Saws

Anyone have a preferred backpacking saw? Obviously weight makes a difference.

I tried that cheap-o almost sandpaper on metal thing with the key rings on the ends and it didn't work and then broke.

Are they worth it to even carry?

Looking at folding/collapsible ones now.

Most of us don't carry saws, since this is a lightweight backpacking forum. It's generally recommended to use only dead and down wood for fires, and to use small sticks. The small stuff burns to ashes instead of lumps of charcoal, leaving less mess behind. A number of us backpack where fires are discouraged or forbidden and therefore use lightweight camp stoves.

I also once tried one of those little saws with the rings at each end, and agree that they are utterly useless!

There are a number of folding saws around; you'll have to decide if you'll use it enough to make it worthwhile to carry the weight.

On those exceedingly rare occasions that I take a saw along, I carry a Felco 60. It weighs about 4.5 oz and has a blade about 7" long that folds safely into a plastic handle. It is sharp and has stayed sharp for the last 8 years. I also use it for pruning around our property.

Do I think a saw is worth carrying? Other than for hunting trips, mostly no. And, unless my hunting trip turns into a finding trip and I need to cut up an animal, I have little use for the saw. I use a stove for most of my cooking and can scrounge fire wood for a cooking fire should I wish or need to use one. Small diameter wood is easy to find in most backpacking areas where fires are legal. The exception is around heavily-used campsites on some of the superhighway trails.

I carry a saw in preference to an axe or hatchet; I find a saw to be more efficient for cutting wood than either of the choppers.

There are several Swiss Army knives that have a saw blade included as part of the tool kit. I have a SAK with a saw blade. It serves adequately for cutting stuff up to perhaps an inch in diameter; so, its good for small-fire fuel. The SAK weighs about 3.5 oz, doesn't cut as well as the Felco 60 and has a lot of other relatively useless blades that you get to carry.

If you want to make a light saw, go to Home Depot and get a long wood-cutting blade for a Sawzall reciprocating saw and make a lightweight handle for that. I have seen saws with a 6" blade and 3/4" dowel handle that weigh about 2 oz.

The wire saws are worthless.

When I do trail maintenance I carry a Fiskar pruning saw for branches up to about 6". Over that I carry a chain saw.

http://www.rei.com/product/775079

For normal 3 season hiking I carry a mini Sierra saw - about 1.5 oz., but I have not used it in years.

Pretty much the only time I ever carry a saw is on day hikes, usually early in the season before trail crews have had a chance to do any maintenance work, on which occasions I carry a folding pruning saw similar to the ones mentioned already. I use it exclusively for the purpose of doing informal trail maintenance, by pruning away at deadfall branches.

Obviously, a small folding pruning saw can't saw through a 2-foot diameter tree trunk in order to completely clear a trail, but it can clear enough branches to open a way to step over the tree more easily, allowing people to stay on the trail, rather than making off-trail detours that eventually trample a secondary path around the obstacle.

While car camping I rarely need or use a saw, but I usually have the same pruning saw in my gear, or else a nifty folding buck saw I bought from Lee Valley Tools. They come in handy from time to time.

I agree with the saw for trail maintenance! I generally carry loppers (I was given 15" Fiskar's Power Gear loppers, recommended by local trail maintenance folks, for Christmas, and they are wonderful!), but have been known to carry a folding pruning saw, too. I only do this on day hikes, though. It's good to have something that is useful around home and yard, too!

Aimless has made an excellent point about clearing at least enough of the obstruction so people can get over (or under) the log without leaving the trail! It takes only a few people going around to wear a "social" trail and (if on a hillside) cause erosion on the real trail.

I find the saw on my Leatherman Wave to be a very good cutter. I carry the Wave most of the time, finding it quite handy when I have to deal with ski bindings and the like. But I have gone for miles and miles without any need for a saw of any sort.

I think it depends a great deal on *why* you want to carry a saw. Is it to cut significant amounts of firewood each night? Or is it to do trail maintenance? Or is it for emergency use only?

In shoulder season and winter day hikes I like to carry the mini sierra saw that Ringtail mentioned for the latter (emergency use) reason, as it's quite light. For other cutting one wants a somewhat more robust saw with a longer blade, hence --- stating why you want to carry it will help folks give better feedback.

I carry a fiskars folder or a noname folding pruning saw when hunting.. For just "squaw wood" gathering for a small stove or small fires when winter camping, I prefer a small axe. I never bother with the silly wire saw, You'd to better with a good knife.

If I'm going out for serious winter - with sled, and lots of cold, I take a bow saw - nothing can make more firewood other than a chainsaw

There is another thread about saws in the winter forum. I never carry one, but I have one I could take if I thought it would be useful-a folding Japanese saw. Most parks in the US don't allow cutting wood and many don't allow fires at all, so a saw is useless for trips in those parks.

I really don't get it. I have always, not a single exception, been able to gather enough firewood by gathering and breaking up enough firewood without either a saw or hatchet. On a few occasions these have been emergency bivouacs where we wanted to keep a fire going all night long. The closest to using a tool was to employ a big rock to break a propped log in two. It was a wonderfully primal experience. I chortled that no archaeologist would ever be able to detect that my rock was employed as a tool, and thus would never discover that rangers are tool users, just like chimpanzees.

And yes, don't pack a saw in national parks. If detected, the ranger will make you carry his pack to the trail head as weas forcing you to cook over fires fueled with items from your possessions.

I have never camped in winter in a Canadian woodland and I suppose one might be handy there, especially if you are in a base camp (most of my camps are pretty base, I am told), but for "normal" backpacking, if there is such a thing, I just don't see packing a saw....

And yes, I concur - I never carry one when normally backpacking - even when I am building fires.

when it's 20 below - well, that's when I want a little more firewood than I can dig out from under the snow

For backpacking, I have a saw on my SAK multitool. I never buy a SAK without a saw.