Wire saw good equipment or rubbish!

V_Shrake said:
. . .
Once done cutting, though, don't just take the saw off thes tick and roll it back up. Allow the saw to cool donw comletely and THEN roll it up. Rolling up a warm saw is a sure way to break it.
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Duh! This explains why I broke two and gave up on them. Did I miss this point in the directions or is this something "everybody knows"?
 
I never have heard that about not rolling up a warm wire saw. :confused:

I'm in the same boat as you, Thomas.

I'll remember this for the future, though.
 
Does rolling it up hot cause it to take a "set" so it breaks when you next try to straighten it out?
 
I have had nothing but bad experience with wire saws. Lots of work for little cutting.

For general utility work, a good folding saw is the best choice (I just got a Buck 755, and it is a lot of performance for not much money).

If you are going to be cutting a lot of larger limbs, the pocket chainsaws are really great. My son has one, and I have used it on branches up to about 5" diameter. Very fast cutting.
 
TL, I first learned about letting the wire cool after I took a just-used wire saw off its bough. It kinked up in a nasty snarl right away, and when I tried to straighten it out to roll it up more "precisely" it promptly broke at one of the kinks. After that I let them cool and have had far fewer breaks. It's still a good idea to carry at least 2 or 3 of them in your kits, though. Just in case.
 
Personally, I had a bad experience with one (a new one) breaking while cutting. I was going pretty fast, probably too fast, and it heated up and snapped. I carry a small fold up type saw (browning), and a small hatchet (Granfors Bruks) on deep woods outings for heavy wood cutting.
 
I never got to use one of those pocket chainsaw type saws but they sure look like they work well, and are quite compact as well.
 
I used my, already kinked (now I know why), wire-saw in the garden for a small test. It is just a gadget! No sawing power at all and it takes some time to make a good bow-saw. After some thinking I realized that I have the Coghlan’s one. Maybe the BCB or USMC type are better, when talking about wire-saw’s. If I see one of those I will buy it immediately to put in a small survivalkit. But after all the advise from this thread (thank you for that) I going to buy a Gerber folding saw as well.
 
Thomas Linton said:
Does rolling it up hot cause it to take a "set" so it breaks when you next try to straighten it out?
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When you heat up metal you can easily deform it to the point where it will not be able to recover when it cools. It also heats up unevenly, gets very hot on the inside which contacts the tree and expands, but the outside is cooler so there is internal stress. It might be worthwhile to stress relieve them if you use it heavily. Never made sense to me to have a survival item which is so easily broken. I made one out of an actual chainsaw blade, that was useless compared to its size and weight unless you wanted to do something really specific like under cut roots or slice off disks. If I was that pressed for weight that I could not carry an actual saw or blade/axem I'd just take a saw blade and drill a few holes in it for lashing points. Mini-kit item sure, like scalpel blades.

-Cliff
 
WEll I have tried quite a few and they are all certainly NOT created equal. Some are total junk and others, like the BCB wire saw are much better. I haven't seen one yet that was as good as the saw on a LM Wave or even a SAK unless you cutting wider diameter branches where a shorter saw simply won't work. The main problem with the wire saw is keeping it from getting too hot. If they get too hot they snap.

I have had the most success using them in this manner with a branch as the saw handle:

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It is worth checking them, and testing them. I carry a couple of BCB ones, because like everyone else, I have had others snap on me, even the BCB's it must be the temp. thing.

I like the look of those chainsaw ones.

I an not an axe person, I prefer to carry a saw of some describition into the woods. I am making an aluminium bow saw, because I want a full sized saw.
 
In my experience the wire bush saws alwas break- but i haven't used one in a few years. If you have a good machete or axe then the wiresaw is unecessary UNLESS you need to cut wood tactically, thena wiresaw is a very nice compact tool that you can use to cut a sapling close to the gournd. For example in a tactical situation when you have to make a stretcher after a firefight, you don't want to be making a racket with a machete. I've not bought one yet but I will buy one of the 'chainsaw' type flexible saws next; I can't imagine one breaking, I'm sure they will cut well, and it can be carried without taking up much space - I'm encouraged by what others have said about this type of saw in this thread.
 
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