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There are portable buck saws on the market, but they suffer from three problems: 1. They are too small for heavy work, with typically only a 12" blade. 2. They are too heavy. You might argue otherwise, but they are over 20 times heavier than what I'm about to describe. 3. They are too expensive, with good quality collapsible ones in the $30-$40 range.
In this instructable I'll describe a fully functional buck saw you can make out of materials found in the wilderness plus a few light items you need to bring with you.
Step 1Materials
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The following materials are required to build the saw
Bring:
- 18" to 24" buck saw blade ($5 at most hardware stores)
- 2 large cotter pins
- 4ft of strong cordage
Find on site:
- 1 forked branch about the length of the saw blade and about 1" in diamter
- 2 straight branches about 12" long and about 1" in diameter
- 1 straight branch about 6" long and 1/2" in diameter
Branches should be dead, well seasoned, dry wood. Other than the branches found on site, the weight is negligible. The space taken up in a pack is negligible. I wrap my blade in a big coil around the inside bottom of my pack inside a simple sheath made of cardboard. To avoid losing the cotter pins, they can be tied to the saw blade to holes that exist at either end.
I will definitely try, perhaps I'll be proven wrong :)
My experience is that saws and hatchets are things people bring camping only to impress their friends or to make obscenely large fires for no particular reason. I get by quite nicely with a sturdy full tang knife and an improvised mallet to hit it with. Till you've seen a knife used in this fashion you won't believe how infinitely more versatile it becomes.
I bring a saw blade along just in case I feel like practicing/demonstrating some knife-craft and bind-craft by building yet another saw frame, the construction of which is generally much more impressive and interesting than the cutting (and subsequent burning) of any wood.
Still, a nice build. Using a 'Spanish windlass' to tighten the frame is a nice touch.