The impending death of Gerber's blade exchanger

[jzmtl]

Quite a few years ago Gerber gave us the blade exchanger, a holder on their multitools that allows the use of various jigsaw blades from carbide tipped wood cutting to diamond coated ceramic cutting, or even knife blades

There are two type of jigsaw blades if you are not familiar with them, the U shank by Back&Decker, and the T shank by Bosch.

At the time, it didn't matter much since the blades were fixed to jigsaws using mechanisms that require the use of screwdrivers, and the U shank has a hole for a setscrew to hold it in place.



Gerber chose the U shank to use with their multitool, it was more compact and can fit inboard a MT handle. The idea was great, you can thrash on the blade all you want, a new replacement blade cost anywhere from 50 cents to two dollars and available everywhere, which is much cheaper/quicker than sending your tool back to be repaired, even under warranty.



But as power tool market progressed, people demanded to be able to change their blade without needing a screwdriver or lose the setscrew, and the quick release blade holder is now on literally every jigsaw on the market. They use a lever to release the blade, and T shank flourished.

Leatherman chose the T shank to be used on their blade exchanger, and they are probably laughing in their sleep.



However, the setscrew hole in U shank blade caused the blade to be weaker, where it can break and leave a small piece inside the holder, render it useless, the market has abandoned it. Generic U shank blades started to coming out without the hole, and now even Black&Decker is following suit.



Gerber is still including the U shank blade holder on some models, but without readily available blades, I suspect they may just use up their stock and drop the idea.

[enki_ck]

Interesting thread.

And I agree with you on the B&D blades. Mostly I see only the T-shank blades in stores around here.

[JAfromMn]

Interesting thread.

And I agree with you on the B&D blades. Mostly I see only the T-shank blades in stores around here.

same here T shank is all I can find.

my old jigsaw takes U.

I looked all over

[jzmtl]

same here T shank is all I can find.

my old jigsaw takes U.

I looked all over

The only place I could find U with hole was at walmart, and I think I saw some last time I was there. But it's probably easier to just upgrade, a decent one is less than $40 now.

[JAfromMn]

same here T shank is all I can find.

my old jigsaw takes U.

I looked all over

The only place I could find U with hole was at walmart, and I think I saw some last time I was there. But it's probably easier to just upgrade, a decent one is less than $40 now.

that is the one store I didn't check.

I did buy a new jigsaw already. I got one for less than 30.00..

the old one is getting abused at work. They still have blades for it and the saw they have sucks.