garryswf

First, in my lifetime i have owned 5 TS's, and to be honest i have never used a blade guard. The last saw i purchased didn't even come with on. I have read this entire thread thinking i could have something positive/negitive to add, but here it what it comes down to for me. I wouldn't even consider a blade guard, but i would seriously consider a rivving knife. I am inline with most posters that working smart, using as many safety options that you can (push sticks, ect.) there is one other thing i have been looking at while reading this thread, the tip of my middle finger on my left hand, it will always have a noticable kink, and that was not the saws fault, it was a very serious lapse in judgement on my part. So to end this for me here is what i will say, while working at a coalmine for 26 years i was an electrician for 5 of those years. I took many weeks of classes and training that i had to take to be qualified to work with 4,000 to 25,000 volts.Ok, now i am ready to go out and do what i was trained to do, but an older electrician pulled me aside and told me this, and for once in my life i listened. ( If you have any doubts about what you are about to do, STOP, walk away, drink a cup of coffee, think what the end result might/will be, then, and only then do the job you started).Work smart.