what is it?

[greg Forster]

it is a saw .. of sorts, overall length at 18". I know I've seen similar tools before, but I just can't place it. 195935 195936

[Frank Drew]

I've never seen a tool quite like that; my first thought was that it was maybe a different kind of butcher's saw, but that probably doesn't make sense. Then I thought it might be a useful tool for cutting hard-to-reach limbs off trees when you're way up in the tree.

(Or bunches of bananas off banana trees??)

[David Weaver]

I've seen teeth like that on the back of a knife. They are carefully filed and shaped, and in a way that seems clear that they're not used to cut through anything wooden in the same way crosscut saw teeth are designed.

I'm thinking they are designed for something green and softer than dry wood, I think Frank's idea of a banana bunch cutter is a good one, but I've only seen people removing those with machetes.

[Richard Line]

Looking at the shape of the thing, it makes me think of something to jab in and be able to do some sawing type of cutting on the way in. The only thing I can thing of using this on is a bale of straw, but what do I know.

[Bruce Haugen]

I've seen teeth like that on the back of a knife. They are carefully filed and shaped, and in a way that seems clear that they're not used to cut through anything wooden in the same way crosscut saw teeth are designed ...

Here's a particularly nasty form of that saw tooth pattern, the bayonet from the 1881 Vetterli rifle used by the Swiss Army:
195959

[Frank Drew]

I've only seen people removing [bunches of bananas] with machetes.

I think you're right, David, that's actually what I've seen, too.

[Matt Day]

That handle doesn't look like it's made for any hacking either - looks like a handle for a gentleman's saw or something.

Would be a good pumpkin cutter for really big ones!

[greg Forster]

It shares some charateristics with a flooring saw; it starts the cut in the "middle" of a board rather than at an edge and notice how the end swells out - to allow some downward pressure while making the cut, the teeth have no set- this toothing profile is not uncommon.

[Kent A Bathurst]

You ever have one of your favorite salt-water rigs swallowed by a stingray with a 3-foot wingspan? That looks exactly like something I've wished I had with me - just about the time I cut the line............

[Caspar Hauser]

For some probably erroneous reason roots and gardening spring to mind.

[Jeff Ranck]

Looks like an ice saw to me. Of course, I'm not an expert about ice saws, but they tend to have those large tooth patterns.

[David Weaver]

I think you're right, David, that's actually what I've seen, too.

That's not to say it couldn't be used for something like that, though, even were it a different fruit.

I'd not like to cut wood with it, that's for sure. Those teeth and no hand hold other than the very end with no weight bearing on the teeth would make it not very nice to use.

[David Weaver]

Here's a particularly nasty form of that saw tooth pattern, the bayonet from the 1881 Vetterli rifle used by the Swiss Army:
195959

I think the "knife" I saw was also a bayonet, and I think it was on the history channel show pawn stars.

[Bill McDermott]

Looks like some sort of push stick to me. Not for a table saw. Perhaps for moving sometihng through a chute, or along a track. To my eyes the teeth are only at the end of a rather long reach - and appear to be for grabbing rather than cutting. Fun guessing game.

[john brenton]

I thought the same thing. It looks too nice to be that, and I've never seen one that looked like that, but I'm sure I've seen that toothing pattern on a gardening tool.


For some probably erroneous reason roots and gardening spring to mind.

[Jim Neeley]

Quite an agressive tool... Looking at it reminded me of a line from the film "Crocodile Dundee", when he was in New York and ran across the gang-bangers who tried to mug him using a stiletto: "That's not a knife.. <pulling out his oversized Bowie> *this* is a knife!!" :D

[Matt Day]

Doesn't Lee Valley have a "what is it" thing in their newsletter every once and a while? TOH has one too, but they're too cheesey for me :) How about the OP submits it to LV, since we can't seem to figure it out!

[harry strasil]

The filing of the teeth at a 45° angle give it away, according to R A Salaman's Dictionary of Tools (pages 423, 424) its a Hunters Saw of a type used by hunters at one time.

Jr.

[Bill Houghton]

The filing of the teeth at a 45° angle give it away, according to R A Salaman's Dictionary of Tools (pages 423, 424) its a Hunters Saw of a type used by hunters at one time.

Jr.

I never knew hunters were that soft and easy to cut up. Has anyone told their quarry?

[harry strasil]

Quite an agressive tool... Looking at it reminded me of a line from the film "Crocodile Dundee", when he was in New York and ran across the gang-bangers who tried to mug him using a stiletto: "That's not a knife.. <pulling out his oversized Bowie> *this* is a knife!!" :D

My Dundee (survival) knife I forged quite a few years before the Dundee films from not quite half of a Timkin Bearing race removed from a water well drilling rig rotary table.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/irnsrgn/knife1.jpg

And my Case Bowie purchased while I was in the Seabees in the early 60's, to me the most beautiful design for a Bowie, I accidently broke the black plastic handle and replaced it with the end from a broken single bit axle handle I had to replace for a customer.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/irnsrgn/sprkla009.jpg

[greg Forster]

sold for $30.00, with shipping to US -about $41-42 total. I sent an email to the seller in hopes the buyer enlightened him. As I said earlier, I've seen this type of saw before. First guess- used to cut a groove on a single barrel stave; second guess- used in the coachmaking trade to cut a slot