Want to Buy Old Fashioned Crosscut Saw
The Crosscut Saw: Still the All-time Tool for Some Wild Jobs
The crosscut saw is a workhorse of backcountry forestry and trail maintenance. But due to its tiny niche in the cutting market, finding a quality crosscut is harder than always.
For meliorate or worse, the crosscut saw is a legend of American forestry. Post-obit west expansion, the humble, no-gasoline, human-powered crosscut took down some of North America'southward most massive Douglas firs, redwoods, and sequoias.
Even after the chainsaw displaced information technology in the 1950s, the saw retains a small but devoted following. For trail crews working in designated wilderness areas, where motors are prohibited, crosscuts are still essential.
And withal, to find a quality saw-maker nowadays, you accept to go all the fashion to the other stop of the world (more than on this later). Only for those who rely on this valuable tool for work in the backcountry, the chase for crosscut saws often winds through unexpected storefronts.
Vintage Crosscut Saws: The Go-To for Trail Crews
Dolly Chapman has been working on trails since 1977. In her career with the U.S. Wood Service, she's led crosscut crews in four dissimilar national forests. 1 of the few remaining professional crosscut sharpeners around, Chapman receives mitt-mailed saws from customers all over the state.
The differences between a vintage saw and a modern saw, she said, are legion. Vintage saws were made from top-quality steel, while mod saws are made of thin, soft sheet metal. Yesterday'south saw teeth were set in an arc, giving each tooth an equal cut, while new ones are ready in a directly line.
Vintage saw teeth were stamped out evenly, and modern ones aren't. Old saws were taper-ground, creating less friction with the wood and therefore less work for the sawyer. New saws are apartment-ground.
To Chapman, the reason for these mod failings is obvious: "A friend of mine said he asked an possessor of a saw company, 'Why practise you make such junk?' And the owner said, 'Considering people buy it.'"
Antiquing for Saws
But these minor reductions in quality add up. Around the state, trail crew leaders hunt for vintage saws wherever they can find them.
U.S. Forest Service volunteer David Roe instructs trail crews on crosscut apply in Oregon and Washington. For him, finding quality vintage saws is function of the fun.
"Sometimes I take road trips just to look for saws," said Roe, who lives in western Oregon. "I'll drive downward Highway 49 in California and finish in every secondhand store in every pocket-sized town forth the way."
He's not alone. Trail crew leaders across the U.S. make a veritable sport of crosscut hunting in antique shops, garage sales, eBay, and thrift stores. The real thrill, though, isn't in the search. It's in the teamwork and the calming rhythm of rakers grinding out strings of fresh tree meat on a trail 6 miles from the nearest route.
"Chainsaws are work. Crosscut saws are practice," Chapman said, quoting a friend. "With a chainsaw, there's no relaxation. You've got the noise and pull of the engine, and fast activity. With crosscut sawing, at that place's a relaxation and using your large muscles and making the tool do the work."
Diehards bated, it's still a niche marketplace. Nevertheless, there is some good news for the crosscut, if non for the climate it works in. As fire seasons abound longer and drier in the West, more and more crews are relying on crosscut saws when burn down danger prohibits chainsaw use. Roe has been seeing more requests for preparation courses for that reason.
Desire a New Crosscut? Head to New Zealand
Chapman said if you desire a quality modern saw, you lot have to go to Tuatahi Racing Axes & Saws in New Zealand.
The company, for its part, said its saws are more often than not made for competition sawing and lack some of the portability and ergonomics of a saw made for forest use. Short of that, you tin can head to the antiquarian store or await for a brave new entrepreneur to try to bring quality saw-making dorsum.
"Information technology'south an economic problem, non an engineering problem," Roe said. "We know we tin build them. I've built prototypes. They work swell. It's the financing of the equipment necessary to go started. I but have to hope that anytime I convince a visitor to pick upwardly where companies like Simonds Saw left off in 1952."
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