Hey guys/gals,

My first post here. Been trolling for a few weeks. Seriously reconsidering my gear and realizing how much weight I actually rely on. This is my first first project that dropped a good 2 pounds from my gear.

I usually bring a buck saw/bow saw with me. Recently built and tested this and it works great! Just took down a 4 inch tree in my back yard in maybe 20 seconds

Been killing myself trying to come up with a light weight saw but I think I nailed it. Its probably been done before though.

46 grams/1.62 ounces

Just took a pruning saw blade and cobra wrapped with paracord. A little gorrila glue and its stable as can be.

Edited by coreyfmiller on 02/19/2010 16:22:23 MST.

This design does work great. I did the same but with 1 wrap of a micro towel and 100 MPH tape(military duct tape designed to patch bullet holes in helicopters).

Nice! I actually have some of that tape in my wallet. Just made 5 of these... one for myself and each of my camping buddies..

Im thinking.. its usually just me thats cutting things... this way theres 4 other buddies that will have no excuse but to help out! Cutting my cutting time effectivly by %80

So I dropped two pounds and cut my venturing for wood by a fair amount by gaining the assistance of others.

Have you come up with a good idea for a case for this saw?

I was honestly thinking of sticking it inside a sock. No more extra weight... and I'll have a wicked sock to wear when I need it

Though I could probably make a fairly lightweight sheath from duct tape. I'll give that a shot now and see how low I can keep the weight.

Folded aluminum flashing and duct tape for sheath. A little heavy @ 2.2 oz. total weight.

Edited by meld on 02/19/2010 18:01:42 MST.

Just double sided the duct tape and then taped the seems. Works well. Used red for a bit of visability. Would preffer bright orange but I dont have it. Could make it a little sturdier with another 2 grams of tape but this looks like it will hold up for a fair amount of uses

Nice Saw btw Marc, where did you get it?

Marc can display bigger pictures,,,, It's kind'a hard to make out any detail of your saw

Just made the sheath a bit smaller by trimming it to its actual size... Dropped a gram. Nothing great. Works well though!

I'll likely just hang it from my bag though. So im back to its original weight. Its also small enough to jam it into a side pocket.

Yeah just used a small carabiner to hook it up to my molle bag that I also plan use to use to tension my new tarp to a tree. Just a very small .5 gram one. Dropped 2.5 grams in total calculating sheath vs carabiner.

1/8"x1" aluminum strap cut to 1/2". Cut off 8d duplex nails for rivits.

Thought I could improve on my own by doing something along those lines.

Mine still comes in at 1.6 ounces and 1.63 ounces with the carabiner to hook it to my molle pack.

Your design is obviously for the long run, however I think the blade itself will runn out before my paracord does. I have a pretty solid bond with one layer of the paracord using Gorilla Glue.

Though for the weight, I could carry an extra blade at .8 ounces and re-utilize the paracord in case my blade broke. Only the first layer is lost due to the glue. There is 4 feet of paracord that is easily removed if needed.

Great little contraptions though arent they. I just went outside and sawed a few 3 inch trees just for the hell of it. Just like butter!

10-12 seconds per

(edit) with a little pushing force

Edited by coreyfmiller on 02/19/2010 21:00:59 MST.

I think I saw the paracord design on youtube or somewhere.
The paracord for the handle reduces the useable length of the
blade thus the aluminum handle. If these blades are as robust as regular sawzall blades breakage is not an issue. The teeth also look big enough to be filed and set so you wouldn't have to change the blade.

Just found a video of a guy making the same sort of idea. he had much more excess paracord on the end when the same amount could have been used for the grip.

Looking at my simple design. (Im sure someone has done this before) I would much rather have that extra cord around the handle instead of non functional peice of paracord on the end

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBKBa5BUz5c

posterboard or whatever they call it, with the waxy coat works great for knife sheaths, light weight and cheap. Might not last forever, but hard to beat value.

Obviously not waterproof.

There are several versions of wire camping saws out there. I have one for emergencies that I've used once or twice to good effect. There are some tricks one must learn for effective use though.
The lightest one I've used (not shown) weighs about half an ounce. The one in the picture is heavier, but also more aggressive.

Edited by herman666 on 02/22/2010 20:01:26 MST.