MYOG Wood Saw

[David Thomas]

I’ve done a couple of batches of MYOG, SUL wood saws from band-saw blades.  Cheap (about a $1 of materials each), really light (11-14 grams depending on length) and pretty quick to make, but kind of limited to 1″ diameter branches.  You could do 2-3″ stuff in a pinch, especially if you wear a glove or a sock on your hand.  That’s fine for what I do up here and because the driest firewood is the dead branches at the bottom of spruce trees.  So gathering those up works well, as long as you don’t need bigger stuff to burn through the night.

I’ve played with various jigsaw blades and while they are cheaper, light, and sharp, they aren’t quite long enough to be very useful.  And I’ve struggled to make a solid connection from their tiny shanks to some manner of handle.

I’ve also used reciprocating saw blades, but most of ones sold in hardware stores are for metal or wood with embedded nails and while long-lasting, aren’t super sharp.  But the ones sold for pruning trees?  They’re really sharp:

$3-$4 in a 3- or 5-pack on Amazon.  9 to 12 inches is about right – some will end up in the handle.

So I set out to see if I could beat an name-brand (Corona) prune saw that already had a nice handle.  (Spoiler: yes, you can.  In both weight, cost, and ergonomics.)

First, I cut some cardboard patterns so get the right finger widths for my hand.  I put a good bump at the end so I could pull hard on it and a substantial bump on the front so I couldn’t push my hand onto the blade.  I used that pattern to roughly cut a piece of bamboo flooring into handle.  The bamboo is very stable and uniform.   A lighter wood would be, well, lighter, and quicker to sand down, but I like how stable bamboo is when it gets wet.  Before I cut it down, I run one edge over my table saw so it had an 1/8″ slot to receive the blade.  I used Gorilla glue (water-activated) to fix the blade in the handle, drilled two holes for two counter-sunk screws, and Gorilla-glued them in as well.  To do it again, I’d have drilled smaller holes and used 16-penny nails (super cheap and high shear strength).

Most of the shaping, I did on a belt sander:

 

[David Thomas]

Where’s the edit button?!?  I’m signed in as me.  Why can’t I edit my own post?  Is it because it is the first in the thread?  (I’d posted mid-way through to confirm my photos were small enough).  Anyway, continuing:

The belt sander nicely takes off the excess of the screws/nails, but do that in small bits because they get really hot.  For smaller-radius stuff, like the finger grips, this Dremel sanding drum on a drill press works really nicely:

But a piece of sandpaper around a dowel works fine, too:

Then a coat of urethane finish and it’s done:

Half the weight and better ergonomics than the commercial one.  A little cooler looking, I’d like to think.  not nearly as light as my band-saw version, but I’d willingly cut 50 branches with the new one, while it would get painfully after the first dozen with the SUL plastic-dipped one.

It would be even better based on a Japanese pull-saw blade, but I haven’t found a cheap source of those.

[Steve M]

Very nice David.  If I send you the $4 can I have one :)

[Ken Thompson]

Nice refinement to the design. Way more comfortable.

[Daryl and Daryl]

Nice work!

 

[Paiolo Montanel]

I already mentioned the 71 grams, 3$, china-drywall saw i bought some time ago:

https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/drywall-saw-as-a-cheap-ultralight-wood-saw/#post-3377539

Your saw weights about the same, but I’m sure the handle you built is more confortable and the blade is a “pull” one and not a “push” like the one I own… so nice work, David!

 

Perhaps you could save some more grams making some hole in the bottom (less stressed) part of the handle

[Jerry Adams]

Nice looking work

You can’t edit the first post of a thread – known bug.  Some people start with a dummy post.

Now, make one with a fold up blade into the handle : )

The plasti-dip one would be good as an emergency item if you didn’t use it much.

[David Thomas]

Paiolo: You’re right, a few lightening holes would drop some weight.  The bamboo is more than strong enough.  I went with the bamboo because is it so stable and uniforms and it has a lot of nice grain to it when varnished, but a lighter wood – a spruce or fir with wide growth rings would be less dense.  I saw your Chinese-$3-drywall-saw post and that’s a great find for a cheap off-the-shelf solution.

Jerry: Yes, that band-saw-blade, plasti-dipped one gets tedious when working on stuff over 1″ or so.  And while you can snap longer pieces of 1″ wood, it does lets you cut them into shorter lengths for smaller wood stoves.  Mostly, I think of them as emergency use – just in case you need a fire or to fabricate a tent pole for your tarp, etc.  I’ve still got a few from my last batch – 12 grams (band saw blade) or 23 grams (sturdier reciprocating saw blade) – to PIF to anyone who PMs me with a snail mail shipping address.

[Dave @ Oware]

Nice,

I bought a bunch of those blades at Harbor Frieght for cutting up pallets and cardboard fabric tubes for recycle/reuse. A Sawsall really cuts up large cardboard boxes too.

I shortened the blade on one to about 5 inches too, for use with a handle. It lightens it and makes it easier to carry in a tool bag. Used a metal cutting circular saw blade to cut it down.

[Kattt]

Very cool David.

What do you use as a sheath? Or just how do you pack it?

[Author]

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