A week ago I found myself spending two days inside and around a hut .
Lots of snow about and a lovely big fire place inside so I needed to cut some wood as I was spending the days there experimenting with my Notch and a few other bits.
A mate had a hand saw , similar to the "ribbon " type but made with the chain of a chain saw..
That sort of worked but it was hard going so I thought of making my own.
I was aiming for something light and compact, easy to store and assemble and ...cheap.
(good enough for say around 10cm /4" logs)
This is it , the Little Ripper :




Just under 100g/ 3.5oz
I will shoot a You Tube video just to give me something to do this afternoon.
Franco
video clip :
little Ripper

Edited by Franco on 07/09/2012 22:37:14 MDT.

Based on the blade profile that appears to be from a sawzall type blade. Is that correct?

If so, is it the bimetal or the wood blade.

Hi Tim ,

Yes it is a reciprocating type blade used in demolition work , it is meant to be able to cut wood and metal (nails)
Not exactly sure why I bought that , but it kind of looked the part to me.
Needless to say , I know nothing about cutting wood apart from my usual "well that looks about right" kind of attitude...
The idea was more about coming up with something light and compact , easy and fast to assemble , as for the blade someone that actually does have a clue could suggest something better...
Franco

Edited by Franco on 07/10/2012 18:12:53 MDT.

Franco, Milwaukee also makes a pruning blade (for cutting limbs and green wood) or a Fleam ground blade for cutting "clean" or engineered woods that's supposedly faster cutting that other saws. Both of these may be a bit more purpose specific than the general blade, but really any saw will cut most wood (ironwoods can be tricky, i've seen chainsaws defeated by them!).

http://www.milwaukeetool.com/tools/sawzallreciprocating-saws/sawzall-blades/specialty-sawzall-blades-and-accessories/9-inch-5-tpi-pruning-sawzall-blades-(5-pk)/48-00-1301

http://www.milwaukeetool.com/tools/sawzallreciprocating-saws/sawzall-blades/wood-cutting-sawzall-blades/6-inch-6-tpi-fleam-ground-sawzall-blades-(5-pk)/48-00-5015

I would think you could definitely find a better blade than the one you're using.

Your design is basically a small version of a Sven saw. Most are around 16oz. Nice job designing a smaller one with such low weight!

Franco,
That is the best idea yet for a ultra light weight saw using a reciprocating saw blade. What's funny Is I have owned and worked with my Saws All for over 30 years and their are other members who work construction we never thought of it. I guess being stranded in hut in winter has it's advantages to think of a better way for a light weight way to saw wood congratulations.
Thank you,
Terry

That's pretty darn clever, Franco!

This will definitely be my next project. I was just about to google UL backpacking saws before I saw this. Great little saw Franco!!

Thanks for the comments.
I was about to make one using PVC pipes or something similar, the idea was to nest one side inside the other however storing the blade was still a problem.
Somehow at the hardware store I found myself next to the aluminium strips and pipes so that is when the idea of using the al strip came up.
The only hard part was to drill a hole in the blade tip .
That also happened by chance.
My drill bit became red hot and so did the blade tip.. letting that cool down made that part of the blade softer
(I had no idea about annealing , it just happened)
The other accidental discovery was that the spine is the same size as the blade so I could (following on to a suggestion from Dryer at the Backpacking forum..) if I wanted use a lighter wood only blade and store a metal blade on that spine.
Something like this :

(obviously cut to fit...)
That 9" blade is a standard length so you could have two blades (if stiff enough) and just turn the handle upside down

Sven saw..
(I had to look that up..)
The two designs I had in mind were the H version by Rob Kelly
http://www.qiwiz.net/saws.html

and the Buck Saw by Steve Evans :
http://www.suluk46.com/RandD%20-%20RD32%20Ultralight%20Carbon%20Fiber%20Buck%20Saw.html
Having those two in mind I deliberately not researched any other just to come up with my own version.
As it often happens someone else has already done that ..
When I finished building it, I had a look at Google images under "hand saw" , found nothing there but just tried "compact saw" and the Sven came up.
This was the saw that made me do it :


The problem with that it was hard work and you need two hands .
Franco

Edited by Franco on 07/11/2012 19:10:08 MDT.

A carbide tip metal drilling bit works great with a drop of machine oil to help in cutting through the hardened steel. For safety make sure you clamp blade down so it does not catch and propeller on you. I speak from experience when I was a kid I did not own a drill press or vice,I had some small bar steel becomes a lethal rotary whacker so a blade would become rotary cutting machine.
Terry

Edited by socal-nomad on 07/12/2012 10:41:03 MDT.