Powered Hand Saw.

[Jim H]

Morning folks,

I’m currently in the middle of a project where I’m repairing a wooden fence in my garden. I’m going to be generating quite a bit of scrap wood. I need something that will require little effort from myself to size reduce it.

The aim is to chop it all up for kindling for my Woodburner.
It could be battery or mains powered. A Quick Look on e-bay was offering stuff up around £20-30. It’s not going to be the sort of tool I’d use often so no need for top end.

Any recommendations? Thanks in advance.

[Doofus]

If the wood has been treated, think carefully before burning it in your log burner.

[kambites]

Yes you really want to know what it's been treated with before you burn it in a domestic setting. Some of the preservatives can be quite nasty. Especially if you plan to use it for kindling, which is a phase of burn where you'll probably be opening the door quite a lot.

[Jim H]

Morning Kambites and Doofus.

Point taken, I appreciate your concern (for my wellbeing).
However, I’m still going to have to size reduce it if I take it to the tip.

[Belle427]

A chop saw is handy but your looking at £60 for one really, it's what I would buy though.

[wolfracesonic]

A reciprocating saw with a pruning blade will be ideal for cutting things roughly to length, safer than a chainsaw. A corded one with a blade should be doable for under £50.00 at Screwfix, won’t be Festool quality but will suffice for a one off project.

[mgtony]

The Titan recip saw from Screwfix is cheap enough and ideal for occasional use. Can also be useful again for pruning jobs. A chop saw with a muti-cut blade such as the Evolutions may do the job but for things like fence posts, you'll have to turn them for the depth of cut.
The red Makita recip also seems a good price but probably not needed in your case.

https://www.screwfix.com/c/tools/reciprocating-saw...

[rodericb]

If you've got cordless power tools see if you can get a reciprocating saw skin of the same brand so you can use existing batteries. Reciprocating saw as in those linked in the post above. You'll use it for pruning branches any thicker than your little finger and upwards. They do come in handy.

[kambites]

I tend to use a chop saw for this sort of thing, but as above you wont get a decent one for £30 and they're also fairly bit to store. A reciprocating saw will do it, but if you're cutting much the vibrations become pretty unpleasant; personally I think I'd rather use a decent qualify hand saw.

Reciprocating saws look great in principle, but somehow I almost never find it to be the right tool for any of the jobs I'm doing. Even pruning trees, I'll only reach for the reciprocating saw if the branches are too big for a hand pruning saw but two small for a chain saw, which is a pretty narrow window.

Edited by kambites on Friday 15th August 08:48

[OutInTheShed]

Most of the wood in a suburban fence can be reduce to kindling by supporting it on a brick and standing on it.

A few 10 minute sessions with a bowsaw will get rid of quite a lot of the stronger bits.

I do have a cheap recip saw, it is OK for this kind of work, but really you need some sort of saw horse or vice to keep the wood still.

[Jim H]

Now then Fella’s

I think you are picking up on my conundrum. Normally I’d do this sort of thing with my foot stepping on the wood on top of an external large garden tool box (for support). Using a hand saw.

However I’m getting lazy and old! And I really don’t want to spend a lot of time doing this.

Interested to read Kambites comments about re sip saw’creating a lot of vibrations. I imagined this could be the case.

So perhaps, a re sip saw is not ideal?

[Inbox]

I would use one of those hand held battery powered pruning chainsaws to cut that lot down to size.

[mgtony]

Unless you are doing sleepers, probably be able to get through most of it with a jigsaw with a course blade if you don't fancy handling a recip saw.

[littleredrooster]

If you're anywhere near N Yorkshire, I have one you can borrow.

[rodericb]

Recip saw will vibrate but not for long as it won't take long to get through wood. Get a "pruning blade", which can be up to 12 inches in length, and you'll get through some substantial branches/bits of wood.

[Jim H]

Hello again.

Many thanks for all the replies, especially Little Red.

I’ve taken the afternoon off. I’m going on a little shopping spree, I’m going to buy a Bow Saw and drop in at my local Tool Station. I figure one of those resip saws is worth a try at that price, it’ll come in useful I’m sure some other time.

Cheers Fella’s

[Doofus]

Recip saws don't vibrate if you press the hilt against the workpiece.

[Snow and Rocks]

Worth a look on Facebook marketplace. I bought a cheap evolution mitre saw about 5 years ago when I'd left my decent one at a friend's.

I think it was only about 30 quid from memory but I now use it for all rough tasks and it hasn't missed a beat. Great little saw.

[mgtony]

Shouldn't it be 'fellers?'.

Make sure the bow saw doesn't jump and put a row of nice holes in the top of your hand. Bow saw ok for logs and soft branches. You don't want to use one on anything thin like fence panels. Just use a sharp hand saw.

Edited by mgtony on Friday 15th August 14:45

[Chainsaw Rebuild]

Hire a saw, as your only going to use it once.