for a re-box, however it's spent 6mo in a stationary box that's sitting on the ground, I've now got 4 benches for my trees and am re-organizing my nursery, my first two large yamadori's in their stationary boxes need to be moved for the design I'm planning, getting them off the ground and getting them carved is a bonus - being bougies I'm not too worried about the improper season/timing, at absolute worst I'll lose one of them but they're really not good stock anyways, I had no idea what I was looking for at that time!]

@Zach Smith might be able to help you. I know he uses a reciprocating saw a lot for roots. I don’t have a saw yet...but will one of these days...so the answers you get will help me also. Thanks!

This

Any root or tree or whatever it like a hot knife thru butter

Sawzalls are fantastic for collecting. You`ll chuckle to your self thinking of not having it after

By cheap wood blades with length. No matter what you buy the soil will kill the blades. Go cheap and change often.

Aye. Preferred the finer teeth but it wont matter that much.

Sawzall is my favorite tool for repotting!

Get the Diablo 12" pruning blade. The 12" blade allows you to get under the tree and cut the tap root.

That's why I got my first sawzall. Came upon scads of hundred year old coast live oak on a old dairy pruned by cows on their daily rounds. Same path every day. They do a better job than deer. I was in heaven! Short fat chunky trunks none over 3 feet. With a friend we dug into hard California clay soil sweating like pigs but the thrill of the treasure kept us going. No room for back and forth of a hand saw. Cordless saws had just come out (that dates me) and made short work of the tap root that went down to China so the trees could survive the 8-9 months of no rain. Sure it would work on branches but my Felco folding blade makes short work of them. Goes through wood like butter.

Tieball said:

@Zach Smith might be able to help you. I know he uses a reciprocating saw a lot for roots. I don’t have a saw yet...but will one of these days...so the answers you get will help me also. Thanks!

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Thanks for tagging him, hopefully he comes and gives his thoughts!

I'd highly suggest getting one, they're such great tools I've been meaning to get one for ages but am always tight on cash, luckily I recently found out about Harbor Freight and have been getting some tools, if you get their coupons (which you can get online) you can get the 6A sawzall for $20, and a pack of (12) blades for $5 or $6, I just did that and it was <$30 with tax, gotta love it! I'll probably put the warranty on it (was $11 for my $50 die-grinder and covers 2yrs of anything-covered damages), they give you 90d to put it on but I look at it like 30d, since if it breaks in the first 30d you can just swap it anyways lol, so once I've verified the unit's fine I'll put the warranty on next time I'm at HF!

choppychoppy said:

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I got an assorted pack since I had zero blades to start out with, it had 6 TPI blades (instead of the 5 TPI of the Diablo you're using), probably a good thing though because while it'll be a little slower, it'll transfer less energy to the tree (this is especially important because the sawzall is a weak one, just 6A, I've never used one so weak the ones I've used have been 9A+, the one I typically borrow from a friend for collecting yamadori is 11A, that really moves a 9" blade through root/dirt!!)

Victorim said:

Sawzalls are fantastic for collecting. You`ll chuckle to your self thinking of not having it after

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ROFL ain't that the truth?! My first two 'real' yamadori's (things I sought-out, not just small bougies/hibiscus I came across) were 1' wide stumps, I did the first one w/o power tools (and only with crappy hand-saws), oh my god it was the most brutal ~3-4hrs collecting that thing, I knew I had to use a sawzall next time and yeah it makes it *so* fast! The last large yamadori I collected was around a month ago, it wasn't on 'friendly' property (though I did get permission, but the guy wasn't real happy about it, maybe it's me asking to run a power-line from his house ), so I rushed / went for speed and collected it - from un-packing tools to having the tree wrapped&ready, in around 50min iirc!! Just under an hour, for a ~1' long, 6" wide specimen (was >10' tall, the collection included cleaning up my mess of course, all in under 1hr )

I've always borrow an 11A Makita sawzall w/ 9" blades when I'm going collecting, I just got this one to get at the roots better when doing a near-future re-potting of a 1' wide stump of a bougie! And just because it'd be useful to have a sawzall, I mean I got an angle-grinder recently for carving my trees and I've used it on way more things than just my trees (that's just with flap-disk, cut-off wheel and grinding wheel, they're always useful for something! Then use my 4.5" rasp-cup disk when working on trees )

twisted trees said:

By cheap wood blades with length. No matter what you buy the soil will kill the blades. Go cheap and change often.

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I only got 6" blades, dumb move I should've got 9"'s but they only had larger packs than I wanted so am going to bum a single 9" off of my buddy lol, I didn't catch your post before heading to the store but I figured the 6"'s would be about as much as a 6A sawzall could confidently power, though I've never used 6" blades before and now, having gotten them home and realizing how much is lost in the collet/guard area, am seeing how limited-use a 6" will be...damnit! Don't think I can comfortably un-box the intended 1st-victim of this tool til I've got a 9" blade on-hand because 6" isn't going to cut it on a 1' stump's roots, especially the one I'm going to re-box as it had *way* too-many roots upon collection!]

Zach Smith said:

Get the Diablo 12" pruning blade. The 12" blade allows you to get under the tree and cut the tap root.

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I use a 9" on my friend's 11A Makita when collecting, I got this guy for trimming trees I've already collected and am either re-boxing and need to cut their roots more (due to poorly-cut roots upon collection, my first yamadoris) or cutting-off larger parts of trunks from yamadoris I have just to save the grinder some wear when going through excessively large areas (of which my trees have many!)
I only got 6" blades, which I figured were a good match for my weak 6A motor, but after installing am realizing how much length is lost in the collet/guard so will definitely need to get some 9"'s or 12"'s before I can really start using it! Would you still use a 12" with a 6A motor? I guess I'm just worried that it'd be under-powered and slow/weak power to the blade increases power-transfer into the tree and propensity to kick-back :/

Zach Smith said:

Get the Diablo 12" pruning blade. The 12" blade allows you to get under the tree and cut the tap root.

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Had a good laugh from this until I realized I misread "Diablo" for "Dildo"..

SU2 said:

I use a 9" on my friend's 11A Makita when collecting, I got this guy for trimming trees I've already collected and am either re-boxing and need to cut their roots more (due to poorly-cut roots upon collection, my first yamadoris) or cutting-off larger parts of trunks from yamadoris I have just to save the grinder some wear when going through excessively large areas (of which my trees have many!)
I only got 6" blades, which I figured were a good match for my weak 6A motor, but after installing am realizing how much length is lost in the collet/guard so will definitely need to get some 9"'s or 12"'s before I can really start using it! Would you still use a 12" with a 6A motor? I guess I'm just worried that it'd be under-powered and slow/weak power to the blade increases power-transfer into the tree and propensity to kick-back :/

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I use a Ryobi 18V cordless reciprocating saw. Don't know how to answer the question on the 6A motor, except to say I can't see how the extra 6" of blade makes any difference. I collect a lot of large trees, so being able to get into the ground beneath the trunk is vital. The 9" blade just won't do it; I know, I've tried. The 12" blade doesn't always allow for the entire tap to be severed, but that's about as long as they come and you can push the tree over and snap the tap enough to allow you to finish it off.

For what it's worth. Experience will out.

Victorim said:

Had a good laugh from this until I realized I misread "Diablo" for "Dildo"..

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Cracked me up. Thanks.

I also use the ryobi 18V saw and the 12" diablo. works great!

Diablo blades are boss

Bro bro.....

Them wood blades don't bend much.

I'd get the foot long metal cutting ones that can bend around other roots and stuff.
If you want to get pimp you can bend a more ridged piece of metal....those wood blades say, to the shape you want to keep, and cut finer details around keeper roots.
Wet it if its too hot.

Guard? Take it off!

Sorce

I use the Dewalt 20v. It’s great. Two pieces of advice:

1. Listen to Zach and buy the 12” pruning blades.
2. You’ll need a lot of extra batteries. The ones the Dewalt comes with in the box are 1.5 Ah and don’t last nearly long enough. But you can buy premium 5Ah batteries that have some staying power. They’re expensive, but absolutely worth it. I go in the field with two of the 5Ah and four of the 1.5 Ah batteries. Nothing stinks more than hauling all your tools and equipment into the field and having your sawzall battery die on the first tree.

Scott

sorce said:

Bro bro.....

Them wood blades don't bend much.

I'd get the foot long metal cutting ones that can bend around other roots and stuff.
If you want to get pimp you can bend a more ridged piece of metal....those wood blades say, to the shape you want to keep, and cut finer details around keeper roots.
Wet it if its too hot.

Guard? Take it off!

Sorce

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What do you mean about 'bending a ridged piece of metal'? Am confused I don't think it's what you mean, but I have bent a piece of metal for use as a protective-guard, I'll be sawing&grinding so-close to roots/shoots that're being kept that I want a safe-guard, in my few sessions using the grinders on my trees I've always managed to hit something I didn't intend (actually, all sessions but one!) so really want the protection, the tree in question needs a ton chopped-off, both above/below the soil-line, am interested in how it's going to go being such a drastic styling on something collected ~6mo ago, but bougies have proven pretty indestructible here so really not worried! I'd wait but this just needs to be moved, I'd planted a row of mexican sunflowers to act as a wind-block and it's already pushing-onto the stationary/fixed box this bougie is in, as well as a nursery re-org that's going to see that whole edge of my nursery removed (the bougie's box, ~9' of raised-bed and a monkey-pole)

And the guard/shoe on it seems fixed, I didn't dissemble the front but there's no 'regular'/simple way to just remove it (like on an angle-grinder, for instance), would realllly love to remove it!! They included a hex key in the box, I cannot fathom what it's for the manual doesn't mention what to use it for, and there's nothing on the unit I can find that'd take it (the body is fixed w/ Phillips bolts, there's zero visible slot for a hex key!)

Will certainly need longer blades for collecting, though for the tree I'm going to be re-boxing I think I'd be able to get by with the 6"s (alongside my angle- and die- grinders) since it's just cutting-back/refining the roots of a 6mo-old yamadori, am definitely going to go get longer ones but after playing with the 6's last night I think they'll be useful for some stuff, glad I didn't pay much for the 12-pack of them though!!

Oh and this unit's got an awesome feature I haven't seen in other units- you can rotate the front-half to one of 5 positions, so you can cut sideways w/o having to angle your arms/body into it, which is VERY cool!!