Right saw for particle board / MDF

[Judson Green]

Every once in a while I do a shop project (in this case a simple shelve) and being the frugal guy that I am I like to use what I have on hand. But so I was wondering what's the preferred hand saw (rip, crosscut or any thing sharp) for cutting particle board? And will this material dull the blade quicker when cutting solid wood?

[john zulu]

If you truly love your saws. Keep them away from mdf and particle boards. I have a router bit that was damaged after remove quite a bit of material from mdf. The glue was tough on the router bit.

[Ray Selinger]

Disposable Japanese plywood saw. Hardened teeth. I've cut a lot of form plywood with an 8pt crosscut, better the saw, the easier it is.

[Mike Allen1010]

+1 MDF and Plywood is really hard on saw teeth. I have a dedicated western 26" saw for these. 8-10 PPI cross cut saw works well for me. The finer the pitch, the less splintering on the back side of the cut with plywood.

I've also used Japanese pull style saws with impulse hardened teeth. Because of the aggressive rake, I need to get the toothline at a low angle to the work piece to keep teeth from catching, which is sometimes inconvenient for me. I don't use at lot of MDF/Plywood, but when I do I prefer western style, push saw.

Mike

[Pat Barry]

Circular saw is the only way to go. I wouldn't waste time trying to Neanderthal that stuff

[Joe Bailey]

The proper saw is one of these:

318473

We tend to scoff at these because they pale in comparison to the Grand Old Saws from the Golden Era of Sawmaking, but these ugly things with their induction-hardened teeth have been designed precisely for cutting modern materials -- plywood, mdf, composites, etc.

[Georg Zudoff]

Agreed with Mr. Selinger - Japanese saw. I use rioba - the edge with crosscutting teeth for particle boards and plywood too. Frankly spoken this saw used for pine, oak, maple too. I understand that soon (saw used hrdly during last two years) I will need a new one, but I don't see any reason for not use this Japanese saw for particle board sawing.

[Judson Green]

Well I used a Western style 26" crosscut, 8 point. Worked fine. And I can resharpen it, yay!

Plywood, MDF and particle board don't get used much in my shop and this was only just one cut about 13" long, the end of a long already made shelf.

The thing is I had the jig saw (my portable power tool of choice) halfway out and I says to myself "gosh, I'd have this done by now if just graped the hand saw."

[Matthew N. Masail]

I do woodworking with kids. we use the Irwin TG880 models of hardpoint handsaws. they work very well on man made stuff as well as real wood. beats the crap out of the Japanese saws (HSS teeth and others) I've tried btw.

[Judson Green]

I do woodworking with kids.

Your mail box was full so...

Matthew, your ww with kids would be an excellent topic for a new thread and or even a bunch of blog entries. Myself, and I'm sure others, would like to hear about it and perhaps get some pointers.


Just a thought

[Allan Speers]

Disposable Japanese plywood saw. Hardened teeth. I've cut a lot of form plywood with an 8pt crosscut, better the saw, the easier it is.


This. I have the one Lee Valley sells, and cut a ton of plywood with it. It lasts a lot longer than you'd expect, and the replacement blades are cheap.

- I only wish they made one without the stiff top spline, like a Ryoba style.

[Matthew N. Masail]

Your mail box was full so...

Matthew, your ww with kids would be an excellent topic for a new thread and or even a bunch of blog entries. Myself, and I'm sure others, would like to hear about it and perhaps get some pointers.


Just a thought

And a good thought it is. I'm in the middle of an apartment move, as well as working over time, but I guess I should consider writing about it when things calm down. we are starting out doing summer camp for groups of 12 children, it's very different and way more challenging then any kind of 1 on 1 father son kind of thing. the coolest thing about how we are doing it is that I have 9 year old boys and girls using a krenov hand plane, handsaws and very little power tools, so that the kids learn about ways of working with wood rather then an adult using a chopsaw style. the kids get to choose the project themselfs, so they are all exciting about what they are doing and so they all get such a good experience with woodworking over the week of camp. whether what they make looks like a piece of art or something as unrefined as can be, they seem to be equally happy, so that is Interesting to observe. learning how to keep discipline and rules however... I and we have a lot to learn. it's a good thing the camp director is amazing with that.

Bottom line thank's Judson, I didn't realize how much I actually would like to share online, maybe partly because the little buggers wore me out this past week.... lol