Tool Review - The Stanley 10 inch Fine Finish Saw

The more I practice sawing, the more I am amazed at the precision hand saws are capable of. Practice of course is essential but so is the quality of the saw. Having purchased an assortment of relatively cheap saws, including a few Japanese ones, it is abundantly clear to me that some saws suit me while others do not. 

Saws that do not work for me are not necessarily bad or of inferior quality; it is just that I find them difficult to make accurate cuts. For instance, handling large rip saws is not my forte; they require too much effort to cut and generally do not follow my line. For large rip cuts I would most certainly use my benchtop table saw but for smaller cuts, finer ones and those for joinery, the hand saw is the best option. 

I recently came across a smallish, 10 inch long, Stanley saw in a shop and purchased it for Rs 600. The blade cover said it was a “SharpTooth, Fine Finish” saw. The teeth configuration in this and other similar saws is called “SharpTooth” by Stanley and is a patented innovation of an “Aggressive 3-sided tooth design”, although they somewhat resemble some types of Japanese saw teeth. 

The product description claims “SharpTooth™ Technology cuts on push and pull strokes and is up to 50% faster than traditional tooth designs”. It also says that the saw can be used to cut plastic pipe, and all wood types. It also has “Induction hardened teeth stay sharp 3 to 5 times longer than standard teeth”.

I picked it up more on curiosity than anything else and wanted to test it against my Japanese saws. My first impression was that the Stanley saw blade was significantly thicker than that of its Japanese counterparts. The teeth were longer and looked more aggressive.

The Stanley Saw makes a clean cut with minimal effort

I tried the Stanley saw on plywood and was amazed to find how fast is ripped through, much faster than Japanese or my other saws. The blade also proved to be stiff and did not bend unless I forced it to. But the best part was the excellent cut it produced. The saw kerf was of course distinctly wider than that of Japanese saws or my Gents saw but in many cases a thin kerf is irrelevant. I was cutting a slot and it did not matter if the kerf was thick or thin; what did was whether the curve was straight and clean. It was.

In all this is a great general purpose saw and would be extremely useful in most hobbyists’ tool kits.

Indranil Banerjie

8 August 2013

A small multi-purpose saw