Anyone familiar with these saws?

[mr dazzler]

Interesting outcome Wayland! I know that many tree surgeons swear by those silky saws and dont use anything else for hand pruning. Are the teeth set or is the blade flat sided? What is the seceret of their eficient cutting?
BTW Spamel, the disston I used is a standard sized 28", doesnt weigh much more than a sandvik . I have a couple of larger crosscuts which are one or 2 man usable, plus some massive felling saws which will likely never get used for that purpose....seeing as my logs dont go much above 8 or 12 inch, I dont really need a bigger saw.

 

[SOAR]

The blades on the laplander and the silky are very different, laplanders are a different metal which tends to bend Silkys can tend to snap the tip of if your not careful, Silkys are chrome plated so the dont rust, not sure about the laplander. The teeth on the laplander are 8 per inch and silkys can tend to vary depending on what saw you buy and the type of wood you wish to cut, ie the one you can get for fruit trees has more per inch for a finer cut, some have about 6.5per inch they, the angles on the teeth are similar but the silky has another angle on the end of the teeth, hard to explain so heres a couple of photos. Also the angles on the silkys teeth are more of an angle on the side cutters.

The blade on the laplander

the blade on the silky (this one is the Gomtaro fixed blade)

The silky gets my vote every time for speed of cut.
If you want a faster cut and want to keep the calories get one of these.

 

[FGYT]

my gerber has the same teethe as the silky and definatly cuts better than a laplander but alos can be snapped if your not carefull
comes with 2 blades on with fine teeth ideal for antler and a course one ideal for green wood

ATB

Duncan

 

[Oblio13]

Well, I bought one and posted a succinct review here:

http://oblio13.blogspot.com/2009/10/gear-that-works-silky-katanaboy-folding.html

In fact, I'm typing this from a tent pitched along the Susquehanna river in Pennsylvania. I just discovered that I get wireless service here, although the nearest house is quite a ways away.

It's raining hard, and my dog and I are making ourselves cozy with the woodstove and a candle going.

Used the Silky saw to cut up some driftwood I collected along the bank, I'm liking it better and better.

Interesting aside: Have been doing some research here on a couple of my wife's ancestors, one of whom was killed by indians and buried in an unmarked grave in 1778 very near here. I'll post more about it with some pics in a few days.

 

[mr dazzler]

Thanks for posting the pictures SOAR!
The silky clearly doesnt have any set, but does the laplapnder have it? Its hard to tell but it looks like there is wear on every alternate tooth...The lap has regular cross cut slopes on its teeth, but the silky has almost vertcal teeth maybe 86 or 87 degrees so that will definately contribute to an aggressive faster cut. Is the silky sometimes harder to start? Japanese saws are more brittle, the teeth do tend to break off BUT they tend to last longer, swings and roundabouts horses for courses. I have used several of the shark pull saws, they easily outlast jet cuts/profcuts/bahco etc in terms of durability of cutting edge.

 

[SOAR]

To be fair the silky blade in the pic is pretty worn but it will still cut better than the laplander, tbh you never really have much trouble starting the cut with the silky as the push cut marks the wood well enough for the pull cut to do its stuff, you can easily cut of small branches with one pull cut you just have to make sure your other hand is no where near as they can give you one nasty rash

 

[CaptainBeaky]

Another vote for the Silky - I have a PocketBoy. Recently cut a load of willow for teaching the local Scouts carving - up to 4" thick branches, with no problem at all using this saw.
Beats the Bahco hands down.
Oh, and yes - they bite