What do you actually use your saw for?

campandtravel said:
Hey if you were an electrician, did you ever use that saw on drywall? If so how did it do?
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That saw would go through drywall with ease, but the clean up would suck being it's a folder.

Decades ago on a jobsite in Dutch Harbor, AK I asked a sheet-metal man if he had a hacksaw or metal cutter that I could get through one piece of 3/16" x 1-1/4" thick aluminum bar with. He handed me his SAK with the hack-saw blade extended. I openly laughed in his face thinking he was pulling my leg ... He convinced me to at least give it a try. I was amazed ... :) Not like it the tool you would chose, but standing on a jobsite 5 minutes away from a job-box I learned I wanted to start carrying an SAK with a saw. Swiss Champ lived on my hip for the next 15-20 years in leather belt pouch along with its short sharpening steel to cover maintenance duties.

Working as an electrician, I would think you'd want to carry a folding keyhole saw (with exchangeable blades) in your pouch. SAK saws (BOTH wood & metal) are great (to get by in a pinch ;-)

EDIT:
Example:
My - Folding Keyhole 'style' Saw with various handle angle positions, AND Blade Storage in Handle. Super lightweight, and accepts multiple style of saw blade tang designs allowing the use of Sawzall Blades, JigSaw Blades, etc.
BOSCH FoldingSaw-500Wide.jpg
 
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campandtravel said:
So that was a hacksaw?
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campandtravel said:
The usual SAK saw is for wood though right?
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campandtravel said:
I think most multitool saws are?
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1) Yes.
2) I would say, no.
EDIT: It is my belief File/Metal-Saw blade is more commonly found on various SAK than the more aggressive saw-blade.
3) I do not believe that to be true, per 2) above.

To clarify, in my comments "hacksaw" generally means metal cutting saw with small/short teeth (shown on both Leatherman & SAK below).

Photo below shows the SAK I carried for many years along with the 5th or 6th belt pouch (typically got 2-3 years out of a belt pouch).

Also, is my OG Leatherman (re: my answer to your 3rd question) showing metal cutting saw/file.

Typically, In my experiences, a hack-saw (metal cutting) is a part of the file-blade as can be seen on both my SAK and Leatherman.

MultiTool Saws-720Wide.jpg
 
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Last year my wife and I rented a small cabin in the Blue Ridge mountains for a week. Well it turns out they had a fireplace in the living room. They had a woodpile outside for people to use but most of the pieces of wood were too big. Didn't know what I was going to do and then I remembered I had a saw on Swiss Army knife. It saved the day!
 
There's always something around the yard and farm that needs to be trimmed or pruned. Today while walking toward the back of the property I came across a low-hanging persimmon branch that I've been meaning to cut off for ages. I had my Fieldmaster with me so I took a couple of minutes to do the job.
 
campandtravel said:
Hm. What would you say that toothed saw is for if not wood?
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My comment #2 above was referring to my belief that the File/Metal-Saw blade is more commonly found on various SAK than the more aggressive saw-blade, and also my assumption that a lot of folks don't even know there is a saw-blade on their file-blade.

But, I would say the more aggressive saw-blade is primarily a wood cutting design, even though works for large variety of mediums.
 
Spey said:
That saw would go through drywall with ease, but the clean up would suck being it's a folder.

Decades ago on a jobsite in Dutch Harbor, AK I asked a sheet-metal man if he had a hacksaw or metal cutter that I could get through one piece of 3/16" x 1-1/4" thick aluminum bar with. He handed me his SAK with the hack-saw blade extended. I openly laughed in his face thinking he was pulling my leg ... He convinced me to at least give it a try. I was amazed ... :) Not like it the tool you would chose, but standing on a jobsite 5 minutes away from a job-box I learned I wanted to start carrying an SAK with a saw. Swiss Champ lived on my hip for the next 15-20 years in leather belt pouch along with its short sharpening steel to cover maintenance duties.

Working as an electrician, I would think you'd want to carry a folding keyhole saw (with exchangeable blades) in your pouch. SAK saws (BOTH wood & metal) are great (to get by in a pinch ;-)
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I agree with you in regards to a folding saw, I had a folding Milwaukee and liked it a lot near the end of my career. I always hated weight or redundancy in my tool belt so I shucked the old wood handled jab saw and just carried my ALOX Farmer and or Harvester. I did more industrial vs residential and on the job I was at for years the ALOX Farmer/Rancher worked best for me. When that job ended I was near the end of my stint doing electrical and my brother who was the warehouse manager always had access to the latest and greatest and gave me the Milwaukee to use and it was awesome.

When I did use the Farmer/Rancher I rapped the saw blade firmly and it cleaned it enough to not be an issue until I could clean the knife thoroughly.

Had to edit my reply and come back about the metal file blade, it's amazing how well it cuts aluminum with ease :thumbsup:
 
campandtravel said:
... "is carrying the saw all the time easier than occasionally running to the garage/car/whatever for a bigger tool?"
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I edited Post #22 to show the type of KeyHole 'style' saw I refer to in various posts. This was/is light enough to always have stashed in a tool/belt pouch along with bi-metal blades in various tooth count (metal & wood).
 
Spey said:
That saw would go through drywall with ease, but the clean up would suck being it's a folder.

Decades ago on a jobsite in Dutch Harbor, AK I asked a sheet-metal man if he had a hacksaw or metal cutter that I could get through one piece of 3/16" x 1-1/4" thick aluminum bar with. He handed me his SAK with the hack-saw blade extended. I openly laughed in his face thinking he was pulling my leg ... He convinced me to at least give it a try. I was amazed ... :) Not like it the tool you would chose, but standing on a jobsite 5 minutes away from a job-box I learned I wanted to start carrying an SAK with a saw. Swiss Champ lived on my hip for the next 15-20 years in leather belt pouch along with its short sharpening steel to cover maintenance duties.

Working as an electrician, I would think you'd want to carry a folding keyhole saw (with exchangeable blades) in your pouch. SAK saws (BOTH wood & metal) are great (to get by in a pinch ;-)

EDIT:
Example:
My - Folding Keyhole 'style' Saw with various handle angle positions, AND Blade Storage in Handle. Super lightweight, and accepts multiple style of saw blade tang designs allowing the use of Sawzall Blades, JigSaw Blades, etc.
View attachment 1734337
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There were four of us on that job I was referring to and we had the right tools at all times, obviously would take from the job shack for what was required. It was me I was referring to that didn't carry a jab saw because it was hardly needed in our main application. We worked in dump floors for Barley to work its way down in each step of processing. Used mutli-blade saws like that often when needed and weighed little if anything. The point I was making is it the SAK saw works exceptionally well for sheetrock, wood, pvc.

We ran Rigid and Robroy for industrial purposes depending on application. It was a Barley plant primarily used by Anheuser Busch. We also installed explosion proof cameras so they could verify that the train scales were not falsified by having additional weight added, men, machinery etc... and spent hours leaning over cat walks installing the cameras onto I beams. Especially enjoyable at -29 degrees before factoring wind chill. Glad those days are long gone.
 
Still use my Farmer for much the same jobs as Paul, being a sparky as well. Used on drywall and pvc conduit mostly, and occasionally when wood is where I dont want it to be. Used to cutting small stick for my sons when outdoors too, athough thats usually my Hiker
 
After around ten years of use the 91-mm SAK Huntsman as main EDC I understand that I don’t need this great saw in it, sad but true. I can remember only couple of times that it’s was really helpful (need to cut some tree branches). Saw on my multitool (Leatherman Surge) I use more often, for some small tasks when it’s to lazy or short in time to walk for getting dedicated saw - to cut some drywall, plastic pipes, work with small home projects. For a bit more heavy tasks I prefer my folding Bahco Laplander saw, great tool that I use it for everything from cutting branches in my garden to bone sawing.
 
campandtravel said:
But what do you use it for, is the question? Or did you answer above already?
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Anything that needs to be cut!

If I pull out a saw, it can do the job, its just a matter of time, and sometimes its actually faster than some big saws.

Wood, plastic, pvc, sheetrock, bone, Ive cut all of them with an SAK/Leatherman saw. Ive actually cut so much with one of my early SAK saws, I’ve sharpened it to keep it going. Ive even cut a 2”x4” with it as going to get another saw would have taken longer than the time to cut it with the SAK. This was in my pocket everyday when I managed apartments and did maintenance work.

Green wood is cut quickly with an SAK saw and when I don’t have a “chopper” with me, it does the job. Building blinds, cutting shooting lanes, making marshmallow/hot dog skewers, all have seen the saw used. Hence, a saw MUST be on every SAK I carry.
 
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