Drywall saw as a cheap ultralight wood saw?
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Hi all,
I was searching something cheap and effective to replace my 220 gram foldable wood saw that is often in my backpack. In a bricolage shop I was first looking for small pruning non-foldable saw, bat they all were too big for my needs (I was searching something with a 15-20cm blade).
At the end I bought a cheap, 3$ china-made drywall saw, as the blade was so similar to wood blades, just to give it a try:
It weighted only 71 grams, one third of my 210 grams foldable saw, and the blade have similar length.
In the afternood I tried it in the backyard:
And it proved to be effective, nearly as the foldable saw that, I think, it will replace!
What are your experiences? Have someone already considered/tried this type of saw for UL backpacking?
Here’s a folding saw, 10.5″ when open, for $6.88, free shipping from the US, on eBay. That’s going to be a similar weight to the drywall saw, but has a more comfortable grip and probably cuts faster. I’ve tried some of these cheap folding saws and they’re okay. Nothing like a Felco, Fiskars or Corona pruning saw, but far cheaper and lighter.
I’m not finding it now, maybe it was on Gearbest, but I got one folding saw that was even smaller, lighter and cheaper. Like 2 oz and $3.
@James: Yes, it require a sheath but I already have some ideas about how to build some few-grams sheath
@David: Can you give me the exact weight of the first foldable saw you posted? In my experience these saws with that plastic and rubber handle aren’t very light.
@Rick: This is the blade shape:
It is very similar to the shape of a lot of wood foldable blade, but it is push-only instead of pull-only.
A similar but better alternative to drywall saws could be compass saws: they are similar, but with 3 differences:
– they are pull saw (and not push), ideal with slim and flexible blades
– they have a better, more angled handle
– the blade is specific for wood
If blade is more than 8″ I think the tip could be cutted away to keep only the stronger partI think this is what Paiolo means by a compass saw. I’ve liked other saws in the “Fat Max” line – they do cut faster than traditional saw tooth designs and the handles are comfortable. The Amazon spec says 4.8 ounces. $10.22 and free shipping:
Rather than a sheath, I’ve been using a “U” of plastic from old-style report covers. Sold for $0.39, they are a folded double sheet of clear plastic with a “binding” consisting of a plastic spine (you put 8-12 pages in the plastic sheet and slide the spine on). Cut it to length and it grabs decently over the saw teeth. A sturdy rubber band (found for free around broccoli in the produce section) makes it very secure in my pack. There are so many more options for report covers now, they can be a little hard to find locally, so I order them on line and keep some in stock. Not just for backpacking, but I cover saw blades and knife blades in my tool bag and fillet knives in my tackle box to avoid tool-to-tool damage and slicing my own fingers. Here’s a pic:
Hi David!, The Stanley saw you posted is a drywall (push) saw, look at this detail of the blade:
)Compass saws are similar to drywall saws but are for wood, have an angled handle, and are “pull” saw (a lot better than “push” if you have a thin saw blade!)
This is a sample of a compass saw:
Nice your idea for the sheath, I’ll keep it in consideration!
And also nice your classification of saws usages… what I’m searching is a lightweight “second category” (“burn wood”) saw, and I think what I need is at least a 6-8 inch blade with a reasonable handle…
IME, if you’re going to burn wood and want to saw it, use something designed to do so. After decades of fiddling with a variety of saws, I eventually migrated to Opinel’s saw. Works as designed, and isn’t especially heavy:
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