If I can split a pencil line with the saw, does it matter whether you want to call it a pruning saw? I tend to use it just for end cuts anyways.

I also use a chainsaw for end cuts quite often. The electric chainsaws are a little easier to handle because they're lower RPM and lighter.

I haven't tried to use an axe for a finished cut, but I use it all the time for roughing out housings, scarfs, lap joints, and tenons.

Hello,

But still, it's a pruning saw.

To be honest, I am still scared to cut finish cuts with an axe. Something about it terrifies me. I have done it before, so I know it works and I know I can do it. But still, it makes me nervous. A good practice I have found is to rough out with an axe, and finish with a mallet-driven chisel or a large slick. For this purpose, I like to use my German Stichaxt.

An electric saw would be especially nice when working indoors. I don't like what 2-cycle fumes do to me!

It is interesting to see in tasks like this how different people and especially different traditions solved the same problems.

I've used a folding pruning saw for cutting roofs boards to length. When I am 30+ ft up on the air on top of a barn, it is often easier to use one that folds up in your tool pouch instead of a corded or uncorded saw which often slides down the roof pitch.

I lust after the Sliky Katana Boy!!

Rooster

To be clear on the accusatory "pruning" saw, the saw I use is not a pruning saw. The teeth are in a flat line. A pruning saw will more likely have a crescent shape to the blade. By the way, just the opposite that of the Docking Saw which has a belly in the blade.

On the Silky brochure there are icons showing the area of use, the pruning saws have tree icons, the construction saws have a construction icon, I think it is a bull dozer. The folding saw I use is listed under the construction use category not forestry. This leads me to see its intended use to fall into the construction area.

I was once questioned why I use the docking saw because it has a belly in the blade and for sure could not cut a flat cut. Ah, you must be thinking in lines of a chain saw, I said, for it cuts a nice flat cut. This of course would not be the case with a pruning saw with the crescent curve to the blade.

If I was cutting a shoulder with an axe I would leave room to prune with the pruning chisel, to clean it up nice.

Tim,

I like a belly to my chainsaw blade, rather than a flat one. I like a belly to my crosscut. I like a convex curve to my drawknife, and I like a curve to my axe heads.
The reason, is because if you want to cut a straight line, you should use a curved tool. If you want to cut a curved profile, you should use a flat tool. My carving drawknife I use for making bows is flat, which makes shaving a curved radius a lot easier. My big shingle knife is curved, which makes it easier to carve things flat.

Even so, the belly of a saw makes it easier to get a flat-bottomed cut, otherwise you tend to get a high middle. When I use a chainsaw, I pull it through the cut, rather than going straight down. This in combination with the slight curve of the bar creates a flat bottom.

When I use an axe, I pull the axe slightly toward me as a slice (not chop). With a carved bit, this creates nice straight lines. With a flat bit this does little good.

I also use a chisel to clean up axe-cut joints. However, my understanding is that a really good axe wielding carpenter does not need to do this. But I'm not so skilled, so I like to try and leave somewhere in the range of a good 1/8" or so to make a nice clean face with the Stichaxt, or with chisel. Often times my good 1/8" ends up more of a good 1/4".
It should also be said that a felling axe is not the proper tool for this job. You need to use an axe with a flat side, like a small broadaxe. The Gransfors 1900 works well, and the carpenters axes of the German tradition do as well, since this is precisely what they are designed for. The two are almost exactly the same thing. I use my 1900 not for hewing, but for joinery and carving.

just so you know what I am talking about, here is a Gransfors 1900 compared to a German carpenter's axe.


DLB

The Sharptooth is perfectly flat, and will make a flat shoulder cut. I actually use this attribute to ensure that I have cut all the way across the shoulder from line to line. I can appreciate the belly on a saw as well, but wouldn't prefer it for the shoulder cuts.

Dave, the belly on the docking saw may just be a little added insurance ensuring the shoulder cut is definitely cut deep enough. Nothing worse than getting down to the shoulder/cheek corner and finding it is not cut deep enough. A few short strokes at the end are just, nice. The belly really is not that much across an 8" or 10" wide timber.

To see the sharptooth saw in action, check out my new video on youtube!

http://youtu.be/UfNHXdDUPeU

Hello,

So, once again it became time to re-order yet another replacement blade for the saw I keep for more dirty work or all-around use, and having decided that in principle I don't like going through this routine I chose to get a saw for this purpose that could be resharpened.


It has a universal tooth pattern, so meant for both rip and cross cuts. The first 23 teeth from off the heel are in the cross cut pattern and then every 8th tooth is in the rip cut pattern.
Well, I wasn't writing here to contribute a review or recommendation or anything, it's strictly because of the irony of it all - this saw is called by the makers the Proonley. Ha - ha - ha, the last laugh is on me.

Greetings,

Don Wagstaff