This idea was Steven Franchuk's
I started a new thread so as not to detract from Robert's excellent little frame saw and because it belongs in MYOG.
I liked it so much I ran out to the garage to get a few weights and do a sketch.
Steven wrote: ". . . In Asia they commonly use saws designed to cut on the pull stroke. In my opinion they are easier to use and are great when you want a very thin cut. . . a frame would not be needed. The handle would only need to be about 3 inches long (T shaped to get a good strong pull) and could be made of light weight plastic."
Steven was talking about a longer version to cut big stuff I presume. Here are my somewhat different thoughts:
UL means, for me, no big campfires. Maybe fueling a little wood-stove. And maybe getting a warming fire going fast in an emergency. In both those cases, I use dead branches from under the conifers' live canopy – they're usually dry and and easy to reach. So it's 1"-2" diameter stuff. I don't want bigger stuff because I don't have an axe or heavy knife to split bigger stuff.
Here are the weights I got: 6" pullsaw with plastic handle: 80 grams. blade only: 18 grams.
This is one I've had for 15 years and I already cut it down once because (1) I never needed 8" of blade length branches and (2) a high-school student (who had never been a Japanese carpenter in a past life) had broken it. I drilled a new hole, cut a new slot and reshaped the shank on a belt sander. I've used it on some BP trips as is and I use it A LOT around the house because we're on 13 acres of spruce forest.
My idea is leave the handle at home and either slip a dowel in that back hole (especially if I'd never cut the new slot) or, better yet I think, grind away along the black lines to make a handgrip. Then use it as is (just tried it, it works, in part because you need so little pull on a pullsaw), or wrap it with athletic tape or duct tape, or paint on some of that make-a-handle goop sold in hardware stores or adapt the shank to insert into a vertical (in the plane of the blade) dowel.
I think it would come in at 15 to 20 grams depending on handle style for a saw that would be very compact, very quick at 1-2" stuff and could handle 3" diameter wood if needed.
I also (sorry Robert) have always been a little leary of push-type bow saws with coarse blades. It's been years since I've cut myself, but I'm very aware of the possibility of the blade jumping out of the cut until all the teeth are well into the cut. I like the control and low forces of a pull saw and find it, for myself, safer to use.
Editted for little grammar mistakes.
