Thread: japanese saws?

Dave,

Japanese backsaws are absolutely amazing and worth every penny. I was at first reluctant to pay a premium for a piece of frikkin steel, but after using one for a couple weeks and acquiring several more, I can never go back! You can literally saw through a 2x2 piece of white oak in about 7-8 strokes.

They come in a wide selection of kerf widths and all leave a perfect face that requires no sanding or finishing. Also, if you are handy with waterstones (being on this forum I'm guessing you are) you can file the kerf down even smaller. All japanese backsaws I've seen have an outward protruding kerf. You don't want to go too crazy or the saw will bind up and be tough to handle.

Anyway, being a musician and at the time, cutting my teeth as a luthier, I couldn't afford the damn things, so here's what I did.

Buy just the blades and make your own handle....it saves you a few bucks and allows you to create a great customized saw. This only works with the kind that have a supporting spine on the blade (as opposed to the "flush cut" style, which are VERY useful also).

I made mine out of an old piece of flamed maple I found in a friend's wood pile. If memory servers, the kerf on my tablesaw was the perfect width to cut a slot that the blade's attachment shank would slide into. After the slot was cut, I just had to fill some of it back in with more wood to make a little pocket for the shank to snugly slide into. I used a contrasting walnut which looked really nice.

Lastly, there is a little notch on the shank. Take some close measurements and drill a hole through the handle in just the right place so that when the shank is inserted, you can put a screw into the hole that will hold the blade securely in place using it's notch.

I used an allen screw, which of course has a recessed "head" so you can still remove it and replace the blade, but it's head won't just out of the side of your handle.

Anyway, hope that advice wasn't entirely useless and confusing ;p

Best of luck!

Jonny