The best saw for a total beginner , for sure is an issue which needs realistic approach and a mentality to fill all the “gaps” .
Except all the above the woodworking hobby – activity , has a very huge knowledge “database” and it has a very significant differentiation than other hobbies , maybe .
What is the Best Saw choice for a Beginner , to assist him at his first woodworking steps ?
The best saw for a beginner , should be a hand saw , the folding type or not , with medium TPI ( teeth per inch) and a comfort handle for your hands , you can buy from everywhere . It is the “common” hand saw with wooden handle or not , you can find in any woodworking store and not only .
See my top panel – backsaws suggestions & more in HERE .
Why the hand saw is the best saw for a Beginner ?
Your first saw , should be a hand saw for many reasons . Without it , how can you separate the wood branch – log from its tree ?
When you want to learn the basics , you start learning from best possible “teacher” , which in your case is the hand saw .
What is the meaning of having the best quality saw , if you don’t know how to use it ? What is the purpose to have a Ferrari , if you don’t know how to drive ?
1) It is cheap . You can find it everywhere , pay a few bucks and have a hand saw with a basic good quality for your cuts .
2) Because of its “lightness” , not only you can carry it easily , but also you can manage and control it , with all the possible ways and places .
You can act with your hand saw in your warehouse with the same easiness , as you can in the forest searching for free wood – always legally .
Women or men , strong or more weak , young or older one , et.c , everyone . It is super light and everyone can pick it up and carry it .
3) Its lightness and the medium TPI for its “teeth” , are the reasons you can act with it , so easily in all angles , in all heights , in all cutting circumstances you’ll face in your beginning .
The medium TPI will make your cuts very easy , for smaller branches , for boards , et.c , the same for the bigger ones .
4) The hand saw , will teach you how to cut straight . Why in your first cutting “attemps” , you cutted awry , so you can fix your mistake .
It’ll teach you how you should stabilize your wood branch to cut it easily and the most important with safety .
5) The hand saw will teach you to manage your body strengths , if you want to cut many branches , in a row . If you get tired from the continuous cuttings , the last branches will be cutted awry with big posibilites .
6) The hand saw will teach you , how the wood’s grain is reacting to your chosen cutting positions and what cut positions are the best to make “surgical” cuts .
7) The hand saw will teach you , how to cut the “hard” types of wood and how the “soft” ones .
It’ll also teach you that if you want to cut a very hard wood piece ( the very old and well dried wood is like cement ) , if you lubricate with some oil drops inside the cut’s gap or in the hand saw’s blade , your muscular effort will be way less .
8) The hand saw will teach you , from where to start cutting so during your cutting progress , the cutting gap won’t “close” and “imprisons” your hand saw’s blade inside it .
This is a very common mistake we all do and of course the wood – metalic wedges are helping us the most .
The Woodworker , always searches , always learning .
The woodworker is kind like a doctor , who needs to learn and evolute continuously , during his lifetime .
I suppose he’s like more than a surgeon and if you see the woodworking projects , the wood artists do with only some chainsaws and hand saws , you’ll see what i mean .
So it’s very important in your first steps , to learn the basics as better as you can , no matter how many mistakes you’ll make . Don’t fall into the “trap” of beginning trying to make kind of complex and high difficlulty, wood plans .
Your first attemps should be your wood knowldege “baptism” and not showing off “stuff” .
Learn woodworking , starting from the Basics .
I strongly believe that , when you enter into a new territory and you want to learn , you should begin with the basics . These basics will be the solid columns of your knowledge in this new era .
If you don’t know and understand 100% the basics very well , you’ll see that you’ll find difficulties to evolute to more complex knowledge .
First you learn to walk and then you learn to run !!!! Never the oppossite . If you have this mentality , you’ll see that woodworking isn’t hard to learn , at all . There are many saw labels outhere , but in your first steps , don’t “stress” with that .
Keep Woodworking , keep learning and happiness will never let you down .