Best oscillating tool blade sets: picks by mount, edge and job

01What should an oscillating blade set include?

A useful set has a mount that locks onto your tool, at least one blade with an edge hard enough for hidden nails or screws, and blade shapes for plunge cuts, flush cuts and scraping. Mount comes first because no edge or shape helps if the blade cannot clamp. The other three attributes decide how much of a typical renovation job the set covers.

Mount: the deciding attribute

The blade interface is how the accessory locks onto the tool's spindle. Older open designs, Bosch OIS and the 12-point universal pattern, clamp the blade flat under a bolt or lever. Starlock, developed jointly by Bosch and Fein and on sale from 2016, uses a three-dimensional mount sold in three power classes (Starlock, StarlockPlus, StarlockMax). A set marked universal fit is aimed at the open-pattern tools; a set marked Starlock is aimed at the newer mount but, in its base class, also clamps on OIS-type tools. The full mount rules sit in our page on which multi-tool blades fit each tool.

Edge material: HCS, bi-metal or carbide

High-carbon steel (HCS) blades are the wood and soft-material option. Bi-metal (BiM) blades are made for metal and for wood that may hide a nail. Carbide-tipped blades are aimed at screws, bolts, nails and harder metals, and makers claim much longer life for them than for bi-metal. The claimed multiples are 30x (Bosch) / 50x (Milwaukee), for Bosch's Starlock carbide blades and Milwaukee's OPEN-LOK carbide-teeth blades respectively. Both figures appear on more than one of each maker's pages, but they remain the makers' own claims rather than independent measurements.

Blade shapes: plunge, flush, segmented and scraper

Plunge-cut blades are straight, narrow blades for cutting pockets and openings. Flush-cut blades are offset so the teeth can run tight against a floor or wall. Segmented (round) blades are part of several Starlock sets. Scraper blades are flexible HCS plates for removing sealant and old adhesive. A set that includes at least one plunge blade, one flush blade and one scraper handles most trim, door-casing and floor work.

02Which mount does your multi-tool use?

Your multi-tool uses one of three mount families: Starlock in one of its classes, an open OIS-type or 12-point pattern that takes universal-fit blades, or a brand's own quick-change system with an adaptor for other blades. Read the class or mount from the tool manual or its product page before choosing a set. The table below lists the tools in our fact base and what their makers publish.

A few patterns stand out. Bosch's GOP range spreads across all three Starlock classes, so two Bosch multi-tools can need different blades. Makita shows the same split inside one brand; its relevant models are XMT04 (StarlockMax); XMT03, MT01, TM3010C, the last three listed for Makita's Starlock blade set. Fein moved its main multi-tool lines (MultiMaster, MultiTalent, SuperCut) to Starlock and says its Starlock accessories fit Fein, Bosch and other tools with 12-point mounts. DeWalt's 20V MAX XR multi-tool takes DeWalt accessories directly and non-DeWalt accessories through a universal adaptor, a washer and nut tightened with a hex wrench. If you are matching blades to a cordless kit, the cordless platform cross-reference shows which battery family each tool runs on.

04How do the three blade sets differ?

The sets differ first by mount, then by how many edge materials and shapes they include. Only the Bosch set uses Starlock; DeWalt and Diablo both sell universal-fit sets for open-pattern tools.

Bosch OSL005C vs the universal-fit sets: which mount should you buy?

Buy the Starlock set if your tool is any Starlock class or an OIS-compatible tool that Bosch names, and a universal-fit set if your tool has an open mount and is not Starlock-only. Base-class Starlock blades are backward compatible with Bosch OIS tools and with OIS-compatible tools from Fein, Makita, Milwaukee and Ridgid, according to Bosch. The reverse does not hold: universal-fit blades do not clamp on Starlock-only tools.

DeWalt DWA4216 vs Diablo DOU9S: which universal set covers more?

The Diablo set has more blades and includes carbide teeth, while the DeWalt set has more blade shapes. DeWalt's kit contains a fast-cut wood blade, a flush-cut blade, a rigid scraper and two wood-with-nails blades. Diablo's contains bi-metal blades for clean and nail-embedded wood, AMPED carbide-teeth blades, and a wider bi-metal blade, with two of most types. If scraping and flush cuts against a floor are the main jobs, DeWalt's mix suits better. If the work is mostly cutting through wood with hidden fasteners, the extra carbide edges in Diablo's set matter more.

Does a carbide blade replace a bi-metal one?

Not for every cut. Carbide teeth are aimed at metal such as screws, bolts and nails, and makers sell them on longer life. A bi-metal blade still handles mixed wood and light metal, and an HCS blade remains the option for clean wood and soft materials. A set that holds all three, like the Bosch OSL005C, avoids using a carbide edge where a cheaper blade would do.

05Which blade in a set suits wood, nails, metal and drywall?

Match the edge material to the hardest thing the blade may hit: HCS for clean wood and soft materials, bi-metal for wood with nails and light metal, and carbide for screws, bolts and harder metal. The shape follows the cut, a plunge blade for openings and a flush-cut blade for undercutting casings and jambs.

Bosch helps by colour: its Starlock blades carry a colour-coded interface and a laser-etched blade so the right one can be picked quickly. According to Bosch's own Starlock release, white blades are all-purpose including wood with nails, grey are for wood and laminate, blue for metal, purple for soft materials such as sealant, caulk and carpet, and brown for grout removal, grinding and sanding. That code is Bosch's alone; DeWalt and Diablo label blades by name instead.

Drywall is the cut many buyers ask about, and blade makers do name it as a multi-tool application, though on single blades rather than on these sets. Diablo sells its DOU200RBD bi-metal blade specifically for drywall, and Bosch lists drywall among the materials for its Starlock Curved-Tec carbide plunge blades. The three sets' own pages do not list drywall: Diablo lists wood, metal, plastics and PVC; DeWalt says common construction materials; Bosch says metal, wood and general-purpose materials. For regular drywall cut-outs, a dedicated drywall blade in your tool's mount is the option the makers point to, so check that its interface matches before buying.

Grout and tile are a separate category. A grout-removal blade is either carbide-tipped or diamond grit, and a carbide-grit rasp smooths tile adhesive and mortar. None of the three sets includes either, so tile work means buying a specialist blade on top.

06When does a blade set not fit your tool?

A blade set does not fit when its interface is coded for a higher-power class than the tool, when a universal blade meets a Starlock-only tool, or when an adaptor cannot hold the blade securely. Each of these comes from the tool or blade maker's own documentation.

• StarlockPlus or StarlockMax blades on a base Starlock or OIS tool. These classes are coded for higher-power tools and do not clamp on base Starlock or older OIS tools without an adaptor. Lower classes go up, not down: a StarlockMax tool takes all three classes, while a StarlockPlus tool takes Starlock and StarlockPlus only.
• Universal-fit blades on a Starlock-only tool. Makita's manual for its StarlockMax XMT04 marks OIS accessories as not usable, and Milwaukee states that its OPEN-LOK universal blades are not compatible with Starlock tools.
• Some Milwaukee arbors. Milwaukee's manual for the M18 FUEL 2836 says that if an accessory does not sit snugly, Milwaukee's blade adapter 48-03-2526 may be needed for some arbor types. This comes from one Milwaukee document.
• Fein SuperCut tools with QuickIN. These need Fein's QuickIN adaptor to hold 8-star accessories.

Sources disagree in two places. Axminster, a retailer, says StarlockPlus blades fit some older Bosch OIS tools and all Fein multi-cutters, while Bosch's release only says smaller classes fit larger machines; this page follows Bosch. Axminster also says DeWalt multi-tools need an adaptor for Starlock blades, while DeWalt only says non-DeWalt accessories attach with its universal adaptor and Bosch's list of OIS-compatible brands does not name DeWalt.

Three beliefs cause most wrong purchases. Universal fit does not mean every multi-tool. Any Starlock blade does not fit any Starlock tool, because only the base class fits all three. And Starlock blades are not useless on older tools: the base class is backward compatible with OIS-type tools.

07What else does a multi-tool take besides blades?

Most multi-tools also take a triangular sanding pad, and its size is not standard between brands. DeWalt's oscillating triangle paper is 3-1/8 in according to DeWalt, Milwaukee's OPEN-LOK triangle pad is 3-1/2 in, and Bosch's Starlock delta pad is 93 mm corner to corner according to a retailer listing. Buy paper to suit the pad you own, not the tool brand.

Milwaukee's manual suggests coarse grits for heavy stock removal, medium grits for general work and fine grits for finishing; the exact bands are in the accessory-types table above. The page on which detail sander pads fit compares pad shapes across dedicated detail sanders and multi-tools, and the sanding and grinding accessories hub groups the discs, sheets and wheels by tool.

Before you order a set, check the mount once more against your tool's manual. If you only know the model number, the tool accessory lookup lists the published mount for each multi-tool in our fact base.

08Questions readers ask