Festool 203336 Review

There is a moment every professional knows: you are halfway through a plunge cut into a solid oak door frame, the blade is buried to its full depth, and you feel the tool start to slow as the teeth meet resistance. With a cheap blade, that is often the beginning of the end — the teeth dull, the steel flexes, and what should have been a thirty-second cut turns into a smoking, juddering struggle that leaves burn marks and a blunt blade. Premium bimetal blades from manufacturers who engineer their own tools are built differently. The tooth geometry is designed for a specific cutting action, the bimetal construction pairs a hardened cutting edge with a flexible body that absorbs shock instead of snapping, and the overall length and profile are optimised for plunge depth and chip ejection rather than just fitting the mounting pattern. When your reputation — and your hourly rate — depends on clean, fast cuts with no callbacks, the blades you load into your multi-tool matter at least as much as the tool itself.

When you are buying oscillating saw blades at the professional end of the market, Festool sits in a category of its own — alongside Fein — as a brand that designs its accessories as an integrated part of its tool system rather than as an afterthought. The Universal Saw Blade USB 78/42/Bi/OSC/5 is a pack of five bimetal blades measuring 78 millimetres in length and 42 millimetres in width, built for deep plunge cuts in wood, composites, plastics, and non-ferrous metals. At approximately 13 euros per blade, this pack targets tradespeople who prioritise cutting speed, clean finish, and durability over per-blade cost.

This review examines what the Festool USB blades bring to the job site: the bimetal construction and tooth geometry, the 78-millimetre length for deep cuts, the curved profile for chip ejection, and how the blades hold up against embedded nails and mixed-material cutting. We also look at compatibility — which tool systems these blades fit and whether the premium price is justified for users who are not already in the Festool ecosystem.

The Festool Universal Saw Blade USB 78/42/Bi/OSC/5 is a pack of five bimetal oscillating saw blades manufactured in Germany to Festool's engineering standards. Each blade measures 78 millimetres in total length and 42 millimetres in width, making them among the longer oscillating blades available — this extra length translates directly into deeper plunge-cut capability, letting you cut through thicker door frames, deeper sections of floorboard, and bulkier timber profiles in a single pass. The blades carry 18 teeth arranged in a curved profile designed to eject chips efficiently during the cut, reducing heat build-up and preventing the blade from binding in the kerf.

The bimetal construction is the defining feature. Each blade consists of a high-speed steel cutting edge electron-welded to a flexible alloy steel body. The HSS edge holds its sharpness through multiple cuts in abrasive materials — coated wood, MDF, PVC, and composites — while the flexible body absorbs the lateral stresses that would cause a fully hardened blade to snap when it hits a nail or when the user applies side pressure during a plunge cut. Festool rates these blades for wood (including coated and varnished surfaces), composites, PVC, cardboard, non-ferrous metals, and plastics. The description specifically notes that the blades maintain cutting performance even when they encounter embedded nails, which is the acid test for any bimetal oscillating blade.

The 78-millimetre blade length is a practical advantage that goes beyond just cutting deeper. A longer blade also reaches further into corners and behind obstacles — cutting a pipe tight against a wall, notching a floorboard under a radiator, or trimming a protruding dowel in a confined cabinet space. The curved tooth profile actively clears chips out of the cut, which keeps the blade cooler, reduces friction, and means you spend less time pulling the blade out to clear debris. At 110 grams for the pack of five, each blade is light enough that it does not noticeably affect the balance of the multi-tool, and the standard Festool mounting pattern — compatible with their Vecturo oscillating tools as well as other universal-fit multi-tools — means tool-free blade changes are supported.

The blades are compatible with Festool's own Vecturo oscillating multi-tools as well as most universal-fit non-Starlock multi-tools from other manufacturers. The mounting uses the classic open-backed pattern rather than the Starlock interface, which means they will not fit Fein Starlock, Bosch Starlock Plus, or Makita Starlock tools. For Festool Vecturo users, these blades are the natural choice — designed and tested as a system with the tool. For users of other universal-fit multi-tools, the blades still fit but the premium over generic bimetal blades needs to be weighed against the cutting performance and longevity.

The Festool USB pack holds a 4.0 out of 5 stars rating from 14 customer reviews on Amazon France, ranking at number 157 in the Oscillating Tool Accessories category. The low review count is typical for premium Festool accessories — their customer base is smaller and more professional than mass-market brands, and users tend to buy through specialist dealers rather than Amazon. At approximately 66 euros for five blades — roughly 13 euros per blade — this is one of the most expensive oscillating blade packs on the market. The value proposition rests entirely on whether the German-engineered bimetal construction and the 78-millimetre extra-long profile deliver measurably faster cuts, cleaner finishes, and longer blade life than generic bimetal alternatives at half the price.

The Festool USB 78/42/Bi/OSC/5 blade pack is built for professional carpenters, joiners, kitchen fitters, and renovation contractors using Festool Vecturo or universal-fit multi-tools who need extra-long bimetal blades for deep plunge cuts and mixed-material cutting.