Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/05/20/get-a-ryoba-saw-right-now.html
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What’s the fiddly bit on the handle for?
Looks like a way to remove the blade. The Amazon listing allows you to zoom in on the picture and there’s a metal wheel, i presume that loosens/tightens the blade.
Yes, it locks the blade into the handle. The blade feels like it might be easy to break if you tried, and is presumably made of such cheap steel that’s not worth hand-sharpening.
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Honestly took me a second to realize you were talking about a handsaw. I live in Amish country and even THOSE guys use electric saws. Can’t remember the last time I used a handsaw in a wood working project. Kinda took me by surprise with this one.
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thundering feet of people coming to angrily denounce Ryobi and then saying “Ah, ok.”
I have edited “saw” to “handsaw”!
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Yeah, the similarity to Ryobi and the fact that I hate whenever I have to handsaw anything, it definitely took me a minute to switch the mental gears! 
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Part of how I got to handsaws was the fact that the jobsite table saws and bandsaws at Home Depot are so imprecise – a good table saw seems to basically mean a $300+ outlay on a used cast iron monster that really wants to dismember me or a modern $600 one with safety features and a warranty!
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I balance the cheap and the lazy side of myself with a handheld circular saw. As long as I’m not rushing the cut and mark it nicely with a square (you are RIGHT about the steel square!), I get nice edges and it turns out.
The old saw about measure twice, cut once is very true!
(Sorry, couldn’t resist the dad joke!)
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Flexible handsaws like these are useful even if you’re using power saws for the bulk of the work; for example, if you need to cut a dowel flush with a flat surface.
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Seriously, though: why cover a radiator like this and massively limit convection?
Like Japanese woodwork, though. YT videos of Japanese temples being built are serious carpentry porn.
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Well, I can tell a hawk from a handsaw no matter what direction the wind is in.
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I love my Makita 12v mini circular saw (with its wee 3.5 inch blades) – cut and installed a subfloor in my basement (the black desk in the post is on it!) out of 2x4s and OSB panels in a weekend with one of those, a hammer and a bag of nails.
I don’t think I’d recommend it, though, as there’s a slightly bigger corded model from Rockwell that I think can make it through a 2x4 with one cut.
Edit: this one:
That is an interesting little saw. I could see that being hella useful for some projects!
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Where are you supposed to put the battery, though?
I think you’re spot on with how to look at smaller-scale tools, though–rather than focus on all the things it can’t do well, if you use it for what it can do well you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised and actually get around to making something rather than being paralyzed with shame that you don’t have the highest torque rating on your driver and you saw doesn’t saw “Festool” on it.
I fully agree. I bought a cheap one in this style, and it means I am doing a while bunch more woodwork without breaking out the electrics (and enjoying myself).
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Even north-northwest?
You can’t throttle a steam radiator by twisting the valve. That sucker needs to be all the way open for it to work. The way to regulate its output is to make it warmer relative to the hot steam inside. This reduces the rate at which large volumes of steam are turned into tiny drops of condensate, thereby limiting delivery of more steam (and heat) from in the pipe.
How do you make it warmer? Cover it.
For anybody saddled with steam radiators, I can’t recommend the bible highly enough.
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It’s probably decent steel, but most Japanese saws these days seem to have replaceable blades, because the teeth are impulse-hardened to stay sharp for a long time. That’s good, because the Ikeda-pattern tooth geometry would be a nightmare to sharpen.
I have a modern Japanese single-edged saw like this one:
The blade is held in place by friction. It just takes a couple of taps to remove/replace the blade, which allows me to fit it in a toolbox.
There are some cheaper western-style saws with impulse-hardened teeth, which means that when they get dull you throw away the whole saw, not just the blade. Since handsaws are so little-used anymore, the average one is probably good for years.
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That’s a bit more tricky but generally, yes.
At least as long as I remember to take my dried frog pills.
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