Camp Saws

I use the Fiskars slide saw, I always have it in my pack since it's so light and handy. Works well.

I also built a wood framed buck saw around a 24" blade I bought at the hardware store. I used maple, which is a fairly heavy wood, but the whole thing only weighs about 2 pounds, if I remember correctly. Fine if you are setting up a base camp or car camping.

I've also had a basic tube framed bow saw, not satisfied with the tension on the blade or the attachment for the blade.
 
Siguy, these were my points too...lack of tension, and suitable attachment points to secure said blade to saw. Which tube saw brand did you have? I noticed there is one on the market that requires the user to remove and replace a 'spring pin' on one end of the blade to secure it. Drop that in leaf litter and you are pretty SOL IMO.

I've often thought one could pack the hardware, 2 lower wingnut/bolt assemblies, a blade or 3, the top rod/bolt, wing nuts and construct the wood part once at camp. This way you are'nt carrying the weight of the full saw unnecessarily in your pack. It would all secure inside something like an old bike inner tube, so as not to damage anything in one's pack.
 
I've got a Kershaw/Bahco, a Corona, and a Silky, among others. I like the Silky Super Accel 210 a bit better than the Kershaw/Bahco but both work well. If I'm cutting somewhat bigger stuff but don't want to go to a large bow saw, the Silky Zubat 330mm fixed blade is my next step up from a folder.

DancesWithKnives
 
Guys, I use a Vaughn Bear Saw that I bought from Lowes. It cuts like a laser and can be broken down for ease of carry. Trust me, it works very well.

The saw is pretty easy to find so I guess that is a plus as well. Images of it are readily available online.:thumbup:

Cheers, Shane
 
1Tracker: I think the impulse hardened Silky models are the winners on steel. According to their website and Chuck in their customer service dept., the teeth on many of the folders and the Zubat series fixed blades are electrically impulse hardened to Rockwell 67. [A file won't sharpen them, you need a diamond steel. Other Silky models are softer and can be file sharpened.] The majority of the blade is left softer for breakage protection.

After hardening of the teeth, the Silky blades are hard chromed. This greatly increases lubricity for sliding through wood. It also dramatically reduces pitch build up and/or corrosion. A friend of mine who hard chromes Emerson's blades says it produces the equivalent of about a Rockwell 73 hardness finish (but I don't know if the Rockwell C scale actually goes that high---I'm no metallurgist).

My Kershaw/Bahco folder has a black coating that flaked off some of the teeth on the first use. It is a kind of textured/matte finish that is nowhere near as slick as the Silky hard chrome.

I read a description by one professional arborist who said he used a 330mm Silky Zubat just about every day for three years and he didn't feel it needed sharpening. With that kind of performance, he didn't want one of Silky's file-sharpenable blades because it is a better use of his time to just buy a replacement Zubat blade when the time comes. I haven't put that kind of daily use on my Silkys so I can't personally vouch for the durability/longevity.

DancesWithKnives
 
DWK, I REALLY appreciated your above post with regard to saw blade life. Even though I was inquiring about bowsaw type saws; I now have an interest in Silkies...so goes life!

My question though when/if one was to attempt to resharpen a chromed blade, one would conceivably be 'sharpening' off the chrome,no? I could see if the wood blade lasts so long that even resharpening with a diamond stone would'nt be necessary.
 
Before my friend Steve started hard chroming blades for Emerson, we ran some tests on a few of my blades. He created a chroming jig that would generate a very small amount of hard chrome build up along the very edge of the blade. So for at least the first few sharpenings, the actual edge would be hard chrome rather than the underlying steel. I sharpened the hard chromed edge with a Hewett Jewelstik diamond sharpener. The blades cut very well but I haven't done any endurance tests to confirm that they hold an edge longer than good blade steels.

I don't know whether Silky does final sharpening of the teeth on their saw blades before or after hard chroming. And if they final sharpen after chroming, I don't know whether they sharpen through the chrome or leave some (hopefully the latter). I imagine that if you use a diamond file to sharpen the teeth of an impulse hardened Silky, like the Super Accel 210 or Zubat 330, you will take some chrome off the teeth. Eventually I expect you'd go through the hard chrome. However, a significant benefit of the hard chroming isn't on the teeth. The benefit of having really slick sides on the saw blade, that aren't slowed by pitch or corrosion, may equal or outweigh the benefits of chroming the teeth. I just don't know enough about saws to answer that question. My point is that even if you were to wear off some hard chrome from the teeth while sharpening, you'd still get better cutting performance because of the hard chrome on the rest of the saw blade.

I bought spare blades for all my Silkys when I ordered them (two for the 330mm Zubat in case I break some on a wilderness raft trip in AK) so I don't plan to try re-sharpening them when they get dull.

As for bow saws, I used a 36 incher with a Bahco blade and it cut very nicely. I ended up giving it to a friend so I don't know what the longevity has been. However, that Swedish Bahco steel seems very sharp and hard. The Swedish steel on my Kershaw/Bahco folder also seems quite sharp and hard but I don't know the specifics. One difference between it and the Silky 210 is that the Kershaw/Bahco seems to cut about 60% on the pull stroke and 40% on the push stroke (just my impression---not manufacturer's data). The Silkys all cut 100% on the pull stroke only. Some people like a saw that cuts on both strokes whereas others say that 95+% of breakage occurs when you are pushing too hard, so pull cutters are less likely to fail on you. I haven't had enough years of comparison to call that debate.

DancesWithKnives
 
Thanks for the above info, it says alot about your firsthand knowledge of the tools in question. I would agree with what you said about the chromed blades not adding to friction and drag in the cut; thus speeding the cut. I picked up a Fisker's Large folding saw the other day at Target for $8.00 in a discount section. It seems based on the Bahco/ Silky styles so I'm going to see how it cuts. It does not have a chromed blade, but for 8 clams and a Lifetime warranty I found it hard to resist trading 8 scooby snacks for it!
 
Good deal! For the price of many fast food lunches, even if you end up not liking it you can always keep it in a vehicle as an emergency saw or give it away. I still have an old cheapie Corona that I keep as a loaner.

DancesWithKnives
 
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