Japanese saws

At first glance, the teeth seem rather fine for survival purposes. How do they perform in green woods, and how fast do they cut through firewood sized wood?
 
I use these saws on a daily basis in my line of work.The blades are very thin with fine razor sharp teeth.One side for crosscutting the other for rip cutting.They are the best saws I've used if the wood is dry.They are useless on green wood (the teeth just get clogged up and stop cutting).The teeth will also break off in a heartbeat if you hit anything hard.These saws are made for woodworking I wouldn't even consider them for camping and such.

Take care
Ray
 
My current favorite saw for camping is a Japanese pruning saw made for Corona. It has a nice triangular grind on the teeth, a grind that is also on a smaller Fiskars pruning saw that I picked up at Sears for about $10. The Fiskars saw has a 6in blade that stores in the handle while the Corona is 13in and has a hickory handle of about the same length that I made for it. The Corona saw has a nice reach with one hand use, cuts quickly with two hand use, and stores nicely in a vehicle. The Fiskars is nice for backpacking.
 
The other part of their down fall is that they have very little or no set to the teeth. They are made for making very fine cuts, like dovetails, and cutting dowels and things off flush without marring the surface of the wood. So if you get into trying to cut a freehanging limb or anything like that chances are you will get the saw stuck pretty fast. And then you can bend up the flimsy blade and break off the teeth trying to pull it out
frown.gif


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It'll feel better when it stops hurting.
 
Much of what's been said here about Japanese saws is true...BUT only for certain saws. Just like in America, Europe, etc, they make saws for all kinds of purposes including green wood. Some Japanese saws are extremely robust, some not. I would run a search and put up some links, but I'm trying to catch up on 10 days of missed forum time! The Japanese definitely make some of the best saws in the world, for whatever purpose.
 
But take care if you're going to have one, as some of the finest Japanese saws demands finest maintenance (metate). Some are robust, some are tough, some very sharp, but they are for pros and none of them are maintenance-free. Cooking knives as well.

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Did you enjoy today?
\(^o^)/ Mizutani Satoshi \(^o^)/
 
These days we are blessed with plenty of options in the Japanese saw market. They are readily and cheaply available at home centers, hardware stores, gardening centers, and online. Some of the common names seen are Corona pruning saws in the gardening department or Takagi Sharksaws in the tool section. For the "money means nothing to me" crowd, hand-made models from master bladesmiths in Japan can be gotten from Hida Tools, Japan Woodworker, and online for considerably more money.

However, for backpacking and survival purposes I think the folding pruning saws with Japanese-style blades have a clear advantage over the fixed-blade models in their ability to fold small enough to easily fit in a daypack or even a BDU pants cargo pocket.

My favorite Japanese saw continues to be the Pocket Folding Saw from Tashiro Hardware, although it is not the cheapest one available. I find the convenience of stuffing it in a pocket while climbing a ladder keeps my knuckles from getting chewed by climbing with an always-exposed fixed-blade type saw. But its strongest trait IMHO is the ability to vary the handle-to-blade angle to increase the bite of the teeth as compensation for tooth wear or to cut in awkward situations like cutting upwards into overhead framing. Its 11 tpi blade will suffice on green wood, although a coarser-toothed blade would clear the moist sawdust better. On dried wood like dimension lumber it leaves a surprisingly smooth kerf-edge. I have had little trouble with the durability of this saw. After several years I am still trying to kill my first one with little success. It's still going strong & the blade angle lockup remains solid. The blade will bind on the non-cutting forward stroke if I get sloppy with my technique, as will any such saw.

Links:
Tashiro Hardware webpage for the Pocket Saw: http://www.tashirohardware.com/special.html
Saw review of Tashiro & other saws: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=249653
Comments on the Tashiro saw: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=195322
Takagi Tools homepage: http://www.takagitools.com/
Hida Tools: http://www.hidatool.com/
Japan Woodworker: http://www.japanwoodworker.com
 
I heard that Corona makes blades in Korea now :-( Many professional folks shared their dissapointments about the blades quality. Looks like it's no longer Japanese quality.

Thanks for the TASHIRO link. Interesting... Is it a traditional set- or not-set teeth blade.

When I was talking about my favorite for camping I meant this one - see http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=305839
It has chrome plated, taper ground blade and non-set tooth design.
 
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I have used a folding saw from Gereber for many years...it has a wood blade not unlike the SAK saw...only bigger...and it has a bone blade. Both have performed very well. NO hassles. NOt an expensive saw...but good.

Shane
 
SilkyFox said:
TASHIRO link. Interesting... Is it a traditional set- or not-set teeth blade.
Click to expand...
Hi SilkyFox, The folding Pocket Saw blade from Tashiro is not a tapered blade and does have a slight set to the triple-ground, induction-hardened teeth.

The Tashiro blade blank measures at 0.030" and the width across the set teeth is about 0.048". So you can figure about 0.010" set on each side of the blade. Sorry, my caliper measures in 1/100-inch increments, not thousandths, so the accuracy is in the neighborhood of 0.002" depending on my eyes.

I've always been impressed with the quality and performance of the Silky Saw models when I checked them out at woodworking shows. But the price of the ones I saw (no pun intended) that were approximately the size of the 210mm Tashiro saw were in the $50-$65 range. In spite of their quality, I couldn't justify spending twice the price of a Tashiro saw to buy one of them for two reasons:
(1) My Tashiro isn't anywhere near dead yet & the spare one I got is still waiting to see the light of day.
(2) I was at a trade show where there were tons of other toys screaming "Buy ME!!" from booths all over the place, so I couldn't rationalize spending the $$ on a doubly redundant Japanese saw instead of some other toy (er....I mean TOOL.....yeah, that's it...a vitally needed tool). ;) :D
 
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