Types of Hand Saws

A hand saw is a carpentry tool, sporting a sharp toothed blade, most often used for cutting wood. The blade made of strong metal has a sharp edge which facilitates easy cutting of the relatively soft wood. While a mechanical saw is powered by a motor, which rotates to move the blade, the hand saw requires manual efforts.

Different Types of Hand Saws

Back Saw: A back saw, sports a stiffening edge on its opposite side which is used for cutting, which gives a better control of the tool and thus facilitates precision in cutting. It is most often used for woodworking, such as cabinetry, which requires accuracy in cutting. The spacing between the teeth in this saw is very less. A major drawback of the back saw is that the stiffener being thicker than the blade, keeps the depth till which the saw can cut in limit. Some sub-types of back saw are tenon saws, dovetail saws and gent's saw. While tenon and dovetail saws sport a pistol styled handle, either open or closed at the bottom, the gent's saw features a thin turned handle located parallel to the blade.

Compass Saw: A compass saw, also referred to as a fret saw, is a narrow bladed saw, most often used to cut tight curves. This saw can facilitate wood cutting in a relatively less radii, with a greater accuracy. The design of this saw appears to be quite out of proportion, owing to the depth of its frame and comparatively a short blade. The blade used in this saw is very fine, and this proves to be the major advantage for the tool as it can cut sharp corners with definite ease. The only drawback of compass saw is the fragility of its blade.

Crosscut Saws: A crosscut is a term used to refer to a horizontal cut, made through the trunk of a standing tree. A cross cut saw is used to make such type of cuts, in standing trees as well as free lumber. This saw features teeth specially designed to cut the wood at right angle. As the cutting edge of these teeth is angled back, each tooth slices through the wood like a knife edge. Some saws sport alternating patterns of teeth, which help in scraping out cut strips of wood. Bucking saw, used for cutting felled trees, and felling saw, used to cut down standing trees, are two sub-types of crosscut saws.

Hacksaws: A hacksaw is a saw, featuring a fine toothed blade set under tension in a frame. This powerful saw is often used to cut metals, such as aluminum and copper, other than wood. This saw sports a pistol grip, and pins at the ends to attach a narrow blade. A screw is used in order to put this narrow blade under tension. This disposable blade can be either fixed facing towards, or facing away from the handle, depending on which the cutting action is determined on pull or push stroke.

Rip Saws: A rip saw is specially designed to make rip cuts, i.e. a cut parallel to the direction of the grain of the material on which you are working, most often wood. Each tooth of the rip saw has a flat edge on the front side. Due to this each tooth behaves like a chisel, preventing the tool from following grain lines, thus facilitating straight cuts. Most of these saws are designed to cut when the saw is pushed, but some saws work the other way round, cutting wood when pulled back.

Hand saws are prominently used in fields such as forestry, construction and medicine. These tools have become important components of wood cutting industry, and imagining these industries without this useful tool is very difficult.