When I first tried cutting hand joinery, I didn’t know how. Determined as hell, I grabbed a Spear & Jackson handsaw from my high school days and tried to make some cuts. Besides the fact that my S&J had never been sharpened, the less said about my results the better.
I now have mainstream and custom handsaws in my shop and have cut thousands of joints by hand. The process of learning and practising handsaw use can be both satisfying and frustrating.
There is no ‘best’ saw. Saws have different features that suit a variety of circumstances from handle shape to material hardness to experience level (photo 1). But there are ‘better’ saws and certainly better techniques.
In this article we’re looking at the use of any saw with a reinforced back – also called backsaws. There are lots of names for such saws which are based loosely on size and intended function, for example, dovetail, carcase and tenon.
Why bother with handsaws at all? Truth be told, sometimes it is).
