Where to get 270mm Ryoba?

[Tony Wilkins]

After reading Wiburn Pan's (hope I got the name right) Blog article. I think I want a 270mm Ryoba like he mentions to do my first rough project. Leads me to two questions: What's the best one? Where can I get said saw?

If I'm horribly mistaken, it's ok to tell me I'm horribly mistaken - just send me in the right direction.

[fransikaner]

I don't have a recommendation on brands, but here's a link:

http://www.japanwoodworker.com/product.asp?pf_id=01.111.70&dept_id=13088

Good luck!

[Seenya]

I don't have the 10 1/2" saw but I do have the 9 1/2" one. I got it at Craftsman Studio. Here's the link.

[pagel]

Japan Woodworker and Craftsman Studio are great places - you can't go wrong with either. Another place to look at is Tools For Working Wood. They have a pretty decent selection of Japanese saws - http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com//Merchant/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=toolshop&Category_Code=TSJ

[konkers]

I also recommend the Gyokucho Ryoba that Seenya linked to. They are very reasonably priced and were recommended in Jay Van Arsdale's class a the saw to get when you're starting out. Both Hida Tool and Japan Woodworker carry them as well as Craftsman Studio.

[Tony Wilkins]

After re-reading Wilbur Pan's blog on saw selection I think for the scale of my first project a 180mm to 210mm Ryoba would be better. They have the 'standard one' and then they have a 'professional' and 'hardwood' version. They also have saws from the late Chuyemon. Are any of those worth the price over the standard?

[wm_crash]

Standard vs. Professional in japanese saws is more than just a "price goes up as quality increases". Standard are usually disposable blades that are machined and impulse hardened. You end up with a hardness in the mid 60's on RC scale. The professional are made by hand and are heat treated for hardness. That brings them in the mid 50's as far as hardness.

The key difference is that you can always use a feather file to sharpen a saw whose hardness is in the 50s, but (in theory) you can not sharpen something that's in the 60's; you just replace the blade (and convert the old one into a scraper if you care)

As a side note to the whole thing, I have recently found diamond coated feather files. Technically they are able to sharpen the impulse hardened disposable blades. The issue is that by sharpening, you expose softer steel that was not hardened during impulse hardening.

Another difference between the impulse hardened and heat treated is that the impulse hardened tooth will have more resistance to breaking. The soft steel that is present just behind the hardened layer gives it more flexibility.

Take all with a grain of salt: I have limited hands-on experience, but I do read a lot.

cheers,

wm_crash, the friendly hooligan

[Tony Wilkins]

I ended up getting a 210mm disposable blade Gyokucho #605 saw. Figured if I like it I could expand and do other things. That's interested about the different hardeness. Does the hardness effect the wood you can cut or is it solely teeth?

[wm_crash]

The difference in hardness is simply related to how much use you can get from a blade before you need to replace/sharpen. The hardwood vs. softwood relates more to the number of teeth per inch, and in the case of crosscut saws, the tooth geometry. For TPI, it's just like westers: higher TPI for harder woods. I don't remember the exact geometry details though, but I think for hardwoods the third face of the crosscut tooth needs to be lower angle. Not sure how readily I could see this angle difference affect results.

cheers,

wm_crash, the friendly hooligan

[wilburpan]

The differences in saws tuned for hardwoods vs. softwoods can be summed up like this:

1. For rip teeth, a more relaxed rake angle for hardwoods.

2. For crosscut teeth, the knife-like tip of the tooth is shorter for hardwoods.

3. Higher tpi and slightly less set for hardwoods.

But don't take this as an absolute "hardwood vs. softwood" issue. That's why I used the word "tuned" above. Any of these saws can cut any type of wood. It's just a matter of how efficient it will be. It's like the difference between a combination table saw blade vs. a true rip or crosscut blade. They will all cut wood, but your results will be a little better with one vs. the other.

As far as sources for a 270 mm Japanese ryoba, this is where you can find them off the top of my head:

Hida Tool

Japan Woodworker

Tools from Japan

Woodcraft has a 300mm ryoba (!)

Iida Tool

Japan-tool

[connierocco]

Hi Tony

Just saw your query about Ryoba Saws. My late husband purchased 4 sizes, the 210mm,240mm,270mm and 295mm, from Hida Tools. They have never been used. They are all from the late Chuyemon and no longer available at Hida. I've been considering listing them on Ebay but thought I'd let you know they are for sale. Originally he paid $168/210mm, $171/240mm, $172/270mm and $175/295mm. Let me know if you are interested. Thanks. Connie