Cutting travertine...argh. Marcrist blades or a radial saw?

[gordonspants]

Hi, quick question regarding tile saws. This is the first time I've tiled with a stone, rather than a ceramic tile, so I knew my rubi scribe-n-snap wouldn't 'cut it'.
Bought a Silverline tile saw, similar to this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Silverline-Hi...3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66:4|65:1|39:1|240:1318, which comes with it's own (carp) blade. Cutting is slow, with enough vibration to crack the travertine at some point along the cut. Even getting half way thru a cut, then starting from t'other end still results in a length of poor edge somewhere near the middle of the cut. Argh.

So should I
a) fork out on a decent marcrist blade for the cheapo Silverline saw
or
b) bin the cheapo saw and get/hire a proper radial/overarm-type saw

Answers on a small, triangular piece of travertine please (I have lots here if you need any...)

Thanks in advance

 

[joe-90]

I can only guess that the stone your tiles are made from is pretty brittle. It's not normally a problem cutting them with the gear you've got.

 

[gcol]

A marcrist blade will work well in most any cutter. Rather use a £30 machine with a marcrist blade than a £70 machine with a sheite blade in it.

 

[gordonspants]

Ta for the replies. I looked around a bit before buying the travertine, and this one seems pretty good, with few voids and holes compared to Topps 'like a sponge' stone, so I'm hoping it's the tools not the tiles ...or the tiler
Must be the carp blade - marcrist it is then after the bank holiday - will be cheaper (£50-ish?) than getting a grown-up radial cutter.
I've done a few successful 400mm or so cuts, only messed up a couple of cuts, but the biggie vertical 600mm slicing I think will wait until after a proper blade has been fitted.
Thanks

Also, I have an external corner - rather than use a plastic tile trim, can I just use the cut edge of the tile, smoothed off and grouted - can't visualise what it'll look like yet - how do the pros do it?

 

[joe-90]

One little trick I invented was to imitate a table top saw that you use to cut timber. On that saw you lower the blade until the blade just clears the material you are cutting. To get the same effect with a tile cutter, try sitting a plastic chopping board or piece of 15 mm thick timber on top of your cutter next to the blade so that when you do the cut the blade just clears the tile you are cutting. What it does is change the attack angle of the cut from downward to sideward - hence less breakages.

 

[gordonspants]

Now THAT is a good idea! I'll give it a go tomorrow with some plywood offcuts. Ta