Tooth shapes – Bow saw blades

Bow saw blades are normally available in 2 different types. Straight toothed and raker toothed. G-Man Tools is offering both types also with different tooth sizes. Straight toothing is recommended for seasoned wood, whereas raker toothing is a better choice for green wood.

Length – Tooth size

The lenght of the saw should be adjusted to the tooth size, meaning that a longer saw can have bigger teeth, and a shorter saw smaller teeth. The hand saw toothing is measured in number of teeth/inch and varies from 3,5 up to 13 teeth per inch. To make it easy, one could say that 3,5 to 5 teeth per inch are suitable for rough cutting, 6-8 teeth per inch for allround cutting 9-11 teeth for fine carpentry 12 teeth and more are suitable for very fine carpentry. Fewer teeth gives a faster cutting but a more coarse cut and consequentely more teeth reduces the cutting ability but gives a finer cut.