A ripsaw (or rip saw) is a wood saw that is specially designed for making a rip cut, a cut made parallel to the direction of the

wood grain Wood grain is the longitudinal arrangement of wood fibers or the pattern resulting from such an arrangement. Definition and meanings R. Bruce Hoadley wrote that ''grain'' is a "confusingly versatile term" with numerous different uses, includin ...

Design

The cutting edge of each tooth has a flat front edge and it is angled backward by about 8°, in contrast to a

crosscut saw A crosscut saw (thwart saw) is any saw designed for cutting wood perpendicular to (across) the wood grain. Crosscut saws may be small or large, with small teeth close together for fine work like woodworking or large for coarse work like log ...

, which has teeth angled backward by about 15°. With the "rip" tooth pattern, the edges are sharpened at right angles to the cutting plane, forming

chisel A chisel is a tool with a characteristically shaped cutting edge (such that wood chisels have lent part of their name to a particular grind) of blade on its end, for carving or cutting a hard material such as wood, stone, or metal by hand, s ...

-like cutting surfaces, whereas crosscut teeth are sharpened at an angle, so that each tooth has a knife-like cutting point in contact with the wood. This design keeps the saw from following grain lines, which could curve the path of the saw: by acting like a chisel, the saw can more easily cut across deviating grain lines, which is necessary if a straight cut is to be achieved. This feature enables the

orthogonal In mathematics, orthogonality is the generalization of the geometric notion of '' perpendicularity''. By extension, orthogonality is also used to refer to the separation of specific features of a system. The term also has specialized meanings in ...

cutting edge to efficiently transport wood-chips from the kerf, allowing subsequent teeth to perform a more effective cut. It is possible to see this material removal mechanism in action by analyzing frame by frame footage of the cutting process. Ripsaws typically have 4–10 teeth per inch, making them relatively coarse.

Use

All

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

s use ripsaws of various types including the

circular saw A circular saw is a power- saw using a toothed or abrasive disc or blade to cut different materials using a rotary motion spinning around an arbor. A hole saw and ring saw also use a rotary motion but are different from a circular saw. ' ...

and band saw. Historically sawmills used one or more

reciprocating saw A reciprocating saw is a type of machine-powered saw in which the cutting action is achieved through a push-and-pull ("reciprocating") motion of the blade. The original trade name Sawzall is often used in the United States, where Milwaukee Elec ...

s more specifically known as an "up-and-down" or "upright saw" which are of two basic types, the frame saw or a muley (mulay) saw''New international encyclopedia'', 2nd ed. Volume 20. New York: Dodd, Mead, and Co. 1916. 601. which is similar to the hand powered pit saw. Some sawmills also use crosscut saws to cut boards and planks to length.

Cutting styles

On the vast majority of saws throughout the world, the teeth are designed to cut when the saw is being pushed through the wood (on the push stroke or down stroke). However, some saws (such as

Japanese saw The Japanese saw or is a type of saw used in woodworking and Japanese carpentry that cuts on the pull stroke, unlike most European saws that cut on the push stroke. Japanese saws are the best known pull saws, but they are also used in China, I ...

s and the saws used by Ancient Egyptians) are designed to cut on the pull stroke.

References

{{Woodworking Saws Woodworking hand tools