By Porter Lang
Start with the stroke. A Japanese saw cuts on the pull. Most Western saws cut on the push. Everything else about the tool follows from that one difference, and it is worth understanding before you look at a single blade.
Why pulling changes the blade
Canadian Woodworking, a magazine, says pulling keeps the blade in tension, so a thin blade is less likely to kink. Wikipedia puts the efficiency claim more cautiously: pull-stroke cutting is “claimed to cut more efficiently”, and Japanese blades are often thinner than traditional Western ones, which can leave a narrower kerf.
The magazine gives numbers. Blades average about 0.50 millimetres thick, roughly half the thickness of Western blades, and the kerf is typically only about 1 millimetre wider than the blade. Many blades are taper ground, thinner at the back than at the teeth, which reduces set and binding in deep cuts. Many are hard chrome plated for durability and rust resistance. It adds that the saws are lighter than comparable Western ones, so they tire the arm less over a long session.
The three shapes to know
All three sources agree on the main trio.
The ryoba is double-edged. One edge has teeth for ripping, along the grain, and the other has teeth for crosscutting, across it. Wikipedia says the name means double blade and calls it multi-purpose. A retailer’s guide calls it a versatile all-rounder and recommends it for beginners.
The kataba has teeth on one edge only and no spine. The retailer says that, lacking a rigid spine, it can make deep cuts in thick lumber. The magazine says the kerf is wider than a ryoba’s but the saw cuts faster.
The dozuki is a backsaw. A spine stiffens the thin blade and keeps it from flexing. Wikipedia says the name means attached trunk, and that the saw is designed for tenons and dovetails. The magazine calls it widely considered the most popular style, used for fine crosscuts, and the retailer ties it to straight cuts and joinery.
The rest of the family
Wikipedia lists more. The azebiki is a small ryoba with a convex curved blade, used for cutting into the flat of a board, as for mortises and grooves. The mawashibiki is a thin saw for curves, the equivalent of a keyhole saw. The kugihiki is a thin, flexible flush-cut saw with unset teeth, used to trim dowels and tenons flush to a surface.
Lengths
The sources do not quite agree. Wikipedia says a ryoba of about 240 millimetres suits general carpentry and about 270 millimetres suits larger work such as timber-frame joinery. The magazine gives typical ryoba lengths of 210 to 300 millimetres, dozuki blades of about 150 to 240, and overall lengths for backed saws of 150 to 260 millimetres. Both are plausible. We show them as they are.
Teeth
The magazine says rip teeth are chisel-like, longer and thinner than most Western rip teeth, and that longer blades have larger rip teeth. Crosscut teeth are knife-like and usually triple ground, and re-sharpening them takes a special file and a lot of patience. It also says some crosscut teeth are impulse hardened, which keeps the edge longer but means the teeth cannot be sharpened. Universal saws use a modified pattern for both ripping and crosscutting.
That last point matters. If a saw is described as impulse hardened, the sources say it is a blade you replace, not one you sharpen.
Replaceable blades
The magazine says Japanese saws are generally designed for easy blade replacement, though a few have non-replaceable blades. If teeth are bent or broken, the blade must be replaced. The retailer says interchangeable blade systems are mainstream for the kataba, with the same handle kept across swaps.
Handles
According to the magazine, handles are usually round or oval and straight. Wood handles are usually softwood, often paulownia, frequently wrapped in rattan, which it calls durable, flexible and splinter-resistant. Small saws often have beech handles. Non-slip plastic handles come in pistol-grip and straight styles, often on carpentry and pruning saws.
Starting a cut
Both the magazine and the retailer give the same method in different words. Start at the heel, the part of the blade nearest the handle. The magazine says to tilt the blade to about 15 degrees. The retailer says to make a light starting groove with the heel and to secure the wood, ideally with clamps. Both say to use long, smooth strokes with little pressure and let the saw cut. The retailer adds that you should slow down near the end of the cut to prevent splintering.
Care
The magazine says to use the blade guards for storage, and warns that the teeth are more brittle than Western saw teeth, so the saws should not be tossed onto benches or into toolboxes.
Hardwood and softwood
Wikipedia makes a historical point worth knowing. It says original Japanese saws were intended for comparatively soft woods such as cypress and pine, and the original arrangement of the teeth made them less suitable for hardwoods than push saws. It says modern pull saws, especially those with a reinforced steel spine, are efficient hardwood saws. The magazine notes that Japanese saws are no harder to master than Western ones.
Questions a buyer would ask
Which first? The retailer says ryoba, for beginners. Our reading: that fits the sources’ description of it as the multi-purpose saw. Can I sharpen it? Only if the teeth are not impulse hardened, according to the magazine. What if a tooth breaks? Replace the blade. Does a thin blade cut straight? The sources say a stiffened dozuki is the one for straight joinery cuts.
What kind of sources these are
Wikipedia, an open encyclopaedia. Canadian Woodworking, a magazine, which also describes specific models in a retail context that we left out. The retailer’s guide is a promotional blog post from a company that manufactures pull saws. None of the three is a maker’s technical sheet or a trade body, so none can speak for a particular saw.
What we left out
We left out all model names, tooth-per-inch figures and prices. We left out the sources’ remarks on where else pull saws are used, to keep the piece about Japan. We left out any history of the saw’s origin, because our sources give no dates. Wikipedia describes the city of Miki in Hyōgo as a metalworking centre since the early Edo period that promotes itself as a main production area for hand tools and hardware, but its page does not mention saws, and none of our saw sources mentions Miki, so we make no link.
Roam first. Shop later.