Handsaw

Hand Saw or Panel Saw is a handy tool to have in your woodworking toolbox.

It is popular among woodworkers for cutting wood manually. It is used for crosscutting lumbar or ripping boards, plywood etc.

This saw consists of a handle and a flexible metal blade.

The cutting edge has teeth. Hand saw with larger teeth are generally used for making quick rough cuts.

Types of Hand Saws

The most common woodworking hand saws are – Panel Saw, Back Saw and Frame Saw

Panel Saw

Panel Saw also commonly called hand saw has a handle and a thin flexible metal plate with no rigid back frame.

The cutting edge is made up of teeth. Panel saw has larger teeth and is used for quick rough cutting.

Panel saw blades are rated by the number of teeth per inch (TPI). It has larger teeth or lower TPI. Most common TPI for panel saw is 8 TPI or 9 TPI.

Back Saw

Back Saw has a handle and a thin metal saw plate. However, the top edge of the plate or the non-cutting edge is reinforced with rigid metal back to prevent the blade from bending.

Back saw has smaller teeth and is used for making precision and smooth cuts in wood.

Back saw blades are identified by the number of teeth per inch (TPI). It has smaller teeth or larger the TPI. It usually has 15 to 20 TPI.

Frame Saw

Frame Saw uses tension to tighten up the blade between the saw arms. It has thin blade and is used for cutting curves. It can also be used for rough cutting boards.

Frame saws come in a wide range of TPI (tooth count per inch). Higher TPI or smaller teeth saw is used for fine cutting and lower TPI or larger teeth are used for quick rough-cutting.