Consistency in Makita Diamond Blades

[John Twilley <jtwilley@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm hoping that someone on the list might have experience with the
Makita's diamond blades for their small, battery powered "tile" saw or
be more knowledgeable about the product line than I am.  When I first
bought the saw, I also got a diamond blade (85 mm diameter, 15mm arbor)
that was labeled "diamond wheel - wet type for ceramic tile".  The blade
is quite thin (.4mm) and notched with fine teeth about 1.5mm wide that
are coated with diamond.  Unfortunately, I did not write down the part
number before it wore off.  When I attempted to replace it with a Makita
blade that was visually identical, its performance was very poor by
comparison to the first blade.

The unique thing about this fine notched blade was that, unlike a
typical diamond blade, it would cut effectively through soft material
like plastic if one was forced to cut across an epoxy fill, for example,
in travertine.  At the same time it was very efficient (even with
granite) and could be used briefly without water feed in a pinch.  The
replacement seems to have the same notch pitch, thickness and diamond
loading as the first but it doesn't cut any type of material nearly as
efficiently.  It is part number 724950-8C and is labeled  "diamond wheel
wet type" but says nothing about ceramic tile.

Inquiries to tool vendors have only led to suggestions that I substitute
their stock replacement blade and "try it" but I know the notched design
is critical to my use.  Does anyone know if there is more than one
Makita blade of this type, or if the old type labeled for ceramic use
has been discontinued?

John Twilley