Japanese Saws - Their use, Types of saws, Which one to get first
If I start to remember now, one of the things that triggered me to get into woodworking were definitely the Japanese saws. I don’t know, something about them fascinated me so much, either was their unusual shape of a saw, or the bamboo rolled handle that looked like you were holding a sword in your hand or was the precision and cleanness of the cut seen in some folks videos. Eventually when I put my hands on the first Ryoba I got all of these preconceived ideas became true, they are some amazing tools to use!
Let us go through each type:
The Ryoba
The particularity of this saw is that the blade has two cutting edges, one for crosscut and one for ripcut. Usually the blade’s length varies between 240-300 mm (8-12”) so this makes it ideal for deeper cuts into the wood. These saws are made mostly for rough cuts, carpentry, resawn or dimensioning wood. It is ideally if you work only with handtools, and not have a table saw or a band saw to prepare your wood to the desirable size. Also, there is no reason why it shouldn’t be used on finer work, like joinery, but being a more aggressive saw, with a larger and less clean kerf, more care should be considered when making the cut, or to do it a bit further away from the marks then clean it afterwards with a chisel.
Ryoba 9 1/2” Saw
I personally use a 240mm (9.5”) blade Suizan Ryoba saw for general work, trimming or resawing big boards of wood for further sizing, squaring and cleaning on the shooting board. Lately, for smaller work, I start using this 180mm (7”) Suizan Ryoba. It is much shorter then the standard Ryoba, has a plastic handle with a rubber grip that makes it very ergonomic, and I found it much useful and handy then the bigger brother when resawing smaller pieces of wood, for boxes or small projects that I make.
Ryoba 7” Saw
So, If I would answer which Japanese saw to get first it would be the Ryoba, but, I recommend it together or immediately followed by…
The Dozuki
When it comes to precision and fine cuts this is the saw to use. The blade is even thinner, thus the kerf, smaller pitch, and for better rigidity of the blade it has a stiffener on the upper side that keeps it not bending. They are ideally for cutting joints like dovetails and tenons. They also come in different sizes and types, ones used mostly for crosscuts, others for ripcuts or even universal ones, also with blades dedicated for softwoods or hardwoods, or same, universal ones.
Dozuki 9 1/2” Saw
For fine general work I use this 240mm (9.5”) Suizan Dozuki. It is intended more for crosscuts, but works well also on rip cuts, with less speed because of the denser teeth. For small work I have these 150mm (6”) and the 180mm (7”) Dozuki saws, this last with a plastic/rubber handle, same as the corespondent Ryoba. These smaller ones are bit more aggressive then the first big one. I like these more when cutting smaller pieces of wood, much quicker and close to the desired size prior squaring them on the shooting board.
Dozuki 6” Saw
Another Dozuki I use, especially for Kumiko or very precise work is this 200mm (8”) Fine Teeth Dozuki from Suizan It is incredible thin, with a 0.2mm blade, cuts super clean, and if you manage to make a consistent straight cut you don’t even need to sand that after :) Even if you use it for smaller work like Kumiko it is best to have the saw longer, for better control. Before this saw I had this 120mm blade mini Dozuki with the same 0.2mm blade thickness. At Kumiko, when having many pieces stacked together for lap joints cuts, it is difficult to maintain a perpendicular cut with a shorter saw, but there were other situations, mainly in tight spaces or shorter cuts, when I found this small saw very useful.
Dozuki 120mm Saw
Indeed, a lot of Dozuki’s to choose from, but bear in mind that most are specialty saws, they work best in specific situations, but a standard one, like the first mentioned, can also be used everywhere with great results, and in conjunction with a Ryoba they make the best first Japanese saws to get started with.
One limitation the Dozuki saws have is you can go as deep with the cut as much as that blade’s stiffener allows you to. Dozuki saws without that stiffener are called…
The Kataba
Honestly I wasn’t so into buying this saw for many years. I thought I would never use it so much. Making mostly small work, cuts deeper that what the Dozuki could offer were enough for me, but when I made my Hand Tool Wall and wanted to fill the space on my saws stand, I eventually bought it. At first only for that, and now I cannot get my hands out of it! It is a powerful saw, it is much longer than any others I have, which makes having a better control over the cut, the blade is thicker, even than the Ryoba, and has a super clean cut.
Kataba 10”
The one I have is a 270 mm (10.5”) Suizan Kataba and is about 600 mm (23.5”) long. This one I use it when I want to make precise and/or long cuts in thicker woods mainly, where the thin Dozuki blade’s (if depth is no issue) could clog into the wood or the Ryoba will not offer sufficient precision in that situation. I bet will be very useful also in carpentry and timber framing joinery, but I have not tried it yet, hope in the next months to start an outdoor project and put it to work.
These are the standard trio of Japanese saws, now let’s speak about some of the specialty saws:
The Kugihiki
This is a flush cut saw. It is used to trim outcoming pieces of wood (like wedges, tenons, dowels, plugs etc) flushed with the board they were inserted to. The particularity of this saw is that it has a zero set on both sides, or just on one side for some models. This will make the saw not to leave any scratches on the board.
Kugihiki - Flush Cutting Saw
The one I have is a 180mm (7”) Kugihiki The blade of these saws is very thin so you can bend it in order to keep a part flush on the wood piece, then use the handle bent in your comfortable position. They leave a very clean surface. One tip when using it is to keep one hand pressing on the blade while sawing to maintain it flush with the board, and from time to time, like couple of strokes, to blow away the dust formed (small particles of dust will get between the wood and the blade, so continuing like so it will slowly raise the blade during the cut so in the end you will have a slopped/tapered cut). Taking your time with it you will have a consistent flush cut in the end.
The Mawashibiki
This is keyhole saw. The blade’s width is very narrow, or it starts narrowing towards the tip until it reaches about 4-5 mm. I have one similar to this Bonsai Keyhole Saw and bought it more for curiosity. I found it very useful in replacing a coping saw for example. When I make joinery like dovetails, finger joints or mortises, I drill a 6mm (1/4”) hole into the waste part after sawing the sides with a Dozuki for ex, then use the Mawashibiki on both sides of the hole cutting towards the ends and as close as I can to the line so I can ease my job with the chisel to clean and straight that edge.
Mawashibiki - Keyhole Saw
The Azebiki
I will be honest here, I bought this saw just because it has a funny shape and will look nice on my tool panel :) This saw it is practically a Ryoba with the cutting edges curved. They are like so in order to make a cut inside the surface of a board, and not go out towards the edges. These are mostly used for dadoes and grooves for drawers etc. Another application is when you want to make a long groove cut into a panel, even having a block of wood clamped to guide the saw. The curved blade will make contact with the wood in just one point at a given cutting moment, thus having a better sawdust removing to avoid clogging, and the blade will not flip left or right as if you were doing this job with a Ryoba. If you know the western veneer saws, this is its corespondent practically. I have one like this and as I said I haven’t use it so much, yet.
Azebiki Saw
Why not Western Saws
I have never used a Western saw in woodworking so I will not say that the Japanese ones are better or vice versa. One can find easier or handier to push, the western saws, and other to pull, the Japanese ones. In theory, in physics whatever, indeed you can conclude that the pull saw can achieve a better precision and control over the cut, due to the body position, movement etc, but you may find in situations that the other one could have work better. It is not all black and white :) But one thing I can debate here, is about the…
Cost
In most dedicated woodworking tools shops or those sold on Amazon, you can find authentic, made in Japan, with disposable blades saws at about 25-45$ in average, while the Western ones go around double that price, but their blades can be resharpenable. A new spare blade for a Japanese saw costs almost half than the saw, and in my experience it can last for quite a few years. I had my first Dozuki blade for over 2.5 years and I would have still use it if two teeth were not blown away when I hit the saw into the vise :) So it cost me around 8$ per year that blade. My first Ryoba is still in use btw. Of course it can last shorter or longer depending on its use, but for an average hobby user, or even for a power tools professional who use this occasionally in small fine jobs these saws can be no headache when it comes to maintenance and cost.
These were my personal considerations about the Japanese saws, based on where and how I have used them in the last years. Hope you will find the information useful and I haven’t missed any important facts. If you have any other questions please feel free to comment below, I appreciate it.
-Adrian