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In this video I give a demo of a fast cutting hand saw in action. This hand saw made by Irwin is one of my favourite fast cutting hand saws around, thanks to its simple, sturdy design, aggressive tooth pattern, and comfortable grip.
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0:00
In this video, I want to talk to you about my favorite hand saw, and I'm going to show you how to use it
0:06
There are lots of handsaws in the world, and most of them don't work very well
0:11
This is an exception. I've used lots of different kinds of handsaws over the years, but I've never seen anything like this
0:20
Irwin doesn't pay me to say this. It's just a great saw. This is the 20-inch model. There is a similar one. It's 15 inches long
0:30
That's fine. That's okay. I do like the 20 inch. You can cut faster with it because you have a longer stroke and you can get more done
0:38
But this has been used for a long time. It's not a fresh saw. I do have a brand new one right here
0:46
It doesn't really look any different. Just to your thumb, I can't really tell much of a difference. I'll make two cuts, one with the old and one with the new one, so you can't
0:59
can see how well this kind of saw keeps on cutting but there's there's two
1:05
reasons why it cuts so well I mean first of all it's the shape of the teeth are
1:11
more angular than the shape of most handsaw teeth so coming to a point of your
1:17
point now do you notice do you notice how the teeth are darker in color
1:24
than the rest of the body that's because this is what you call
1:29
a hard point saw. That's not a brand name or anything. That's a description and it refers to the metal of the teeth
1:38
being too hard to sharpen. Now you might think that's no good. Traditional handsaws were sharpened a special file
1:48
special jig, special person with lots of skills and they could take a doll hand saw and file it and it works well again. I have never seen a sharp
1:59
hand saw that would work as well as this saw in terms of hungriness for cutting
2:08
But they still did work very well, but they needed to be resharpened because the steel wasn't all that hard
2:13
So it didn't, the teeth didn't stay pointy for all that long. Hard points can't be resharpened. So in a sense it's a disposable saw
2:20
And I don't really like that, but it lasts so long that it doesn't really matter
2:25
You can go for years. Just even if this is your own
2:30
saw even, just using it for the kind of small woodworking projects that I'm telling you about here
2:36
But anyway, works great. Don't bother getting any other kind, 20-inch Irwin. They call it the universal hand saw
2:46
There's more information about this in the course. Now I want to show you how to use a saw like this properly
2:54
I just get this here I gonna make a sample cut Well let see This end of the board has some cracks in it and some defects
3:09
So I'm going to cut that off. Let's see. We need to go about this far to get rid of the defects
3:19
This piece of wood also happens to be cupped a little bit this way
3:24
If I have it here, you can kind of rock a little bit. If I turn it over, it's going to, well, it's still going to rock a bit
3:32
Maybe it doesn't really matter too much. But I will mark it. It's my combination square here
3:47
It's a mechanical pencil. Fabulous for woodworking, actually. So I've got a line and I've got a saw and I want to cut accurately along that line
4:01
So the square let me get the line square in this direction
4:08
So I know I'm I know this is 90 degrees. See if I can draw it so you can see it
4:15
I know that's 90 degrees because the square gave me that. What I don't know, what's a little trickier to ensure is that the cut is also square 90 degrees in that direction
4:33
And there's a little trick for making that happen, but it depends on having a nice, shiny hand saw
4:41
So come on around. I want to show you how I use the reflection of the wood in the saw to help me get a nice square cut
4:49
For this demonstration, I'm using the new saw because it's a little bit shinier than the old one
4:56
The old one would work fine for this, but it's just going to show it better on the camera for you
5:00
Now, this is where I want to start the cut. Okay. Now, can you see the reflection there? That's the reflection of the wood here
5:13
And if I deviate from square in this direction, you see how I've lost the con
5:19
continuity of the line, of the reflection of the line. And the same if I do this
5:26
You know, if I deviate from square in this direction, I also lose the continuity
5:30
So continuity is what I want because when the reflection appears to go right through the
5:39
saw and align itself perfectly with the other side, then I know I'm square in this direction
5:46
and I'm also square in this direction. and it actually works. So let me just try a few strokes here
5:52
Now when we starting it important to keep my eye on that reflection Because now is the time when I getting the saw going in its slot if you know what I mean when I part way through the cut I have far less leeway to move it around because the cut
6:10
and of guides the saw but right now there's no guiding going on so I have to I have to
6:15
adjust this and it looks pretty good it's going to waver a bit as I as I start to cut
6:23
but I want to keep keep that going Now, you see, I'm, I've made a good start, and the saw cut is already starting to guide the saw
6:42
So I'm good, I'm in good shape as far as squareness goes. Now, I want to point out something else, too
6:49
Take a close look here. There's my line. I'm cutting on the waist side of the line
6:58
ideally if I'm being really particular I'm gonna try to split that line but if I'm a
7:05
little bit on the outside of it that's fine as long as I don't go on the ins of it
7:09
I want to be able to see pencil lead all the way along the cut I don't want to
7:14
I don't want to vary I don't want to deviate in if I deviate out that's less
7:20
of a problem but it still is kind of hard to get it back to the line because if
7:24
I'm just if the cut is just a little bit past the line there's no way I can
7:28
the hand saw to fix that. The hand saw won't be able to hang onto its cut. It will kind of
7:32
always fall out of the cut. But now I'm ready to go at this with a fair amount of force
7:41
And I want you to notice how far this saw cuts with each stroke. It's quite remarkable
7:49
It's actually fairly easy to get something that approaches one inch of progress
7:55
through a board this thick in just about one stroke. So it's a remarkable saw
8:02
And one thing to keep in mind, the teeth are pointed forward on this design
8:11
which means that the cutting action actually happens when you're pushing the saw down
8:16
When you're bringing it back, there's not a whole lot of cutting action that's happening. So keep that in mind
8:21
It's the downward thrust that's going to do the cut. and that's where you want to put the muscle into it. So let's get going
8:29
Pay attention to how much progress I'm making through the wood with each stroke as I go down
8:46
Notice also I'm almost through now. I'm almost through now
8:55
and if I just kept on cutting it might be okay there's not a whole lot of weight
8:59
here on the waist side of the cut but I don want to take any chances and have it splinter in so I going to slow down now and I going to hold on to this to give it a little bit of support
9:15
and there we go our nice cut nice and square now that's not a very fine saw so this is
9:29
somewhat rough but that's as smooth as that saw can cut and there are other ways there are ways
9:36
of smoothing this that we'll get to but for now that's that's what a good cut looks like um
9:43
let's try a little something here just to show you how fast the hand saw can be
9:53
i'm going to make another cut and i'm going to do it in real time we're not going to edit anything out
9:58
I'm going to get it started and then you just see how quickly this thing goes through
10:07
This is nine inches of inch and a half thick wood. Who says handsaws can't do fast work
10:28
Just before I finish up, let's see how good that cut was. So if you take a close look, you see I didn't lose the pencil line
10:38
I can see it all the way along. Actually, it might be get a little thin here, but that's a good cut
10:44
I like that cut. And let's just see how it shapes up as far as squareness goes
10:50
Well, it's good in this direction. And I'm not surprised because we laid out the line with the square
10:54
trickier is in this direction and can you see that quite good that's what you want to see
11:07
that's a nice cut I have to warn you about something just before I finish up here do not
11:13
get discouraged I first started working with wood when I was seven years old I'm
11:19
almost 58 now so I've had a half a century of experience doing this stuff
11:24
And I've always used hand saws, at least for some of my work
11:28
So I've had lots and lots of practice. You will not be able to do this right away, but that's okay
11:33
You can just practice. And you don't necessarily have to just cut pieces of wood that you're going to use for a project
11:41
I mean, a chunk of wood like this doesn't cost very much, and it's a pretty nice piece of wood too
11:45
So you could even practice on some scrap. It doesn't really matter. It's just the matter of marking the line, paying attention to the reflection
11:54
and then hand eye coordination, so you're just skirting on the waist side of the pencil line
12:02
Keep it up, and you'll have no trouble cutting like this too
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