UL Carbon Fiber Buck Saw

Neat. Now we want to see the speed test results.

You should put a big label on the side that says, "No batteries required."

–B.G.–

Very cool. Tried it out yet? In my mind, trying to hold/push/pull the saw by the CF tube might be a challenge.

Ryan

Steven,

Great work! As usual, I'm blown away by the stuff you make. You are in a class of your own.

You say you made the nylon fittings? How does one even start to do that? I've used off-the-shelf nylon plumbing fittings but never considered making my own from scratch. And I've never even heard of a titanium spring pin before.

I might have to challenge you on this being the lightest buck saw ever, however. In the early 1970s Larry Penberthy (father of MSR) sold a similar saw blade that could be connected to the top, inverted U shaped aluminum tubing piece, of the MSR frame packs sold at the time. When assembled it created a buck saw with a depth of cut from 6" to 12" depending on the size of the pack's top piece. On one backpack trip he demonstrated the saw by cutting through a 6+" diameter tree that had fallen across the trail. I carried the blade for all the years that I used the MSR pack but never used it to cut anything.

The reason I challenge your "lightest" claim is that the frame of his saw was multiple use with the primary use being the top part of his frame pack. So the net weight of the saw was the blade plus a couple of screws.

I would call your saw the lightest, self contained, non multiple use saw in this universe, however.

Keep up the good work.

Daryl

He Steve,
great to hear something from you.
The saw looks excellent and you did once more a great job.

do you have a source for the connectors

Well done, but what are you planning on cutting with it?

Oh, Steve, this is super cool!

Beni – Steve is basically an unmoved mover. The source for the connectors is himself.

Nice! You got my design beat by ~1oz, it looks good. I went with a u design for depth of cut. What size wood are you able to do with that thing? How much will you sell me a set of the nylon fittings for? ;-) pleease!

I've only cut a 2X4 into a few pieces in my garage but it seems to cut just like a bucksaw :). The diameter of the handle is a bit small to hold but you can place your thumb on the back of the hinged connector for stability and it works well. I sometimes bring a small 5" saw in the winter to cut wood so this is really just built to be lighter and better than that.

Darryl: Here I am thinking I built the lightest saw and some guy beat me to it 40 years ago! Actually, thanks for the info. It would be great to just bring a blade and mount it to a tent or hiking pole. You have got me thinking.

Beni: Devin is correct, I designed the connectors myself so there really isn't a source for them.

Josh: A U shape is great because you can get longer strokes as you cut through the wood, but to be honest the nylon connectors were fairly expensive so I changed it up to save a bit of moola – not to mention it ended up being a bit lighter. Ideally you would want to cut wood that had a max diameter of about 4". You could probably do ~5" but you wouldn't get much cutting stroke as you cut through it and you might bust up your knuckles. As for the connectors, something tells me you have the facility and equipment to make your own :). Got a picture of your saw? How did you connect your CF tubes?

Wow that is awesome! I might be interested if you start selling these.

Steve, this is simply amazing – just like all your other amazing work!

This is a bushcrafter's tool in an ultralight package!

Uh I see no ability to tension the blade… AM I blind?

Wow. Looks great Steve.

Brian,

Here's the answer to your tensioning question: The aluminum tension block is inserted into the opposite nylon connector and a nylon screw and wingnut is used to pull the blade tight.

"AM I blind?" I don't know the answer to this one.

Daryl

Excellent.

I have seen "lightweight" saws where one just "bends" the saw till the blade can be placed in a slot and that is their "tension".

I still have to wonder about the tension on the blade with tubes that small of CF tube. Only reason I bring it up is that a low tension blade is a horror to try and cut wood with and even worse with green wood and not even worth trying to use on a piece of wood under compressive pressure.

I grew up using a curved hand saw that cut like a dream about 1lb and 24" long. It was far faster to whip out this saw attached to my tool belt and cut a 2×4 or 2×8 than trying to drag a powered skill saw around when working construction. Then people convinced me to try the Hooped tension blades like this one. Lets just say they were all garbage in comparison. The only one that I ever had in my hands worth a darn, had a VERY heavy hoop with the ability to create a VERY high tension load on the blade in question. Making it far heavier than the hand saw ever was that I got from my Grandfather.

PS. I could be blind =)

PPS. I carry a 5.5oz handsaw for self trail maintenance. It cuts up to 8" diameter logs. Obviously not as light, but at least it doesn't get stuck on every stroke through a log or twist and shudder. Blade folds back into the handle so the teeth are hidden while transporting. A not too insignificant proposition when carrying for 99.999% of the time with exposed sharp objects being jounced and jostled around.

Great work, Steve! That looks pretty darned sweet. You have all the other BPL fabricators drooling…

Glad you guys like it. I was playing around with it for a while yesterday and cut up a bunch of wood. At one point, I bottomed out the tension block against the back of the nylon fitting, so I cut 1/2" off the end to get a bit more tension travel. Then, because of the extra force on the threaded rod I stripped the nylon threads out of the wingnut. So, I'm going to replace it with a metal screw and see how it goes from there. Hopefully the 1/2" I took off the end of the tension block weighs more or less the same as the metal fasteners – don't want to add any weight to it :)

I dunno how I missed this before. F-ing awesome saw man.

I can't help but think the nylon is going to be a problem for the tension side long term regardless however, my experience with that type of hardware has always been disappointing. Maybe machine the tension side connector out of 7075 Al or Ti?

Anyway, regardless, let me know what I've got to do to get one. ;)

The blade… Did you salvage it from a longer blade? Is that what I am seeing? Or is there somewhere selling 1 foot long blades? I think most DYI's here on this forum could easily replicate the rest.

Rather curious how this saw setup compares to my curved handsaw that I made.

Thanks!

EDIT: UHUMW would better than nylon if you are maching for the same weight would be stronger if you wish to stick to plastic.

PS> I will 2nd what Javon stated. Nylon creeps under tension and said saw will have a low life expectancy because of it. If you had the time, machine the end pieces out of G10,aluminum, or carbon fibered epoxy. G10 would depend on the stress direction and may not be able to be used for this reason.

Well, I'd be lying if I said I didn't have concerns about the nylon aswell. But to be honest, I will see how it holds up. The best convincing I could give is that "it's stronger than you think" but like most of my stuff…well lets just say I like to push the limits a bit :)

Brian, it's a stock blade from my hardware store. Not sure if it is an odd size, as they appeared to be available from the 2 stores I went to. I haven't seen your curved hand saw so I couldn't comment on how it would compare – got a pic?

I think you ought to patent it, market, and sell it.
Great idea and well done.

You will probably need better connectors though.

Steven

I do have facilities to build one, but I barely have time to type this these days. I was looking to go straight to cutting wood, vs cutting stuff in the shop ;-) I dont currently have possession of my saw, I'll post pics "if" I get it back.

I would love to see a rectangular, 18+ inch carbon fiber bucksaw for cutting a serious all night fire load in winter. The 24 inch trailblazer is a little heavy.