I ran low on two by threes this afternoon so I used some cast off two by fours. Mistake. I was making a crosscut with my handsaw, I hit a hidden broken off screw. This ruined my handsaw which I have used for years. I like hand-sawing, there is something comforting in listening to and cutting with a handsaw. Something that connects me to all the carpenters from the past. I don’t really enjoy the shrill noise my circular saw or my twelve inch miter saw makes.

I realized that this saw has worked so well for so many years that I don‘t know much about buying a new one. I checked Homehardware first. Homehardware is four miles from me. I can special order and the local owners are great people. I typed handsaw into the search box, this returned two items. Then I just searched for saw this yielded 36 pages of choices. Now what so I opened each choice in a new tab in my browser.One at at a time I started to read. One had a magnetic whatchamacallit another had 11 points per inch. Another had some friction free coating that made it very expensive. Other had rubber handles some had special handles which claimed to give you 1400 lbs of pulling power. I thought that was interesting, since the rear brake locked up on my Harley and I rubbed my shoulder along three hundred feet of cement curb while keeping my bike from crushing me with my feet. I doubt I got 1400 lbs of pull left on that side of my body.

Now I spent a little time Googleing I find the Art of manliness website it has an article about saws then I hit the Norse Woodsmith for another article. Still unsure I keep looking I read about crosscut saws and ripping saws. Now I cant even imagine ripping a long board with a hand saw. I am sure there are some that could manage that, just not me. So I go back to the twenty open tabs and look for the crosscut designation. Not one of the saws mentioned either. Just how many points per inch.

So more research and I read that crosscut saws have 8 to 11 TPI thanks Lowes for the saw guides. So once again I look at the twenty open tabs and narrow down my choices. After my research I realize the the teeth on the crosscut saw is different than the rip saw. Once I narrow down my choices I have to check them against the manufacturers websites for more info if it is available.

After all the research I have decided on the Irwin saw mostly because the info was easy to find on thier website, and they had a picture of the saw cutting a two by four, perfect just what I was looking for.

I have a ton of those to cut. Besides the saw looks mean, ready to saw.
I have other Irwin tools and have been happy with them. This wasn’t the cheapest saw I looked at but I wanted a saw that would last me through the Tiny house build and more.

Take care Rod