Farm Dreams

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Back to basics skills: How to properly hold and use a hand saw

The Practical Prepper

Recently, I came across a hundred-year-old book on carpentry. Flipping through it, I was reminded of my father teaching my brother and I how to build and repair things around the house. The section on using a hand saw paralleled the skills my father taught us, but I don't know many people that learn the proper use of hand tools anymore (everything's powered saws now).

Of course, from a prepping point of view, having basic hand tools and knowing how to use them is a very good idea, and practical too. As an example, having a hand saw and being able to use it might allow you to make emergency repairs to your house or shelter in the aftermath of a hurricane or other natural disaster. If the power is out, a hand saw may be your only option.

At any rate, here are some basics on how to hold and use the common hand saw:

Gripping the Saw

Hold the saw firmly during the initial cut or two; afterwards, hold the handle loosely. Holding the handle tightly will tire you quickly, and more so as you continue to cut on longer projects. Use one hand to hold and control the saw; the other hand is used to steady the material being cut.

How to Start a Saw on a Line

First, don't saw on the line; instead saw next to the line. Measure and draw the line so that the saw kerf (the saw's cut) is on the discarded side of the material. The saw should cut alongside the line, and the line should not be obliterated when you cut. Note: for fine woodworking, you may want to leave a little extra material for trimming and/or finishing.

The Starting Cut

Carefully use the thumb of the non-saw hand to guide the as shown. Be sure that the end of your thumb is raised a sufficient distance to clear the teeth:

Lightly draw the saw upward (not downward) for the first stroke or two. As you draw the saw up, you can judge whether the saw blade is in the proper position to cut along the mark. Assuming the saw is in the proper location, begin to saw downward.

When cutting across the grain of the wood, hold the saw at an angle of about 45 degrees:

For ripping (cutting along the length of the grain), you may get better results holding the saw at less than 45 degrees (but not too low an angle:

The Saw Stroke

Make a long stroke, using the full blade of the saw. Don't acquire a "jerky" style of sawing. If the handle is held loosely, and the saw is at the proper angle, the weight of the saw, together with the placement of the handle on the saw blade, will be found sufficient to make the requisite cut at each stroke. Also, never force the saw blade; forcing the saw through the wood will give you a crooked cut.

If you notice, the handle of every saw is mounted nearest the top/back edge. That position allows the saw to take advantage of the principle of a wedge. As the cutting stroke moves downward, the line of thrust is above the tooth line, which is at an angle to the line of thrust, causing the saw teeth to dig into the wood:

Believing that preparedness and self-reliance are key to individual freedom, Atticus Freeman is the founder of the Self-Reliant Info blog, in addition to authoring The Practical Prepper weekly blog here on Farm Dreams. Thanks for reading!

Tags: DIY, carpentry, do-it-yourself, hand, preparedness, saws, tools

3 members like this

Comment by Craig Stevens on May 18, 2012 at 9:23am: Atticus,

Great article! This is one area where I see so many people lacking skills that used to be common knowledge. We live in a "microwave" society where we want everything NOW! I love woodworking and get great satisfaction from looking at a completed project. And to get to that completed project I use a combination of power tools and hand tools. What many people seem to automatically think is everything is faster and better with power tools. That just simply isn't the case. The reason I use power tools and hand tools to build with is efficiency and pleasure. Some tasks can actually be accomplished faster and with just as much accuracy with hand tools as you can with power tools, not to mention much more pleasurable (sawdust in the face anyone?). A great example is when you need to make one or two cross cuts of a 2x4. I've seen people drag out a circular saw, power cords, safety glasses, and ear protection to make one or two simple cuts. By the time it takes you to even find your hearing protection you could have made the cuts with a hand saw and be moving on to the next task.

So why don't people use hand tools much any more? Two big reasons: Knowledge and quality of the tools their using. Your article touches on the knowledge part. Something as simple as using a hand saw to make a cut, square and true, is a dying art. But even with the knowledge sometimes there can be a lot of frustration because of the tool being used. We expect to be able to run down to a big box store and buy a hand saw for $10 and it work like a charm. Quality hand tools that are a pleasure to use are not necessarily cheaper than power tools. If you've ever been frustrated with trying to make a cut with a hand saw it probably wasn't simply your abilities that was lacking. The difference between using a properly tuned and sharpened hard tool vs one that's massed produced and right off the shelf is AMAZING. Quality hand tools doesn't necessary have to break the bank however. Good quality hand tools can often times be found used. In fact, sometimes in order to find a good hand tool you have to find it used because they simply aren't made anymore. Just do a little research before plucking down a lot of cash for a new hand tool, you might find that a used one is cheaper and better quality!

I have taught woodworking to kids for years through a book I wrote, Woodshop 101 for Kids, and only use hand tools to do so. I even ask for all kids, no matter the age, to learn how to use a brace hand drill before picking up a cordless drill. It's much safer and they learn how to drill a hole that's straight, something that's hard for even adults to do with a cordless drill. That's just one example. I think that it's best to learn woodworking using hand tools before graduating to power tools simply because it's safer and the woodworker gets a better feel for how the tools react to the wood and it's less intimidating.

Just like many life skills that our grandparents took for granted that everyone knew, woodworking is one of those skills that isn't being taught to our kids anymore. The affect is we're raising a society of kids that are more reliant on others to do the simplest of tasks. That's one of the things I love most about Farm-Dreams, we're learning and passing those skills on to others!

Thanks again for the article Atticus and keep up the great work!

Craig

Comment by Atticus Freeman on May 19, 2012 at 12:31am: Hi Craig,

Thanks for taking the time to leave such a great comment — it's almost like a follow-up post!

You're right on the money about things like this being a dying art. Unfortunately, it takes interest on the part of others in order for them to want to slow down and learn the "old-fashioned" way of doing things.

But, like you said, Farm Dreams and other social/networking sites are helping to stimulate that interest and pass along some dying skills.

Comment by Karen Paro on May 21, 2012 at 7:25pm: My sister & I know our way around power & hand tools both. We do a lot of the home renovations during the winter, one year we redid the apartment upstairs, the next the diningroom at her house, last winter & this past winter we've been redoing her kitchen adding more cupboards and counters.

I built the chicken coop it started out a run in for mini donkeys & a mini horse that I had built and when the town made us get rid of those (town ordinance says we needed 2 acres for equine) I converted it into a chicken coop, this past spring we had to replace the floor and redo the roof so we added a window for more ventilation.

The one lesson I did learn a long time ago is when using a hand saw make sure you have a proper sawhorse when you're cutting a knee just doesn't work right especially if you misjudge where you're cutting.

The first year I asked for tools for Christmas & Mother's Day my husband looked at me funny but now I don't even have to ask and I'm always pleasantly surprised with what he gets and if he's at a loss for what tools I might need he buys me a gift certificate so I can buy what ever I need. He has 2 5 foot tall rolling tool boxes full and I still find him looking to borrow from me because I have things he didn't think anyone would ever need.

The big problem sis & I have is if we leave our tools sitting when her hubby is around they disappear, he has this thing about the second you're not using something even if you are going to need it again shortly he has to pick it up and put it away but he also doesn't care who's tools they are. We've found more of our missing tools in his tool shed when he puts things away they immediately go in his tool box or on his bench no matter who's they really are. He did find out though that you DON'T put things away then lock the door, he picked up and put all our tools in his shed one day while we were making a trip to Home Depot and locked the padlock, when we got back he was gone and so were all our tools we had been using, guess who had bolt cutters in her tool box he's getting better about leaving stuff alone when we're working on a project