*Wyoming Saw*
By serger

17 October 2002

As a rule I don’t have a use for chopping tools. If we ever meet I have a plethora of reasons I’d be glad to relate but that is the basis of another article. This short article is about one of the field tools I’ve been using for years. It has been my limited experience that when you are chopping things what happens is dramatic and if you err the resulting situation can be very bad indeed. I have also found when sawing material the chances are if you err you can stop with a hand saw prior to for example, sawing off your foot. The same cannot be said with certainty when you use an ax or machete. So with that in mind while I’m in hunting camp let me show you one of my long-term companions.

 

The item above is a product called the Wyoming Saw. It is basically a small rigid hacksaw in a modified meat saw pattern. They come in several sizes. The one I carry is the 12" model and uses 10" blades. As they come from the venders they have a pair of wood saw blades in the raker and four cross cut pattern. Mine have Sandvik blades from Sweden and are quite tough and resharpenable. You can also get them with Danish blades depending on the vintage of the saw. They also have meat saw blades that I use for breaking up big game to haul back to camp. Over the years I have also added a couple of 24 teeth per inch hacksaw blades for the odd times you have to cut metal.

This saw is composed of 4 major parts that all fit into the carrying case. The whole thing makes a nice compact package that is about 2.5 inches wide, an inch thick and about 11 inches long.

 

This tool is one of the few left after I’ve pared down my kit to the bare minimum. I’ve seen and used the so-called camp saws that fold up into the handles and make a rigid bladed hacksaw type saw and the ones I’ve used failed over the long haul. The hinge pins just don’t hold up. I’ve also used the combination knife and saw setups (Kershaw peddles one) and it didn’t last through one elk This saw just takes the good with the bad and shrugs off the work. I’ve used it for fire wood gathering, hunting blind fabrication as well as the uses described above. The best thing about it is it uses standard blades or failing that, replacements can be fabricated from standard length blades. If you get one for field use I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Thanks for the read.

serger