hey guys adam savage in my cave with what is i believe quite obviously
a short video about saws now
jamie heinemann's wonderful axiom that what we do as makers is we take things and make them
smaller in precise ways we take things and make them we take chunks of things and make
them smaller in precise ways that's what we do and cutting is one of the major operations
we do in a shop we cut with circular blades we cut with linear blades
and much of that cutting is automatic right with reciprocating saws and large pieces of equipment
but there is still a space in every shop for a selection of hand saws and here is a selection of
hand saws from my shop i've got a hacksaw everyone should have one of these everyone should have one
of these everyone should have one of these just if you are a maker this is a tool that you must have
they honestly like 10 to 15 bucks the blades are super replaceable it'll cut through most things
that you need to cut through it's absolutely critical it's not what this video is about um this
is a standard american handsaw i only recently got this one it's got some beautiful teeth they
face straight down um which tells me that this saw cuts on both the push and the pull
this is a fiskars which i actually just got this is a pole saw uh and i actually really like it
i've only used it a couple of times this is a bone saw that i picked up uh on ebay a few years ago
the teeth face uh away from the operator which means this song cuts on the push and look the
one so i don't have here is one of those large american wood saws the push saw uh and i don't
have it because i don't like those not to say that they're not excellent saws and that they
they are they are excellent saws and in the hands of a craftsperson they can be used to do amazing
things there is no problem with the american push saw in and of itself except that for me the
japanese version is better uh and that's what this video is about this is about a japanese handsaw
there are multiple kinds of japanese hand saws i am not an expert in them and i am
not going to know the terminology for the different types some of them have rigid backs
some of them are for flush cutting so this one is one of those uh its teeth do not break the plane
of the sides of the saw it has a it has a coarse side and a fine side and this saw in particular
i think i i paid over 100 bucks for because it was professionally sharpened
um and it's this is my goat this it literally says on it for adam only only i use this so no
one else is allowed to touch this saw a friend of mine is a chef and in her own home kitchen
her knives say like only if you don't live here don't touch these knives that's what this saw is
it's such a beautiful piece of equipment um this is i paid for this after literally 25 years of
using uh actually i don't have it anymore because i think i gave it away um of using a 20 25
japanese saw which did fine for me for 25 years and then a couple years ago i was like i wonder
if i could buy a professionally sharpened saw it'd be really nice and yeah i use that for all
the like really really fine stuff and that's what this is um i want to talk about that
how this works but we're going to include a link below in a 40 version of of this kind of saw
which is open on both sides for flush cutting um and that's the one that sufficed for me
again for 25 years uh the one that i had actually had a screw in the center so i was able to take
it apart and store it in my tool boxes and then pull it out when i needed it which was
ideal um and like i said saws are great and saw sharpening technology has gotten way better since
i was a kid just by much better saws that do great stuff um and this isn't to denigrate any
other kind of saw just to talk about how much i love this kind of saw and why so
to show why i love this saw i've broken out uh a piece of the uh what is this five inch five and
a half inch uh cedar that i used uh for the legs of my end tables over christmas i am going to cut
just a very small slice off the end of this uh with the japanese sauce i'm just making some marks
here so i can be assured that i am accurate and ah here's hoping this goes pretty well
so i called it a pole saw and that is really specifically because it cuts on the pull on
this coarse side you can clearly see the teeth here they move back towards the operator and
the same thing for the fine teeth they go back towards the operator in contrast uh your standard
american push saw the teeth point away from the operator so that's where they're doing their work
what is the difference the difference is everything for me personally um
in the fine motor skills required to acquire new skills i am repeatedly confronted with the maker's
conundrum of forcing something that wants less force and realizing consistently and continually
that less is more when it comes to doing refined actions um if you've ever raced cars at speed when
you're first doing it feels like you've got to be tense to this car in control but as you get
better at it you learn that you've got to relax your body in order to be able to feel the car the
same is true for all tools and all other skills it seems true for juggling riding a bicycle riding a
unicycle all these things that i have learned the key is not to clench in tents the key is to relax
into it and the pull saw allows me uh to do that as i use it so i'm using my thumb to align this
for the first little cut um and i'm cutting uh on the outside of the pencil line and now
and then so the thing is here i'm well actually i actually put the camera over here hang on
there i am hi everybody so the thing about this is
i am literally like you see what i'm my hand here i'm holding on to this with just
you almost want to let gravity do the work on this and when you start to try and force
it oh man it starts to let you know that that's not how this goes okay but in order
to make this cut nicely i've got to make sure i start out with a nice straight line across
the top so that's what i'm going to do i'm going to shut up for a minute while i do it
oh whoops sorry i have to wipe this down
good
oh
and we're off yeah so i've got a nice start here it's a nice groove across
i'm on the outside of the pencil line and i'm just gonna work my way through here yes
i am applying very little downward i can't talk and saw at the same time i am applying
very little downward pressure with this right hand as i'm going through this operation
yeah it's very very little it's a very gentle cut and boy i can feel how much material i'm still
getting and because i'm pulling look if i'm pushing this can move but if i'm pulling
look it's it's it's shaped outward like this i'm pulling i'm moving in line it can't get bendy on
me when i'm pulling i feel like that's inherently better than pushing and i say that i hate thinking
of one method as just better overall than the other because i know there are crafts people
that can do incredible things with the push saw i've seen it um but i loved me this one so we're
uh i'm gonna change the camera angle a few times and show you a few uh a few different glimpses
uh
oh
it is not a perfect cut but it's pretty damn good and that literally took maybe five minutes
actually i think significantly less than five minutes i think maybe like three minutes
all right so that took like three minutes it's not a perfect cut because i'm not super great at
this uh that that's actually a tough cut to make across six and five and a half inches across this
whole thing yeah um but there have been all sorts of cuts i've had to make in this shop
that a machine tool here wouldn't necessarily do uh that only a freestanding hand operated
saw can actually achieve uh and just as i said at the beginning of this video
that every maker should have one of these should have a hacksaw in their collection
um by the same token i think every maker should have one of these in their collection um the
japanese saw has served me well for now nigh on 30 yeah 30 years 30 years of making and it sounds
really cool if you played the saw by the way i love you i love the saw it's one of my favorite
musical instruments super weird it's like the theremin of tools uh thank you guys for joining
me for this tool tip um we're including a link to a 40 version of this that i like below and um
thank you for joining me for this tool tip i will see you guys next time