I just reviewed the MK hotdog, which was basically a comparison to the this Black widow, so this is the crux of the matter. 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 the MK hotdog 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 the hotdog out and then bought the this one anyway. So i have firsthand experience with both. Up front i will say the blade you buy might be irrelevant depending on what quality saw you have, 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 with caulk anyway... Or the material your cutting a hard porcelain vs a soft ceramic, then the blade just might not matter much in the end. That said, what i found... The hot dog is made in korea is manufactured better to a higher tolerance. It is more flat measuring less that 10mil overall run out. Where this QEP run out 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 about a 1.5 mm strip, where the QEP would wiggle and vibrate enough to break off a piece more than twice as thick... So if you need to make very thin cuts, you want the hotdog. 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 this black widow. 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 this QEP mostly i think its because of the blade run-out (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. But because of my own ignorance, I did unevenly wearing the hotdog at first, thus replaced it with the QEP. But since then i realize it was not the blades fault, but because of the nature of a sliding bridge saw, pulling the blade along with one had left right side of the material unsupported. Then the right side would break away and leave the left side wearing unevenly on the blade... The problem being this started to cause a slight wander to the right when the unworn 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) That said, because the QEP is thicker and has larger diamonds I would guess that ultimately it would last longer than the hotdog,but this is only a guess... as i said it has cut hundreds of feet in hard Italian porcelain, and has nearly all its rim left. 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. But since you can get the hotdog on subscription for just a few dollars more than the black widow, price should be less of an issue. This QEP blade isnt offered on subscription... Neither blade is a bad product, the hotdog is overall better (for me) so i would buy that one again. But for many DIYers reading this, i would imagine they would ultimately see a difference
