Selection and function of wood saw blades
Most of us chop wood, so there are plenty of options for wood blades. These can work on miter saws, circular saws, table saws, etc. There are three general settings for wood cutting blades; Crosscut, Rip and Combine. The categories they belong to are all about dental design.
Crosscut – designed for crosscutting wood
Rip-cut – designed for tearing along the wood grain
Combination - A mix of crosscut and tear designs creates a blade that can do both at the same time.
Unless you're doing a lot of very specific work, I've found that opting for a combination blade is almost always the best option. Most of us use our saws for multiple tasks unless you can dedicate a specific tool to one operation, use a combination blade.
teeth
The more teeth your blade has, the better your finish will be. Blades with fewer teeth will produce more tears and chips. So why use a blade with fewer teeth? Because the more teeth the blade has, the slower the cutting speed, the more friction and heat it generates.
If you're cutting a 2×4 frame, speed is more important, and you don't care about fine finishes, but trimming high-end veneer is nearly impossible without a fine blade. Here is a quick and dirty list of different tooth counts and their typical uses:
16-24 Teeth: Demo/Framework
32-50 teeth: Multipurpose cutting
60-80 teeth: finish level
100-140 teeth: fine finishes and cabinets