Saw point, reprise...

There are some occasions when one of those rare 'Eureka' (that's going to hurt!) moments happen and the leaden scales fall away from your eyes to reveal dazzling delights beyond...such an event happened the other day when I was round at Pete's place looking at (amongst a lot of other stuff) his chisels.

During the course of the afternoon, he suggested that I have a go with his Sun Child dozuki Japanese rip saw. I accepted rather reluctantly because I've tried these things out before years ago and simply couldn't get on with them, the reason being that I was principally holding the thing incorrectly.

What I was doing was to hold the long handle with my wrist over the top of it, so in effect 'cocking' it at around 20 or 30 deg, which after around ten minutes was excruciating! Pete suggested that the way to use it was to tuck the handle inside the forearm, so the wrist is now lying along the right hand side. The grip in that position is not dissimilar to how a Western style saw is held and posed no problems in terms of comfort...so I was already half way hooked!
I was completely smitten though by the way it effortlessly sliced through timber, even as thin as 4mm. A 'hot knife through butter' is only coming marginally close to how that thing went through wood...fantastic!

Now never, ever let it be said that I act on impulse and do all sorts of irrational stuff...

"who me, sir?"..."not I sir!"

...but my pair of faithful LN saws have now been sold and as soon as the necessary has cleared the bank account, I'm going to order a set from Matthew at Workshop Heaven.