Responding to a humorous question from another thread asking if the 8.2 oz saw/machete I made floats, I decided to see if I could actually make a saw that floats.
I weighed one of the UL saw blades I fabricate sans handle, and it came to 2.3 oz. I traced the outline of the handle onto some 1/2″ cork panel and cut and shaped it to make half a handle, then placed it into a container filled to the brim with water and collected and weighed the water displaced when it was fully submerged, which came to almost precisely 2.0 oz. The 1/2 handle itself weighed 0.6 oz.
Doing the math, a complete handle would displace 4.0 oz of water, and the 2.3 oz blade + 1.2 oz cork handle would weigh 3.5 oz. Figuring that glue and several coats of Plasti-Dip would weigh less than 0.5 oz I decided to go for it and made the second half of the cork handle, glued it, and sprayed it. And it worked!
This is still the best combo of performance and weight that I’ve ever witnessed in a UL saw. I watched one of these rip through a 3″ branch in about 15 seconds.
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