Crosscut Saw Thread

[Ernest DuBois]

Jim, you have put together a good video and it was a pleasure watching. I have no idea what other people think is the ultimate saw and whether or not Katanaboy would fit that bill, or what even such a saw would look like, there are so many variables to think about when you wanted to get your hands on that saw. Well, I can agree that rather than dreaming about it, much better to have the saw that suits the task at hand.

 

[trailtime]

Do you do something so the Kwickwood does not stick to the bolt?

That hasn't been a problem for me, though putting a little oil on the bolt couldn't hurt. I thread the bolt up into the handle before I pack the putty, and run the threads a little to make sure the bolt turns freely. I don't force the putty beyond a finger pressure. I've made a couple dozen of these and none have failed to date. I also try to chisel the slot as tight as possible. I suppose if I left a big gap, the putty might ooze in around the threads.

 

[trailtime]

The speed of cut is just one part of the information that can be used to answer the age old question, "What is the best tool for the job at hand?"..... For logs 6" and under, the Katanaboy has the speed advantage, for larger then 6" the crosscut would likely be the tool of choice.

I usually have a Silky Sugoi or folding Corona clipped to my pack, for limbing and any encounters with small diameter logs. They're a lot easier to carry than the Katana and seem to do about the same job.

 

[Square_peg]

Silky's 11" saw and the Tajima 240mm G-saw are also both excellent pocket saws for trailwork.

 

[Square_peg]

I thought about casting some weights. I thought of filling those little aluminum tea light cups with lead. I could use a 5/8" bolt like before but I would add a section of coupling nut covering the threads in the tea light cup. Then just melt some fishing lead to fill the cup. During casting a washer and lock nut would be set below the cup. After casting and when in use on the saw the washer would remain to protect the soft aluminum cup from the back of the blade. A wrap of friction tape around the cup would give it a good grip so the whole lead-filled cup itself becomes the tightening knob. My calculations show that a single tea light cup would be too light, that it would be better twice as tall. One of the old aluminum film canisters might work better.

Here's what I was talking about when posted earlier about making a crosscut saw weight. It starts with an old aluminum film canister with a 1/2"-13 coupling nut mounted in it. A jam nut holds it together firmly. The lower bolt will be cut off and kerfed to slip onto the saw. The upper bolt is just to fill the coupling nut threads to protect them while casting the lead.

Chunks of steelhead fishing lead are melted and cast into the film canister.

After casting.

The parts. The lead-filled film canister and its lid, the cut-off half inch bolt, a 20D nail cut off and a couple 1/2" washers.

Some saws have supplementary handle holes lower than others. I made sure my weight would fit the deeper hole of my Disston 514 54" one man saw.

Here it is wrapped with friction tape and installed on the 54" Disston. Assembled and taped it came out to 374 grams. I think it will make a dramatic difference in how well the saw cuts. And it can quickly be removed when cutting larger logs.

 

[Jim Thode]

Here's what I was talking about when posted earlier about making a crosscut saw weight. It starts with an old aluminum film canister with a 1/2"-13 coupling nut mounted in it. A jam nut holds it together firmly. The lower bolt will be cut off and kerfed to slip onto the saw. The upper bolt is just to fill the coupling nut threads to protect them while casting the lead.

Cool, now you will have to take it out and do some testing with and without the weight. I would think it would work best on a very stiff saw and maybe even one with a western handle that would extend below the level of the teeth. With the hand very low it would tend to lift up just a little on the push stroke and pull down on the teeth on the pull stroke.
Jim

 

[phantomknives]

i havent measured it yet but i think it's a 5 1/2 footer tuttle tooth and as you can see, it's an atkins, i had another image originally but it had some info on it that i needed to remove, the top picture is the good ol AAA atkins etch, last is an etch on the reverse side, you might need to zoom out or back up a bit for it to make a little more sense.

my question, is what model saw is this? the number ends in 79, 29 or 39. it's one of those narrow, maybe 4" wide saws with tuttle pattern teeth and very little belly with two handle holes

 

[rjdankert]

what model saw is this?

this one?




Bob

 

[phantomknives]

this one?




Bob

yep i think that's the one. i got this as a gift, ooh boy are those teeth worn. the gullets are about 1/4 lower that factory and the teeth look like champion teeth instead of lance teeth

 

[phantomknives]

the plate on this thing is monstrously thick, so thick in fact, i can run it single man.
the teeth need a clean up and some more set but other than that it's great

 

[bikerector]

Good day all, I am very new to hand saws but I've recently grabbed a big interest in them as a means of clearing dead trees around trails and for trail building, especially since carrying a chainsaw and fuel isn't something I want to get into even if I were allowed to do so.

I'm curious if some of the toothier saws still work fine on dry wood since a lot of the trees I've been chopping out are dry already as they've been dead a while. I'm also curious if there are recommendations for a good 1-person crosscut that is 36" (not sure if I can handle longer so want to try something in that range first) or under. I don't think I want to carry much more than that around in a backpack-style sheath/carry system I'm planning to make for whatever saw I can find.

So far, I've rigged up something out of cardboard to carry my 20" Irwin all-purpose saw in a pack as I grew tired of all of the folding saws I had been carrying around. That was a bit of a revelation so now I'm trying to get something more task specific and a longer stroke. I'm a little worried about the sharpening maintenance of some of the older crosscuts also, or getting all of the tools to do it.

I apologize if this is the wrong place for these questions, it's the best I could think of since there's not a saw specific forum so I was unsure if starting a new thread in axes and hatchets was more appropriate. This thread has helped me figure out where to start looking for something used but I keep coming back to the maintenance thing for getting something from fleabay or fleamarkets.

 

[phantomknives]

Good day all, I am very new to hand saws but I've recently grabbed a big interest in them as a means of clearing dead trees around trails and for trail building, especially since carrying a chainsaw and fuel isn't something I want to get into even if I were allowed to do so.

I'm curious if some of the toothier saws still work fine on dry wood since a lot of the trees I've been chopping out are dry already as they've been dead a while. I'm also curious if there are recommendations for a good 1-person crosscut that is 36" (not sure if I can handle longer so want to try something in that range first) or under. I don't think I want to carry much more than that around in a backpack-style sheath/carry system I'm planning to make for whatever saw I can find.

So far, I've rigged up something out of cardboard to carry my 20" Irwin all-purpose saw in a pack as I grew tired of all of the folding saws I had been carrying around. That was a bit of a revelation so now I'm trying to get something more task specific and a longer stroke. I'm a little worried about the sharpening maintenance of some of the older crosscuts also, or getting all of the tools to do it.

I apologize if this is the wrong place for these questions, it's the best I could think of since there's not a saw specific forum so I was unsure if starting a new thread in axes and hatchets was more appropriate. This thread has helped me figure out where to start looking for something used but I keep coming back to the maintenance thing for getting something from fleabay or fleamarkets.

these saws can work well on dry wood, they just need a different set and raker depth. saw length depends on the diameter of trees you're cutting, what species of trees and how thick are the trees you normally cutting? if they're overly dead i'm not sure what the right tool is

 

[bikerector]

these saws can work well on dry wood, they just need a different set and raker depth. saw length depends on the diameter of trees you're cutting, what species of trees and how thick are the trees you normally cutting? if they're overly dead i'm not sure what the right tool is

Most are softwoods or "mediumwoods", poplar, pine, elm, ash, beech, some maple and cherry (I'm not as familiar with trees as I used to be when a child and lived with a fire stove). Most of the deadfall are on the smaller side, 4-6", which aren't much of a problem but I've more recently started tackling the large stuff in towards 12" in diameter. Another challenge I'm having with the larger stuff is the weight of moving it once it's cut so I can't make the longer logs out of it and move it in 2-4 chunks so not only will I have to cut thicker trees but also cut them up into smaller pieces so that I can get carry them out for firewood or use them elsewhere like lining pathways, building log bridges for stream crossings, board/logwalks, etc.

I think most of the deadwood has been ash as there are a lot of ash borers in the area and I find a lot of the signs of their infestation from the downed trees. Between those and the invasive vines, they take out a lot of trees in the area. The vines have been heck on the cherry and pine trees.

 

[garry3]

Good day all, I am very new to hand saws but I've recently grabbed a big interest in them as a means of clearing dead trees around trails and for trail building, especially since carrying a chainsaw and fuel isn't something I want to get into even if I were allowed to do so.

I'm curious if some of the toothier saws still work fine on dry wood since a lot of the trees I've been chopping out are dry already as they've been dead a while. I'm also curious if there are recommendations for a good 1-person crosscut that is 36" (not sure if I can handle longer so want to try something in that range first) or under. I don't think I want to carry much more than that around in a backpack-style sheath/carry system I'm planning to make for whatever saw I can find.

So far, I've rigged up something out of cardboard to carry my 20" Irwin all-purpose saw in a pack as I grew tired of all of the folding saws I had been carrying around. That was a bit of a revelation so now I'm trying to get something more task specific and a longer stroke. I'm a little worried about the sharpening maintenance of some of the older crosscuts also, or getting all of the tools to do it.

I apologize if this is the wrong place for these questions, it's the best I could think of since there's not a saw specific forum so I was unsure if starting a new thread in axes and hatchets was more appropriate. This thread has helped me figure out where to start looking for something used but I keep coming back to the maintenance thing for getting something from fleabay or fleamarkets.

Have you tried a silky or similar?

 

[Square_peg]

Are you on foot or on bicycle when you're packing a saw?

On 12" wood the crosscut saw will easily outperform even a Silky. As Jim Thode recently demonstrated in this thread the Silky is better suited for the 4"-6" stuff. A 36" crosscut is not nearly as effective as a 48" because it lacks the weight at the tip. You really need to bear down on a supplemental handle to get a 36" to cut well. Adding weight to tip as I posted about above will help.

If you can manage to pack a 42" or 48" saw I think you will be happier.

As for maintain a crosscut, there are people who will sharpen a saw for you at a cost - maybe $25 per foot. And if you're careful about how you use it it may not need sharpening again for 2-3 years.

 

[bikerector]

Have you tried a silky or similar?

I currently have a 10" fiskars folding saw. I don't really care for the cutting only on the pull or the short stroke but it works well enough for small stuff to where the portability gives it some advantages. I also found I didn't like the arm angle as the handle is inline with the cutting surface instead of perpendicular-ish and found it fatiguing to grip after using it how I was trying to use it. After cutting up one tree, about 5 cuts through 4-6", I was pretty tired. When I used the irwin back at the house on the logs I drug out to further process I was able to make at least a dozen cuts without much fatigue. That's when I setup the carry setup for the irwin. Now I'm trying to figure out how to get to the bigger things with a saw, usually where I have just used an axe for.

As far as travel, my intended use at the moment is for foot trails but I have thought it would be nice for clearing mountain bike trails with the spring thaw happening a bit earlier this year. Usually, on the bike, we limit the items to folding saws, loppers, and pruners which covers most of the trail maintenance until shovels and such are needed (usually only at start of season or for repairs).

There is a guy with a fatbike that will carry in an electric chainsaw on a rear rack but I'm not that confident now do I want to spend the money on that type of setup. I think it's good for a few trees before it loses charge after a storm takes a few trees down. Most people I know walk a chainsaw in.

One of the things I'm trying to do is to get the tree that look like they're going to go down out of the way in advance so they don't go down randomly during storms. Usually, that means they've either fallen and are hung up are are dead enough that the bark is coming off, depending on the tree type at least.

I think the next saw I'm going to try is a 28" pack dandy saw. It seems like a natural progression as far as the portable friendly saws go but it certainly seems like it could lack the tip weight, as mentioned above, for really digging through some of the larger stuff. I'm hoping it's at least a reasonable improvement over the irwin but I really don't know until I try it I guess.

 

[Square_peg]

One of the things I'm trying to do is to get the tree that look like they're going to go down out of the way in advance so they don't go down randomly during storms. Usually, that means they've either fallen and are hung up are are dead enough that the bark is coming off, depending on the tree type at least.

Be careful cutting leaners. Learn how to safely fell them. They are notorious for barber chairing. And don't mess with rotten trees. Let them come down on their own. They can break anywhere along their trunk at any time. There is no safe way to fell them without heavy equipment or explosives.

 

[bikerector]

Be careful cutting leaners. Learn how to safely fell them. They are notorious for barber chairing. And don't mess with rotten trees. Let them come down on their own. They can break anywhere along their trunk at any time. There is no safe way to fell them without heavy equipment or explosives.

Is this where they fold at the cut and fall back at the sawyer, break and rotate, or a little of both? I think my healthy fear of them is decent, usually I try to use a lengthy strap and a come-along for the larger ones but the smaller ones are less scary. Generally, cut a little, push/hammer a little to see if it cracks a little, cut a little more, etc.

I can't say I've seen a rotten one break anywhere but I will certainly heed the advice. What I have frequently come across is the excessively rotten and leaning trees, almost exclusively pines in the area I'm currently working so I'm thinking they'll come down on their own eventually. I have toyed with the idea of cutting a few weak points and to try and influence their fall when I'm not around but again, some of the larger leaners scare me and probably for the best since many are rotting leaners.

 

[phantomknives]

Is this where they fold at the cut and fall back at the sawyer, break and rotate, or a little of both? I think my healthy fear of them is decent, usually I try to use a lengthy strap and a come-along for the larger ones but the smaller ones are less scary. Generally, cut a little, push/hammer a little to see if it cracks a little, cut a little more, etc.

I can't say I've seen a rotten one break anywhere but I will certainly heed the advice. What I have frequently come across is the excessively rotten and leaning trees, almost exclusively pines in the area I'm currently working so I'm thinking they'll come down on their own eventually. I have toyed with the idea of cutting a few weak points and to try and influence their fall when I'm not around but again, some of the larger leaners scare me and probably for the best since many are rotting leaners.

 

[rjdankert]

Learn how to safely fell them.

Because they come in handy?




Bob