Anyone familiar with these saws?

[Oblio13]

It's a two-handed folding saw with a 500mm blade that cuts on the pull in the Japanese tradition. Bow saws and buck saws seem to bind and twist for me, and I'm wondering if this would be an improvement. It takes a lot of wood to heat a tent around here in the winter.


http://www.fine-tools.com/G-katanaboy.html

 

[Siberianfury]

i used somthing similar on my gamekeeping diploma at college last year, its used for pruning branches in high trees, what are you hoping to use it for?

 

[Oblio13]

Trail clearing, shelter-building, pruning, but mostly cutting wood for a tent stove.

 

[pwb]

I use their pole saws and non folding pruners quite a lot.

They are well made, very sharp but not impossible to break , don't ask .

Trail clearing, shelter-building, pruning, but mostly cutting wood for a tent stove.

I'm sure it will excel at the first three as for the fire wood , not sure.

Cheers, Pete.

 

[Siberianfury]

great for reach, but the size makes them unweildy for smaller tasks and there a pest to carry, id get a laplander personaly.

 

[Oblio13]

... id get a laplander personaly.

Great for crafts and light pruning, way too small for processing firewood.

 

[Hoodoo]

If it's a Silky, I don't think you can go wrong. A friend of mine has this one and he cut an amazing amount of wood with it, clearing some land so the power company would run a line to his cabin.

Still, for firewood, I'd tend to go with a bucksaw.

 

[BushcraftBaird112]

I've heard of silky saws before. Alot of people claim it's better than a laplander but ive never really tried on out before

 

[robin wood]

Silky make great saws but if a bow saw is binding and twisting so will anything else those sound like technique issues not saw issues.

 

[Peter_t]

in the world of arboriculture pruning saws are known as silkys the same way as you mite ask for a biro not a pen. nothing comes close to their quality and speed of cutting.
silky saws beet the laplander hands down.

pete

 

[SOAR]

Silkys are great saws, I use them everyday at work, tbh though I dont think you need a 500mm saw you would be better of with a 330 fixed like a zubat or gomtaro.

 

[IdahoBackwoods]

I have a 13" Silky Natanoko. It looks like the saw in the scabbard on the left in Puub's left-hand photo. It's great for pruning green limbs, but with 7 teeth per inch, it's more fine-cutting than a bowsaw and more delicate. For cutting firewood in a portable camp, I'd take a 24" bow-saw.

 

[harryhaller]

Oblio - fine-tools.com are an excellent company and I have bought stuff from them. They also give good explanations about their tools and their maintenance etc.

Here on this page they discuss the tools we are discussing here:

In the garden, in the woods, on building sites, and even occasionally while travelling, tree saws can be an indispensable companion. There is one for every purpose.

Important: For green wood outside, one should always use a coarse-toothed saw. In a saw with fine teeth, the wet sawdust sticks between the teeth and the saw quickly becomes too clogged up to cut. For dry wood a saw with fine teeth is best. Dry soft woods can to some extent be cut with a coarse-toothed saw, but with dry hardwoods and bamboo, a fine-toothed saw is absolutely recommended.

Silky saws are some of the most popular in Japan. The blades are widest at the teeth and taper toward the back to help prevent the blade from jamming in the wood. The teeth remain sharp for an unbelievably long time. These saws are not the cheapest, but the extra investment provides an absolutely reliable tool that has rendered faithful service to many many professional gardeners.

On this page you can also find saws with blades for metal und plastic. The small saws for cutting wood MiniMini-2 and Silky Pocket Boy are also highly recommended for children. An enlarged photo of a range of these saws will help you get an idea of the relative sizes of the various models.

 

[BOD]

Pull a couple of those saws out of the sleeves of your kimono, flip them open, and twirl them in your hands.

Ain't nobody going to mess with you whatever the neighborhood

 

[ged]

Bow saws and buck saws seem to bind and twist for me, and I'm wondering if this would be an improvement. It takes a lot of wood to heat a tent around here in the winter.

It takes quite a bit of wood to heat my portakabin in the winter too. I have a 7kW Morso 'Owl' wood-burning stove and burn almost three tonnes of wood per year on it. I use a bow saw with a very sharp blade, I oil it when I finish work but if the blade gets blunted I just replace it - no sense in working harder than necessary. Most of the time I wouldn't want to use anything else, even though I have a couple of chain saws handy if I need them for very large logs. My (grandfather's bow saw is light and I don't have to wear awkward protective gear to use it.

Take some time to brush up on your technique, it will be well worth it.

 

[mr dazzler]

Bow saws can get sloppy after a while and they lose the ability to tihten the blade any more. They do wear out. Thats why the traditional light wood ones with a spannish windlass tensioner are superior. Rusty blades are more prone to jam in the kerf, and make cutting harder. Also use the right blade, you can get ones to do green wood and others to do dry wood. I have been experimenting with big frame rip saws made from lengths of industrial bandsaw blade, like a mini pit saw.

 

[mr dazzler]

LOL I just cut some odds and ends of firewood, bits of ash, alder, oak, lime etc, some soft and some hard, all very dry being under cover for 18 months to 2 years. I started off with a sandvik bow saw (dry cutting blade) and yes it cuts, but why oh why dont they put any set on their blades (or any of the disposable saw makers come to that)?? Mystery....... Anyway I find the bowsaw blade is extremely difficult to stop curving in the cut, its very hard to correct a wandering line seeing as the teeth are all flatsided (no set) and also the wood sometimes distorts when the cutting releases tension in the log and acts like brake shoes on the blade and pinches it making it harder to complete the cut. So I thought get the Disston (set and filed to 7 point cross cut). It was sharp, but not freshly filed, so could of been much sharper. It cut just as fast and with less effort than the new sandvik. Because the teeth are set (sticking out slightly alternately left and right along the line of teeth) and the blade is tapered getting thinner towards its top edge, you get much less friction and it doesnt jam in the kerf and is very easy to control in the cut. Plus the beautifully carved wood handle is far more comfortable in extended use than an orange bit of steel tubing....

 

[spamel]

I must admit, if it is going to be a lot of wood cut in a static position where you don't have to man haul all of the kit in, then a large cross cut saw would be my choice too! Apart from the fact that they are just nice looking bits of kit, they work well and will keep you fit!

 

[forestwalker]

If I had to cut serious amounts of firewood by hand I'd pick

* a proper bow saw (one that is adjustable to fix stretchy blades, some of the older metal ones can do this),
* adding one hole to the blade when it stretched (there is a special tool for this), or
* the one man version of the old style logging cross cut saws.

One trick; rub a candle over the side of the blade to make it slide easier in the kerf

 

[Wayland]

I have a Lappy and a Silky.

At one of the meets we had a cutting race between the two out of curiosity and although the Silky (Pocket Boy) is slightly smaller, it beat the Laplander hands down.

We were cutting the same branch and we swapped saws and did it again to make sure it wasn't a strength or technique thing. The person using the Pocket Boy won each time.