Talk:Saw

Disambiguation / Subject Re-structuring

The following is discussed in the context of the WP:DISAMBIG guidelines.

The current structure of the page Saw is trying to be too many things. It is: a brief history of use and development of saw-blade tools, a definition of the traits as a sawing tool, a description of how teeth of a saw cut - while not excluding the grinding/shaving action of an "abrasive saw", and an index for tools & tool parts that are broadly referred to as "Saws". Zengrain (talk) 10:20, 5 July 2012 (UTC)

This page would be improved in both clarity and function by containing a brief definition and history of a saw-type device (blade body, sharpened teeth, kerf loss and distinguished from other edge tools as chisels, adzes, etc) and in a hatnote directing reader to the appropriate related pages such as: Saw (machine), Saw (tool), Abrasive saw, Sawing (process). Zengrain (talk) 10:20, 5 July 2012 (UTC)

Move Informartion

Should some (or much) of the detailed information in this entry be moved to more specific entries, such as "Hand Saw"? Thoughts?

I'm not sure what you mean by detailed information other than the stuff on saw terminology that applies to most saws. I think that it does belong here rather than repeating it in every article. The rest is just a brief description of each type of saw, with the appropriate link. I do think that this article needs to mention concrete saws, masonry and rock saws as well as some mention of metalworking applications. Luigizanasi 04:54, 3 November 2005 (UTC)

Table Saw vs. Cabinet Saw

The entry for Table saw addresses Cabinet saws as a subset of table saws, which is how I always understood them. However, this entry suggests that a cabinet saw is a similar but different machine. Anyone disagree with this? cbustapeck 19:30, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

Kerf

The current definition seems to include serrated knives:

A saw is a tool for cutting wood or other material, consisting of a serrated blade (a blade with the cutting edge dentated or toothed) and worked either by hand or by steam, water, electric or other power.

I propose changing it to

A saw is a tool for cutting wood or other rigid material consisting of a serrated blade which removes material to make way for the remainder of the blade.

That is, it seems like a saw is defined by the fact that it removes its kerf; the only other way to cut hard materials is with an axe or a shear. Thoughts? —Ben FrantzDale 15:36, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

A serrated knife is not a saw, as it splits material like an axe, adze, fro, wedge or straight knife. Serrations are different from saw teeth in several important ways: (a) they do not create a kerf (void) as wide or wider than the body of the blade, (b) the progress of the cut is not proportionate to the travel of the serrations across the material and (c) are used primarily to reduced the resistance of the material to penetration. Zengrain (talk) 10:20, 5 July 2012 (UTC)

Kerf and set are not the same thing. An unset saw removes material the width of the teeth from the material, this is a kerf. If the saw is set (the teeth splayed wider than the thickness of the blade body) then a wider kerf will occur. Zengrain (talk) 10:20, 5 July 2012 (UTC)

Is there an important difference between a serrated knofe and a saw? ike9898 16:33, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

Coping Saw vs Jigsaw

Do americans call thier motorised hand held Jigsaws Coping Saws? - the coping saw is stricly for the unmotorised version.Erlyrisa 07:47, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

Not that I know of or in any of the references I have seen. It's either jigsaw, saber/sabre saw or bayonet saw. Luigizanasi 14:56, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

I believe Erlyrisa was referring to a group of hand tools known as frame saws. These include bow, frame, panel (yet another), hack, coping, jig, fret, and jeweler's saws. Since the 1800s most hack, coping, jig, fret and jeweler's saws have a bent (sometimes cast) metal frame. Before the 1800s and less often since, the frame was wood. The terms coping, jig, fret and jeweler's saw are used interchangeably in practice, however a jeweler's saw is almost always adjustable in either it's length, depth or both. The others can be adjustable in these dimensions but are not required or regularly found to be. Zengrain (talk) 10:31, 5 July 2012 (UTC)

Who invented the saw?

Did the Romans have access to the saw? Were the pyramids built without the saw? Was it invented in the bronze age, or the iron age? This article about Norse Longships declares they were constructed using axes, as the "Vikings" lacked the saw. Why would they not have it, who invented it, and when?

Animal jaws were used as saws by my ancestors, and many other ancient peoples. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 156.34.169.85 (talk) 05:54, 5 November 2010 (UTC)

Second paragraph wrong on a number of counts

The second paragraph talks about the "set" of the saw is:

In a modern serrated saw, each tooth is bent to a precise angle called its "set". The set of the teeth is determined by the kind of cut the saw is intended to make. For example a "rip saw" has a tooth set that is similar to the angle used on a chisel. The idea is to have the teeth rip or tear the material apart. Some teeth are usually splayed slightly to each side the blade, so that the cut width (kerf) is wider than the blade itself and the blade does not bind in the cut.

This is wrong on a number of counts:

1. All saws are serrated; if a saw weren't serrated, it would be a knife
2. The "set" of the saw has nothing to do with crosscut versus rip; the set is the "splay" described (somewhat confusingly) in the last sentence
3. The difference between crosscut and rip saws is the rake angle (how far the leading edge of each tooth tips back from being perpendicular to the edge of the blade) and the presence or absence of fleam or bevel (the sharp side angle on each crosscut tooth)

--Dan Griscom (talk) 01:49, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

Except that... not all Saws are serrated? Abrasive Saws, for example, use an abrasive edge, rather than a serrated one (this is actually stated in the article). I can't chime in on the rest of what yous aid though. Pyrotics (talk) 20:40, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

The set is different between rip and crosscut saws. Rip saws have little or no set (splay); crosscut saws have definite set (splay). Hu (talk) 01:05, 26 July 2009 (UTC)

Other

what about SAW - submerged arch welding... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.91.53.41 (talk) 12:01, 21 November 2008 (UTC)

It should also be noted that no further discussion of "Abrasive saw" should be on this page as it is nomenclature, but redirected as suggested above. This is due to the mechanical action of and abrasive saw is different than that of an actual saw. In order for an abrasive saw to be included by definition as a saw, saw would need to be defined as: any tool which separates material and leaves a kerf. This would make a 2" wide grinding wheel, a file and an abrasive water-jet cutter saws, which they are accepted as not being. Zengrain (talk) 10:20, 5 July 2012 (UTC)

Terminology

Why the heck does good stuff like this get edited out of articles like Saw: Terminology? Hu (talk) 01:09, 26 July 2009 (UTC)

Because nobody was watching a major page: Restoring Terminology section that was deleted by anon IP vandal 72.192.23.134 on 24 October 2008 and never restored! Hu (talk) 01:18, 26 July 2009 (UTC)

History

Restoring History section that was deleted by anon IP vandal 72.192.23.134 on 24 October 2008 and never restored! Hu (talk) 01:22, 26 July 2009 (UTC)

What doesn't move?

Would anyone like to defend or justify the following peculiar statement before I remove it? Mechanically powered saws are different from hand saws in that the blade moves while the wood remains stationary. Cheers, Bjenks (talk) 01:46, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

you are right. I was trying to describe the sawing motion where the user has to physically push the blade back and forth through the wood. the downward stroke cuts whereas the upstroke does not usually cut. In comparison, the mechanical saw blade does not cut with this technique, the saw continues cutting in a downward motion so that "wood does not move".

If you can word it better please do, and thank you for your dedication to Wikipedia. l santry (talk) 16:23, 11 March 2011 (UTC)

Hmm. I felt the problem would disappear by just removing the sentence. Your revised wording on power saws, using a forward stroke, with no reverse stroke has the advantage of not being logically questionable like the past version. But is it not the case that some power saws (jig saws/reciprocating saws) do have a back-cut stroke? (I have only common forward-moving power saws myself and have limited knowledge of other types, preferring to use hand saws, especially a Japanese backsaw, for careful work.) Cheers, Bjenks (talk) 09:55, 12 March 2011 (UTC)

tree saw / bush saw

is miisng her eis a pic http://www.bushranger.com.au/bush_saw.php#.V1GFP0J97IU mentioned in this article: Cleaning (forestry) and this one silviculture - I do not want to add it without a picture - anyone got one go ahead and fix links etc! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 141.244.83.168 (talk) 13:30, 3 June 2016 (UTC)

push/pull

It would be good to further sort saw types by push/pull. 95.178.215.9 (talk) 16:18, 10 February 2020 (UTC)

extend hatnote?

WikiNav for Saw indicates that in October '23, there were 2.74k identified clickstreams towards the disambiguation hatnote. WikiNav for Saw (disambiguation) in turn shows that most of this could be about the lookups of the Saw movie franchies and the '04 movie. Should we add these topics to the hatnote to short-circuit them, at least for a while? The page views for these big topics indicate these spikes to be transient, but they are pretty noticable, esp. on top of already significant baseline traffic. --Joy (talk) 14:12, 3 January 2024 (UTC)