Does it much matter?

I noticed that one of my general purpose TS blades had a bit of build-up along the teeth and on the trailing edges as well. Seemed like the blade wasn't cutting as well as it had been. So, I scraped the build-up off with a sharp knife blade and then brushed the rest off with a brass brush.

I thought it cut easier after the cleaning, but perhaps it was simply the power of suggestion

Any words of wisdom? Cleaning this way was time consuming. If it does in fact make a significant difference in cutting, is there a simpler way to clean the blades? Chemicals?