Portable circular saw question

[andrew whicker]

I don't use my portable circular saw too often. Today I was changing my blade and realized I must have been brainlessly replacing blades this whole time without realizing they cut upwards.

Why do they cut upwards?

[Scott DelPorte]

Pushes the wood into the base

[glenn bradley]

Ever seen a belt-sander race?

[Charles Wiggins]

Pushes the wood into the base

Precisely. It creates a scissor action withthe the base plate of the saw where the force of the spinning blade is constantly pulling the saw down onto the workpiece. If the saw were to cut on the downstroke as soon as there was any resistance, like the teeth getting a bit dull, for example, the saw would ride up out of the kerf and take off on its own like the belt- sander race Glenn mentions.

[Dick Brown]

Andrew,
If you were to swing the blade guard up out of the way with the saw running and jerk the back of the saw into the cut, you would soon find out why it cuts on the up side rather than the down. Please take my word for it and don't try it!! If you still had all your fingers, arms, etc, the next thing you would need to do is to see if you can find your saw!
Dick

[andrew whicker]

haha, makes sense. I didn't think about it very long before posting. Maybe I should do that next time : )