Handsaw: A Basic but Important Woodworking Tool

The history of handsaws dates back thousands of years. There are Egyptian hieroglyphics that shows ancient carpentersusing saw tocut boards into pieces. Meanwhile, ancient bow saws have been discovered in Japan.

Handsaws, to state the obvious, are one of the most basic tools for woodworking or carpentry. Today, however, power tools have by and large banished them from the toolboxes of woodworkers. Yet, there are a lot of carpenters and furniture makers who cannot help but to use handsaws, especially to cut joinery the traditional way.

Handsaws are available in many styles and sizes, but there are only two traditional types of Western saw—rip and crosscut. Western carpenters now have widely adoptedthe Japanese crosscut saws, but these are fundamentally different from their western counterparts.

No matter which style you choose, your Hand Saw buying decision should be influenced by these factors:

Teeth: They determine the cutting ability of the saw, expressed as teeth-per-inch (or centimeter). Bigger teeth mean lower TPI—these are the saws that are typically used for softer materials. Smaller teeth, which correspond to higher TPI, areused for harder materials. Ripsaws have lower TPI and their teethare chisel-like and are designed to cut with the grain. Crosscut saws havea complicated teeth structure, which are slightly angled to make clean cuts. Bigger the teeth, bigger the cut; smaller the teeth smaller, finer, clean but slower cut.

Western vs. Japanese: Recent saw designs have almost obliterated the distinction between rip and crosscut tooth patterns. These hybrid saws are shorter than average and are designed for general use and may operate on both the pull and push stroke.Unlike Western saws, however, Japanese blades are designed to cut on the pull action; their crosscut teeth are also different from Western designs. Japanese saw blades are difficult to sharpen owing to the fact that they have teeth that have very sharp points with complex bevels and angles. As a result, Japanese saws often come with replaceable blades—when the original gets dull, it is entirely convenient to buy a new one rather than try to sharpen it.

Steel quality: Purpose and design aside, what will determine a saw's true worth is the quality of steel used to make it.The overall quality of the steel to make the blade is extremely important; low quality steel would make low quality teeth which means you will have to hone them more often. In worst case scenario, they can break. Today, you can buy impulse-hardened saw that stay sharp for a long time. However, the biggest drawback of them is the steel is simply too hard to hone. As result, you have to discard them once they are dull. If good quality steel is used to make the saw, you can re-sharpen it many times.