If you're thinking about getting a handsaw, there are a few things you should keep in mind when making your choice. What follows are just some simple tips and common sense to help make your choice a little easier to make. Of course, when it doubt, tell a professional what the saw will be used for and ask his advice.



With so many different handsaws to choose from, just what makes up a good set that will be able to handle the variety of tasks that you're likely to run into? Well, that has a lot to do with just what it is you're expecting to do. If you want to be prepared for the most common tasks these are the saws that the experts recommend.

You should start off with a good crosscut saw. This is your basic saw for most tasks. You'll probably want to get a standard 26 inch saw with 8 to 10 points. These saws are very common, easy to get and you can probably even get one used on the vintage saw market.

If you're a woodworker you're probably going to want to have at least one backsaw. Most woodworkers will actually have several of these with different blade and point sizes. If you're a beginner then a 14 to 16 inch saw with 10 to 12 points is a good start. It's large enough to use with a mitre box but small enough to be used for finer joinery chores. These aren't quite as common on the vintage tool market but you can still find them if you look hard enough.

Another saw you should have in your collection is a coping saw, especially if you're planning to do a lot of curved cutting. These are also very useful saws for certain joinery tasks. Coping saws are very delicate, so finding one on the vintage tool market is very hard. You may need to go out and get yourself a new one.

A rip saw is invaluable if you're planning to do any ripping. You might want to get a standard 26 inch saw with 5 to 7 points. These are fairly common on the used saw market so you shouldn't have trouble picking one up cheap.

The above would constitute a standard basic set and should take care of just about any chore you run across. If you have a few extra bucks and want to add onto this set, the following saws will also come in handy.

A good addition is a Dovetail saw, which is a form of a backsaw. These are great for doing fine joinery. You probably want to get one that is 8 to 10 inches.

Adding a fret saw is also a good idea. You can do much larger work with these than with an ordinary coping saw. These are very useful for marquetry.

Many woodworkers like what is called a rip cut backsaw. These are backsaws that are filed for ripping. These are kind of hard to come by but any good saw shop should be able to recut the teeth of a crosscut saw to give you what you're looking for.

With the above saws in your collection, there is little chance you'll run into a job that you won't be able to do.