Watch out! You're going to get MoS and myself all riled up about Silkys (Silkies?), we may never stop
SN, I pulled this from another thread, but I'm wondering about the part in bold, if you could expound on why that is.
I didn't explain this very well, but I think MoS interpreted it correctly. When I've been out cleaning up branches with just my 4.7 and my bigboy, if I get to something I need to trim that is a little thicker than my finger, it's too much for one clean cut with the 4.7 and the teeth on the bigboy go "dudududududud" and just bounce over the tiny limb without cutting in. My laplander has much finer teeth (probably like smaller Silkys) and easily cuts anything even if it is thin in diameter.
Now these large teeth absolutely fly through anything that is about the thickness of my arm. Awhile back, I think it was Fancier was schooling me on saw basics. He said at least 5 teeth need to be in contact with the material to get a good cut. If I'm at 5.5 tpi then my bigboy isn't much help with anything slimmer than an inch across. From my (few months) of experience, the teeth per inch don't make a difference on fresh or dried wood, but it's all about the thickness of what you're cutting. Bigger teeth will aggressively go through big stuff where the fine teeth go smoothly through thinner branches and sticks.
I'm seriously looking at a pocketboy to replace my laplander, but I like my laplander! Like I said in the pic thread, I like that the saw locks closed and it feels so light.
My big boy has teeth exposed in the middle of the handle when it's closed, so I made a little cloth sack for it for when it's in a pack. That seems like an odd design flaw, but it was easy to fix.
Using the bigboy really is fun. It only cuts on the pull, so I have to be careful not to push it too hard, especially if it catches while pushing. I've managed to get the blade to for a shallow S shape for a split second a few times when I put too much muscle into the push. If I can glide the blade forward then give it my all on the pull, I can get into a really good rhythm. I've cut fresh pine and a variety of really dry stuff including birch and maple and black locust. It goes through it all equally smooth.
The saws in question.
With my 4.7 and some birch on the stump top.
The difference in how my Silky cuts compared to an old bow saw.
