What's in a handsaw?

24" Rip-Cut Hand Saw

When it comes to tools, the saw is all about helping to reduce large materials to smaller, more useful pieces. At Mick Design, the majority of our sawing and cutting is actually done by robots. Using computer-guided controls, the employment of robots saves resources and contributes to our product consistency by making perfect cuts every time. While the robots are fantastic, a working knowledge of proper board-cutting techniques is critical to anyone involved in woodworking.

22" Crosscut Hand Saw

The classic carpenter is experienced and confident with the hand saw. There are two basic types of cuts when sawing a board: cutting with the grain & cutting across the grain. There are plenty of different types of hand-powered saws and two most common type are designed to handle these two basic cut types: the Rip Saw and the Crosscut Saw.

The rip saw is designed to cut along the grain of the wood. The teeth of the saw are sharpened to be perpendicular to the blade and behave like small chisels to shave away wood fibers throughout the cut. The teeth work effectively to maintain a straight cut by preventing the saw from following the winding grain lines. Think about chopping wood with an axe and the wood splintering down the grain lines; the rip saw works along the same plane, but produces a clean cut. Rip hand saws are much less common today, with heavy machines taking care of most rip cuts. 

The crosscut saw employs angled teeth that are sharpened like knife points in order to slice the wood fibers. This type of saw is designed to work perpendicular to the wood grain. The teeth of a crosscut saw are much finer, smaller in size and closer together compared to those of a rip saw. The power miter saw, a dedicated crosscut tool,  is the modern offspring of the classic handheld rip saw.

Rip-Cut Teeth

Crosscut Teeth