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Hand Saws. 
Types of Teeth

Now that we understand the basic terminology for talking about saws it's time to move to the cutting edge and talk about teeth.

We're going to to look at saw teeth in roughly the order they were invented. Although the earlier types of teeth are pretty much obsolete now, for reasons that will become obvious, it still helps to understand the development of modern saws and the advantages they offer:

Cross cut teeth

Cross cut teeth do just that - cut across the wood grain. Each tooth is sharpened to a needle point, with alternate teeth facing to the left and right.

As the saw cuts through the wood the points slice two parallel grooves and the grain in between just crumbles away as sawdust.

Cross cut teeth only cut on the push stroke and are only good for cutting across wood grain - if you need to saw with the grain it's time to fish out another saw. Read on.

Cross cut
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