# Good Quality Hand Saws



## Splinters_will_occur (Jul 31, 2011)

Alright so to get a good start on my hand saw arsenal I need some help. I have decided to hold back on getting any power tools for resizing lumber. That being said I need a good quality ripping saw that I can use to resize the boards by hand. I have looked a good bit online and seen there is quite a range of different saws I just dont know which would be the best for the buck. I am looking to spend around 50-100 for a few nice saws to start my collection. Any ideas?


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## joesbucketorust (Dec 13, 2011)

I'd say go to vintagesaws.com and look for a refurbished D8, but the price might be a bit more than you want to pay.
When you say "resize" do you mean just regular rip/crosscut, or are you talking about resawing by hand to make it thinner?
Edit: I see from your other post you want to make it thinner. You need a very sharp saw for that, and you're going to waste whatever the thickness is of your blade by turning it into sawdust. You may be able to find a good bowsaw with a nice tall blade to do the job.
Edit 2: you were answering my post while I was typing edit 1, and now we're talking in circles. The next reader will get whiplash trying to keep up. :smile:


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## Splinters_will_occur (Jul 31, 2011)

joesbucketorust said:


> I'd say go to vintagesaws.com and look for a refurbished D8, but the price might be a bit more than you want to pay.
> When you say "resize" do you mean just regular rip/crosscut, or are you talking about resawing by hand to make it thinner?


resaw by hand to make thinner. That is the toughest thing for me to do at the moment.


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## RandyL (Jan 24, 2012)

Ripping boards with a hand saw, wow. What are the dimensions are these boards your talking about? I'm picturing in my head you trying to rip something like a 2x10 10' long into a 1x10 or something like that.


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## truckjohn (Oct 31, 2011)

I do a whole lot of work with handsaws when I am building stuff... It is both very rewarding - and also more "Family friendly"... as there is no high pitched scream to disturb everyone in the house.... You can go saw stuff at 10:00 PM on a week night and not worry about the kids or the spouse... where you may have to wait to do that work on a weekend if you gotta pull out the power saw...

Before you dig too far down into that rabbit hole - just try it out with a hardware store hand saw.... While it's not exactly the same - it will give you and idea of the effort, technique, and practice required... and the $20.00 for a hardware store saw is a lot easier to swallow initially than the $100 for a well made European or English saw... If you love it - go buy a good one....

While I do small ripping work with my hand saws - I won't be doing any 8" thick stock - or even particularly long sections in thinner stock... Longer sections can really tire you out and requires keen attention to technique.... Circular saws and bandsaws excel at that sort of work...

The next thing is saw sharpening... Ripping requires very sharp, very well set saws.... If you are serious - you will want to learn saw sharpening... and that's yet another rabbit hole....

Thanks


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## Wrangler02 (Apr 15, 2011)

Around here, I have purchased several Diston D8's in pretty fair condition for $8 to $12. My most recent purchase is a saw from the Coast to Coast Hardware chain made by the Pennsylvania Saw Co. I paid $6 for it. They. All needed a bit of cleaning and polishing with a 3-M pad and jointing and sharpening. These saws were all 8 pt crosscuts. I reshaped and sharpened them rip. With the dry hardwood that I work with I find that a rip saw works just fine for cross cutting. Having three or four saws means I use one until it get dull, grab te next one, etc. Then I go on a sharpening spree. Another thing that I have learned is that all of my old saws had too much set. So far I have not had to use my saw set. The only saw I have that did not have too much set is the new Veritas dovetail saw that I bought last year.


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