Colin,
I have the same hacksaw, and changed the blade last year after well over a years hard use. I put a new one in, but really I should have just swapped it around end to end as only one half of the blade is used. I don't think it makes any difference on this model which way the power stroke is, it seems to cut in both directions if the blade is just swapped around. I have kept the old blade for more hard up times, rather than making the usual knife blade from it.
I bought my spare blades from Axminster and they are Bahco, which seem a very good brand, but maybe they now supply a different brand. I don't suppose they wouldn't be much different from anywhere else, the chinese one supplied with it lasted a great deal longer than I thought it would. These saws seem to be very gentle on blades.
One thing I did do though, it doesn't look very pretty, but I fitted a sliding extension weight to the handle, which gives me more cutting downforce, and it works a treat.
That is a cast steel base off a 2ft height gauge, so fairly heavy (and useless for anything else), and it now has a small lock on it that keeps the weight fixed where set to.
Bogs
