What can be done with old circular saw blades? That's right, a knife. Three and a half saws and an old axe. Node Test Circular Saw Ax Blueprint

Having made a knife from a saw with your own hands, you can get at your disposal a cutting device, whose performance is much better than that of factory counterparts. Making a knife with your own hands, it is given exactly the shape that most suits the master. Factory knives are beautiful, but not always reliable. There is no guarantee that they will not let you down at the most crucial moment.

A homemade knife from a disk, a hacksaw for wood or a saw for metal will last for many years, regardless of storage and use conditions. Consider how to make a knife from factory-made metal parts, what you need for this and what you should pay special attention to.

Raw materials for manufacturing homemade knife can be any new or old hardened steel cutting piece. It is better to use as a blank cutting discs for metal, handmade and pendulum saws. A good option is old chainsaw. From its chain, you can forge and grind a blade that is not inferior in quality and appearance to the famous Damascus steel.

In order to make a knife with your own hands, you will need the following equipment and materials:

Bulgarian;
grinder;
electric drill;
ruler;
hammer;
sandpaper;
sharpening bars;
files;
core;
epoxy adhesive;
copper wire;
marker;
bucket with water.

Separately, you need to think about the issue with the handle. The finished product should fit comfortably in your hand.

To make a pen, it is better to use:

non-ferrous metal (copper, bronze, brass, silver);
tree (oak, alder, birch);
organic glass (plexiglass, polycarbonate).

The raw materials for the handle must be intact, without traces of cracks, rot or other defects.

Rules for working with metal

In order for the blade to be strong and resilient, in the process of its manufacture it is necessary to follow the rules for working with metal. They are as follows:

Blanks must not have visible or hidden damage. Before making a knife, the blanks must be inspected and tapped. A solid part sounds loud, and a defective one is muffled.
When designing the shape of the blade, corners must be avoided. In such places, steel can break. All transitions should be smooth, without kinks. The cuts of the butt, the handle and the fuse must be ground off at a right angle.
When sawing and sharpening, do not overheat the steel. This leads to a decrease in its strength. An overheated blade becomes brittle or soft. During processing, the workpiece must be constantly cooled by completely immersing it in a bucket of cold water.
When making a knife from a saw blade, you need to remember that this product has already gone through a hardening cycle. Factory saws are adapted to work with the hardest alloys. If you do not overheat the canvas in the process of turning and finishing, then it will not have to be hardened.

The blade shank must not be made too thin. It is on this part of the product that the greatest load will fall.

Making a knife from canvas

If the canvas is large and does not have much wear, then several blades for various purposes can be made from it. The time and effort spent is worth it.

Knife from circular saw do it yourself in the following sequence:

A pattern is applied to the canvas, the contours of the blade are outlined. Scratches or dotted lines are applied over the marker with a core. So the pattern will not be erased when cutting the workpiece and fitting it to desired shape.
Workpieces are cut from the circular saw blade. To do this, it is better to use a grinder with a disc for metal. Leave a margin of 2 mm from the contour. This is necessary in order to remove the material burned by the grinder. If there is no grinder at hand, then you can grind the workpiece with a vice, a hammer and a chisel or a hacksaw.
On grinder all excess is shaved off. This process will take a lot of time so as not to overheat the steel. To prevent this, the workpiece must be regularly lowered into water until it cools completely.
The blade is outlined. Here you need to be careful to keep the contour of the knife, do not burn it and maintain an angle of 20º.
All straight sections are aligned. It is convenient to do this by applying the workpiece to the side of the grinding wheel. Transitions are given a rounded shape.
The part is cleared of burrs. Blade grinding and polishing. For this, several interchangeable circles on a grinding machine are used.

Separately, we should dwell on how the handle is made. If wood is used, then a monolithic fragment is taken, in which a longitudinal cut and through holes are made. After that, the blank is mounted on the blade, holes for fasteners are marked in it. The handle is fixed on the blade with rivets or bolts with nuts. In the case of a bolted connection, the caps of the hardware are sunk into the wood and filled with epoxy glue.

When the handle is assembled from plastic, 2 overlays are used, which must be symmetrical. To give the knife originality, plastic linings are painted with inside. In the overlays, you can make cavities filled with jewelry, products made from non-ferrous and precious metals, small compasses and photographs.

After fixing on the blade, the handles are turned until they acquire the necessary shape and smoothness.

chainsaw knife

Saw chains are made of high-quality alloy, which perfectly tolerates long-term friction and high temperature. The process of making a blade is long and laborious, but the result is a beautiful, unique and very durable knife. To work, you will need a heavy anvil, barbecue and charcoal. To make it easier to handle a hot workpiece, you need to purchase blacksmith tongs.

The manufacture of a blade from a chain from a chainsaw must be carried out in the following sequence:

Prepare clothing and gloves thick fabric and a protective mask. Pour charcoal into the hearth and set it on fire with a special liquid.
Fold the workpiece from a single piece of chain. In the place where the handle will be, you can add a few segments from the chain. It should be remembered that the result of the work should be a single monolithic product. Separately, the handle for the knife is not made.
Put the workpiece on the coals. Provide air flow to raise the temperature. Wait until the steel turns dark red. In this state, it becomes forged without losing its quality characteristics.
Remove the red-hot chain from the fire and place it on the anvil. Several strong blows flatten it so that the links fuse together, turning into a single monolithic part.
Step by step, heating the workpiece in the furnace and giving it the desired shape with a hammer, forge a knife with a handle and blade indicated. After cooling the workpiece, sharpen and polish it.
Carry out hardening of the product. To do this, it must again be red-hot and lowered into cold water. After that, you can finish the knife. For this, acid and an engraving machine are used. The finished blade is polished again and washed in warm soapy water.

At self-manufacturing the blade must adhere to certain parameters in order to ready product did not fall under the category of edged weapons.

This hatchet combines three functions, it is an ax itself, and there is also a small sharp hacksaw, as well as a beer opener. The author calls this device a survival ax, although it is rather just a small assistant in tourism.

A hatchet was made for mountaineering and, in general, outdoor recreation, with the use of beer, so an opener is provided here. As for the hacksaw, it is convenient for her to cut moderately thick branches, and then prick with a hatchet on chips for kindling. An ax is made easily; we use a saw blade as a material.

Materials and tools for homemadethat used

List of materials:
- saw blade;
- wood for the manufacture of handles;
- nails for the manufacture of pins;
- epoxy adhesive;
- washer, nut and bolt;
- hacksaw blade Sawzall (the author used 200 mm).

List of tools:
- marker;
- ruler;
-
- ;
- a good set of files;
- sandpaper;
- it is highly desirable to have a vise or clamps.

Hatchet making process:

Step one. We invent and cut out the main profile
First of all, you will need to come up with the shape of your hatchet. Always remember that the main chopping characteristics of an ax depend on its weight. The more metal there is, the heavier the ax will be, and the better it will cut. Decide also on the shape of the blade, it all depends on the purpose for which you will use the hatchet. We draw the profile of the ax on the cutting disc. Or you can first do it on paper, and then cut it out and transfer it to metal, this is a more professional solution.

In addition, you will need one more detail that needs to be cut. But it will be needed if you install a saw blade in your hatchet. A narrow steel plate must pass through the entire length of the handle, as a result, a groove is formed in the handle in which the hacksaw will hide. Of course, the shape of this steel plate should be such that the hacksaw blade comes into place unhindered. Since the author’s handle is quite long, it will not work to cut these two parts in one piece, we cut out the ax and the long plate that goes through the handle separately.

As for the tool, you can cut the whole thing with the help of a grinder. Try not to overheat the ax blank, as this causes the metal to be tempered and becomes soft. However, this problem is solved by re-hardening. This work can also be done with a hacksaw, however, in this case, the metal is usually released by heating, after which it is easy to cut. Finish the remaining fragments on a grinder or the same grinder.

Step two. We make a pen
This step will be pretty easy if you have a CNC. But this pleasure is expensive and few people have such a device. But all this work is quite simply done manually. We draw the profile of the handle on the tree and slowly cut it out. It’s good to have a jigsaw, if not, it’s not scary, everything can be done and hand tools. You will need to make two halves. Keep in mind that the handle is not too thick. Then sand the blanks well so that they are smooth and uniform.

Step three. Drilling holes in metal
The metal of the saw blades is hardened, it is made of high carbon steel. You can't just drill it with a regular drill. For these purposes, you will need a special drill with a carbide tip. Usually this can be done with the drill that is used to drill concrete.
There is another option, you can always heat the metal to red, and then let it cool for outdoors. As a result, it will be drilled without problems with a conventional drill. Don't forget to drill two holes in the long metal plate that runs the entire length of the handle. However, you can release this metal without problems, hardening is not required here.

Step four. beer opener
It just so happened that our author is a fan of having a beer around a campfire with friends. Of course, you can open the bottle with a knot, but it is much more convenient to do this with a prepared tool, in our case it is an ax. It’s not difficult to make an opener, just cut a clove with a grinder that will cling securely to the lid. According to the author, it works great.

Step five. Trial build
First of all, you have to deal with the locking mechanism of the hacksaw blade. That thin metal plate that runs through the entire handle acts as a spring and retainer. First, the author collects everything on the bolts and checks if everything works well. To do this, we drill holes in the right places, where exactly, look at the photo. If something is wrong, it's still not too late to adjust everything. Try to pull out the canvas and cut something, it should be fixed securely.

Step six. We sharpen an ax
The most crucial moment in the manufacture of an ax comes - this is its sharpening. Since the hatchet is made without subsequent hardening, it is important for us to sharpen it correctly. When sharpening, the blade will heat up, which means that metal tempering can occur if the temperature gets too high. After tempering, the metal will be soft, and the ax will quickly lose sharpening. Before sharpening, stock up on a bowl of water and constantly cool the blade in it. The author sharpens carefully with the help of a grinder and a grinding disc. This creates a bevel, as well as rough sharpening.

For finer sharpening, we take files, as well as sandpaper. If desired, with the help of sandpaper, the hatchet can be sharpened to the state of the blade. But since we will chop wood with it, we don’t need it very sharp, besides, it’s not safe.

Step seven. We glue the hatchet
We use epoxy as glue. It will be convenient to use a double syringe that simultaneously applies resin and hardener. The glue must be applied carefully as there are moving parts inside the handle. Before mixing the resin with the hardener, prepare the pins. The author used ordinary nails as pins. We cut them to desired length so that they protrude slightly from the handle on both sides.

We apply glue in the part where the hatchet is attached, and also glue the upper half of the steel plate. The lower part does not need to be glued, it works like a spring. We tighten the whole thing with clamps and leave it for 24 hours, this is how much epoxy glue often dries.

Step eight. We form the handle
When the glue is completely dry, take a file and carefully process the surface of the handle, remove the excess. After rough processing, we take a large sandpaper and continue grinding. Finally, by gradually reducing the graininess of the paper, we make the handle absolutely smooth. After that, the hatchet is almost ready, try it in action!

Hi all! This summer I went on a 5 week trek in the Alps with a few friends. The time spent left a lot of positive impressions. But during this trip, I discovered that I forgot one very important tool - an ax. After a long day in the mountains, it's nice to sit by the fire and drink beer. But in order to make a fire without an ax, we had to spend a lot of time looking for small branches that can be broken by hand.

Therefore, as soon as I arrived home, I had the idea to make a tourist hatchet, in which, like in a knife, a saw is hidden and there is a beer opener.

In this master class, I will tell you how you can make such an ax yourself.

Ax design

The design of this ax consists of three parts.

ax blade

The shape of the blade was borrowed from the tomahawk, an ax used by Native Americans and European colonists. But you can change its shape by adding some spikes or a mallet on the butt. The ax blade will be glued to the handle and fastened with rivets.

opener

At first, as an opener, I wanted to make a suitable hole in the blade. As a result of test drilling, it was found that conventional drill it's impossible to make a hole, so I changed the look of the opener. You can see both options in the image. The new type will be made in the form of a specially shaped hook.

Saw

I wanted the ax to come with a saw, and I thought it would be nice if it hid like a jackknife. From the handle and it can be expanded using the finger recess. The saw will hide between the two pads. The shape of the metal part of the handle will allow the saw to be fixed in both the open and folded positions.

After the design was chosen, I tried it on the blade circular saw to fit the dimensions.

Materials and tools

This ax is made from a used saw blade and hardwood that I had. I had to purchase only a folding saw blade. It was already hardened, so it did not need heat treatment.

Materials:

Old circular saw blade.
Hardwood timber (approximately 50 x 40 x 300 mm).
Epoxy resin.
Large nails for use as rivets.
Folding saw blade (I used 200mm).
Bolt, nut and washer.

Tools:

Angle grinder (don't forget your protective equipment!).
Rasp.
File.
Sandpaper.
Drill.

Let's make sparks!

I transferred the outlines of the ax and the metal part of the handle onto a circular saw and cut them out using an angle grinder with a fine cutting wheel. Then using a grinding wheel, angle grinder and files I completed the formation of the elements. The final shape of the metal part of the handle can be given later.

Handle making

You can glue the template to a wooden blank and cut out two overlays. I used my milling machine with CNC.

Drilling in hardened steel

I didn't have a carbide drill, so I wasn't sure how the hardened ax would work. I came across a video where it was told that a sharpened drill bit for concrete can be used to drill hardened metal. So I did, and it worked out pretty well.

Adding an opener

This is probably the most indispensable part of the ax! Whenever I go camping, my friends and I usually have a couple of beers around the campfire in the evening. Opening them with stones and tree branches is very inconvenient. So I thought this detail would come in handy. I transferred the outline of an ordinary opener to the blade of an ax and cut a recess along it. Works great :)

Handle drilling

Next, I drilled holes in the handle and checked if everything fits. The metal part of the handle should act as a spring that will fix the saw blade. If it is too elastic, it can be made thinner. First, I used the metal part of the handle as a template for making holes. Then I fastened the two linings with clamps and then drilled through hole. Thus, all the corresponding holes were in one line.

To connect the parts of the ax without gluing, I used bolts. This way you can check whether all the parts of the ax fit and whether the saw folds correctly.

Blade sharpening

After the contour of the descent of the blade was drawn out, I used an angle grinder with a grinding disc for rough processing. Then for more fine workmanship a file went into action and grinding machine(use water to cool the blade). The final sharpening was done using the grinding wheel of the sharpening machine.

I am not an expert in sharpening an ax blade, so you can do this in another way.

The ax will mainly be used to split the tree into smaller pieces, so I did a little test of its functionality.

Bonding and riveting

Very useful project detailed video the process of making a knife from a web of old circular discs. All stages of manufacturing are present here, including hardening and sharpening. I especially liked the horn from an ordinary hair dryer. The persistence of the author is surprising - the entire manufacturing process was carried out without the use of electrical tools. Well, he had this fantasy. On the other hand, a good experience. With a certain amount of perseverance, such a knife can be made practically “on the knee”.

My friend and fellow YouTuber wanted to make a joint video. We bounced around some ideas and eventually decided to shoot ourselves in knife making. The catch was that I would do it by hand (except for the drill and oven) and he would do it with power tools. We both started out with the same blade, the same steel, but the rest of the design aesthetic was left up to us. I also wanted to do this because I read many times all you have to do with a knife a few files and a drill or something like that. I was wondering how long it would take me to make a knife with my hands and to see if I could do it without cheating and using my tools. So I realized that this is a great opportunity to try it. It was fun to build, took much longer than I expected, and gave me a whole new appreciation for people who make knives entirely by hand. Overall I'm very happy with how the knife turned out and I hope it helps someone out there that wants to give it a try.

Step 1:

I tried to increase the size of the knife with the designs that are used for the saw as much as possible. I made a paper template using card stock, which is just a heavier weight paper so I could easily trace the paper template onto the saw blade. I used a thin tip marker, although this is a small thing in my opinion, it is very important. Fine marker tip leaves fine lines to cut or file too unlike conventional marker tip. The cut line can become ambiguous if its too wide, which can affect general form and lead to violations in the form and more problems, down the road.

Step 2:

With the saw blade clamped onto the worktable I started by cutting out the rough shape of the blade using straight line segments. If you have never used a hacksaw, first make sure the blade is correct, the direction of the teeth should be forward or away from your body. The cuts are on the cut so make sure to set the blade correctly.

Step 3:

In order to cut out the curved parts of the handle, I made several perpendicular cuts in the relief along the entire length of the curved part of the handle. Then, using a hacksaw at a slight angle, I would cut out a small section from each. Reset reduction make it easier to follow the curve as you cut.

Step 4:

I needed to refine the shape of the blade, so I attached a 2x4 piece of crowbar to my workbench and clamped the blade into a 2x4. This allowed me to work forms from my file, and the blade was nice and safe. I also used the file to evaluate what areas are required extra work. The spine design was slightly tilted and I could use the flat part of the file to check progress on the curve. If the spine has a flat spot it will be visible.

Step 5:

I used multiple files to get the shape or as close to the line as possible. At this point, it starts to look more like a knife and the flaws are harder to spot by eye. If I notice that a zone needs work, I would use the marker to re-draw the shape and then file with that new line. It served as a guide, so I'm not in favor of correct and mess up the design. The last picture of the blade after it has been filed and sanded down. I don't have any photos of me sanding the blade, this is the last step to shaping that removes any file marks. I would start with 150 grit and work my way up to 220.

Step 6:

I originally planned to dip with a nice high bevel, but my modest skills weren't up to the challenge. The saw blade is pretty thin material and I don't think I can extend the blade to reach the takedown line and the slope I was after. More on this topic later. At this point I also measured the placement of the pin center and punched and then drilled the holes with my drill.

Step 7:

Using a marker, I marked the entire length of the blade. Then, using a drill with the same thickness as the blade I scored a line down the center of the blade. The last picture shows, on the line it is not visible well in the picture, but it is there. This line will come in handy when filing a blade tilt, it will keep me from crooked and lopsided edges.

Step 8:

I used the bastard file to define the bevel just then I realized that I didn't have the skills to make a nice dip line by hand. So I chose a smoother angle and filed the working blade my way from edge to spine. I'm new to this and inexperienced, so I took the more conservative route in terms of pickup. Once I was happy with the bevel, I sanded the entire blade to 220 grit.

Step 9:

Here is the blade after all shaping, filing and sanding ready for heat treatment.

Step 10:

Before I leave I would like to say that while you can heat treat a blade with an open wood burning fireplace I personally don't recommend it. This is one of those cases where I really don't feel safe doing the operation. And I wasn't sure about the heat it took so I ended up using my mini forge (here's my Instructable on how I made my mini forge http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to- Make-a-Mini-Forge/) to heat instead of healing the blade. If you don't have a mini forge you can actually send your blades from their heat treatment. There are several companies that offer this service for a fee, of course. With that said, I'll explain my setup. I built a fire. Then, using a hair dryer with a tube attached to it to act like bellows, I turn on the hair dryer and eat the coals red hot. It does not take a lot of time. I put the blade on the fire and warm it up until it was magnetic and then quenched it in a container of peanut butter. The last peak shows what the blade looks like after hardening. While open flame heat treatment is possible, it is not recommended.

Step 11:

Now it's time to harden the blade, but first I sanded all the scales from quenching. Then in my oven I set the temperature to 375 degrees Fahrenheit (in my oven, setting it to 375 degrees Fahrenheit will reach 400 degrees Fahrenheit). degrees Fahrenheit) and placed the blade in the oven for 1 hour. At the end of 1 hour I turned off the oven and let the blade spin inside the closed oven door until it was cool enough to process. You can see the blonde-ish or light bronze-ish color that the blade is obtained after hardening. After tempering I sand the blade to clean it using 220 grit and work up to 400 grit. The last time I use rice wooden block With 400 grit sandpaper wrapped around it and sand from the handle to the tip of the spatula in one direction only. This leaves a uniform sanding line on the blade.

Step 12:

Using the blade as a template, I trace the shape's handles onto the wood. This piece of walnut was given to me by one of my neighbors, a piece was cut off which he ground down. Here again using my 2x4 piece of crowbar and clamps I sawed two 1/4 thick pieces. In my excitement, I threw myself into cutting wood, if I took some time to think about my operation I could do it easily and possibly with the best results. My first mistake was to cut off the waste material. I could use this material to pinch a piece down and then cut out two handles. Here again my inexperience, in this case with hand tools, rears its ugly head. I managed to make two useful pen pieces, but I'm sure I worked a lot harder than smarter to make them.

Step 13:

In order for the handles to attach to the blade with a snug fit I made sure to sand one side of each handle as flat as possible flat surface and sandpaper. This will ensure that there are no gaps after gluing. At this point I decided what the handle shape would be and drew a reference line on the blade to make sure I liked it. appearance. I then traced the blade handle back into the woods. Using a jigsaw I rough shape on one handle and then take the handle and track it on the other handle. This will ensure that they are roughly the same shape that will come in handy when gluing on the handles. The last peak is a test fit to make sure they cover all the tang.

Step 14:

Time for more polishing and refining the shape. It is important at this point to finalize the shape to support the section, or rather the top of the handle, because once it is glued to the knife, it will not be easily accessible. And any further work on this area after gluing can lead to scratches on the blade. So I sanded down to 800 with sandpaper and made sure the special section was finished in terms of sanding and finishing.

Step 15:

When drilling dowel holes through wood, I made sure after the first hole was drilled that I used a bit the same diameter as the hole to index that hole. In other words, this keeps the blade from moving or getting mixed up when drilling another hole. I used the same indexing process for the opposite side to make sure all the holes would line up when inserting the pins.

Step 16:

I used 3/16 inch pins from of stainless steel that I cut from a stainless steel rod. Before sealing the mask blade and clean everything with acetone or alcohol to remove any dirt, dust or oil.

Step 17:

After everything is dry from cleaning. I mixed it up epoxy resin and slathered by a generous amount on pens and pins. Then I clamped everything together and let it cure for 24 hours.

Step 18:

Once the resin has cured I cut off the pins with a hacksaw. Then, with the help of a rasp, I began the shape and contour of the handle.

Step 19:

As has been repeatedly mentioned, life does not stand still.

This is where it lost its relevance to some extent. The old saws are retired, and the new ones are just waiting to show what they are good for.

And again, on the only day off, having solved domestic problems, he went out into the distant forest for a couple of hours, having a new set of experimental tools in his backpack.

Initially, it was planned to participate in the competition four saws:

1. Folding hacksaw Bahco Laplander. Weight 191g., Length 40cm (folded - 23cm). The handle is plastic with a slight "rubberized" effect. Very compact and easy to carry on your belt or in your jacket pocket. Convenient for one-hand operation. It folds like a knife, that is, by turning the blade into the slot in the handle. Good and aggressive sawing. There is only one drawback and it follows from its compactness: it is short.

2. Folding hacksaw Fiskars SW75. Weight 249g., Length 55.5cm (folded - 30.5cm). The handle is hard plastic. Folds by pushing into the handle. Excellent sawing when observed simple rule: one hand presses the hacksaw from above, the second pulls towards itself. With the reverse stroke forward, the hacksaw only moves, it is impossible to cut. I did not see any shortcomings before this test at all.

3. Wood saw Matrix BLACK SERIES PROFESSIONAL 23578. Weight 587g, total length 55cm. The length of the working part is 45 cm, but in fact, when sawing a log, only the section from the end of the hacksaw to the handle can be used - 40 cm. The handle is interestingly made: plywood, and on it is a plastic "half-cover". Why this is so is a mystery to me. Hacksaw bought as a full-time in the car.

4. Bow saw Fiskars 124810. Weight 662g, total length 70cm, working part length 53cm. The handle is plastic, and on top there is also a steel clamp that fixes the tension of the saw blade. In the process of work, the distance from the saw blade to the frame was also important - from 12 cm at the end of the saw to 18 cm at the handle.

In addition to four saws, a freshly sharpened ax was taken into the forest, which also regularly rides in the trunk of a car. With a total weight in 1905 and a length of 53 cm, of the Soviet era, a well-deserved village veteran with a handicraft welded crack in the eye.

As the name implies, it simulates the preparation of logs for a full-fledged node. Accordingly, a tree was chosen: a relatively recently felled (not by me) pine, stuck between trees and not touching the ground. A dry and durable tree with a diameter of 26 cm at the place of the first cut (one and a half spans - just right for a node that will burn, according to experience, for at least seven hours). The following cuts are made offset to the butt, so that the thickness increases slightly.

The air temperature is around zero.

The time spent on sawing the piece of wood to the end is considered.

Here are the participants of the competition on the experimental log.

So. To begin with, the first cut was made on the log in order to separate the “non-working” part to the top. I must say that until now I simply did not have experience working with a bow saw - somehow I didn’t have a chance. Accordingly, having heard about the high capabilities of this tool, he made the first cut with it.

Immediately revealed two features, and not to say that they are positive.

Firstly, due to the thin canvas, the cut leads away from the line perpendicular to the trunk, and quite noticeably.
Secondly, the thickness of the log (and, accordingly, the lack of space between the blade and the saw frame) forces the tree to be cut from two sides. This increases the running time. It is also impossible to saw a thick tree at the same most convenient angle for working - in order to maximize the cut, you have to work with a saw from uncomfortable positions.
In addition, the curved cut when working on the other side begins to bite the saw, and it is very noticeable.

The total time was 10min 52sec. Honestly, I expected better.

The next number was the Matrix hacksaw. In truth, I didn’t expect any special results from her (according to the test results, it was planned to just replace the portable hacksaw with a bow saw).

The hacksaw briskly went into the wood, not at all like Bahko's fine-toothed hacksaw on the previous test.

The length of the hacksaw made it possible to constantly cut at the most convenient angle for me, and the handle made it comfortable enough to hold it with both hands. The wide canvas did not allow deviating from the optimal cutting line.
As a result, the trunk was cut quickly and evenly.

Total time - 5min 25sec. Two times less than that of the Luchkova!

Okay. The result was not just unexpected, but completely opposite to what was expected.

I must say that after the first cut, the experimental tree, wedged between birches, lay down significantly lower. Plus, of course, the conditions for the second cut were more convenient, since the top of the trunk was already separated. Accordingly, it was decided to repeat the cut with a bow saw and see if the result would be better.

No, the beginning of the work was quite vigorous (in general, she saws well).

But, for starters, I drank it again, and even more. With the inevitable work on the other hand, the saw jammed great.

And when the frame again rested against the trunk on both sides, it turned out that it was generally impossible to cut a low-lying tree with this saw. You can’t crawl from below, and working on the right and left does not make it possible to cut through the tree to the end.

In order not to waste time (and twilight was already at the threshold), he applied an alternative method: he quickly cut out a wedge from a branch of the same tree and hammered it into an unfinished cut with an ax.

As a result, the tree was defeated, although not completely by the saw. Morality: an ax in the forest must be.

But a healthy piece remained uncut - I thought less.

Total time with all these worries - 15min 22sec. Intermediate conclusion: nafig.

I must say that the insufficient length of the working part of the hacksaw was also very noticeable here. But there was practically no withdrawal of the cut line due to the sufficient width of the hacksaw blade, so it was possible to finish the job even with a low location of the trunk. The last centimeters had to be cut, however, in an uncomfortable position - holding the hacksaw parallel to the ground and very close to it.

But what a neat cut turned out.)

Total time - 9min 27sec. Better than Luchkova.

And now - why in the title is not “four saws”, but “three and a half”. Initially, as I already said, I had the idea to try as a harvester of logs for nodia and folding hacksaw by Bahko Laplander. But after experimenting with a much longer Fiskars, I realized: no need.)

Accordingly, Laplander did not take part in this test.

conclusions

1. Size matters.

Matrix Black 450- turned out to be, if not perfect, then close to it. Even a little sorry handy thing store exclusively for the vehicle. Maybe I'll buy a second one.

Fiskars folding- generally confirmed its status as a reliable and useful companion. Although, of course, for such a task - a bit short. And this, I note, is the SW75 model. About the much shorter SW73 - there is nothing to even talk about, from my point of view.

Laplander- just small. You can't do anything with her.

2. Looking at the size, do not forget about the design of the saw. The frame of the bow saw sticking out from above, at least for me, is frankly inconvenient.

If you try on the saw to the end of the tree, you can clearly see how the frame limits the depth of cut

A thin canvas - honestly, even more inconvenient, since the curved cut creates a bunch of additional problems.

I understand that you can get used to it. Perhaps a homemade frame made from forest materials will be more suitable for work (although there are doubts). But in any case, I definitely won’t replace the saw in the car with a bow saw, and I won’t take this saw with me to the forest until I develop my skills and have a normal convenient frame design, despite the low weight and small volume.

An additional number to the test program was the test of an old well-deserved ax that received a fresh sharpening. For this, the apical part of the same trunk with a diameter of 20 cm was taken.

It must be said that old ax cuts quite cheerfully, although, from my point of view, the handle is clearly a bit short. There will be time - I'll put a new one, it's not for nothing that the elm trunk dries in the hallway

The total time for chopping a 20cm log is a little over 9 minutes. In general, how to cut 25 cm with a bow saw. And during this time, Matrix can do two-thirds of the work of preparing logs for a full-fledged node for the whole night.

By the way, a small question for connoisseurs of axes. An interesting brand on it is a circle and an inscription around it, it seems, "MADE IN THE USSR". Neither the emblem in the circle, nor the brand became visible. Looked similar in the Internet - did not find. And the steel is sonorous, even despite the rough weld.

It's getting dark. The muddy snow noticeably melted, and that snow fell - cat's tears. And there are only two weeks before the New Year - again winter is late.

It's time to go home.