Customer Reviews:
 Substandard Performance July 24, 2008
D. Murphy (Marin, CA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I'm not sure why the other reviewers have glowing things to say about this saw. The frame is rigid as mentioned. There is NO tensioning mechanism for the blade. The blade tangs are made of what looks like aluminum and are barely adequate to hold the blade in place. The blade itself cuts VERY poorly, so poorly I was wondering if I got a manufacturing defect. If you have a few extra hours to kill, then by all means use this saw to cut a branch or two! The whole point of a bow saw is portability and quick sawing action. This one fails utterly.
I purchased this saw in June of 2008. It was manufactured in China.
 Best of the Bunch July 19, 2008
Gary W. Fogg (Topsham, Maine United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
For a period of twenty years or so starting in about 1950, bow saws based on a design by the Sandvik Company in Sweden were used for serious work in forestry and arboriculture. They were lighter and easier to use than crosscut saws, but were much cheaper than gasoline powered chain saws, which had not quite permeated the market to the extent that they did later on. Unfortunately for those of us who still use bow saws for serious work, they are no longer made as well as they once were. Today's bow saws are almost all made by contract with companies in Asia and marketed for very light use.
Nonetheless, in the midst of this sad situation, the Fiskars stands out as one bow saw that is reasonably good. It is lightweight, has excellent balance , feels right in the hand, and has a tensioning mechanism that is fairly firm and keeps the blade taught in spite of hard use.
By comparison, the Corona 30 inch saw is strong but feels a little heavy. The Bahco and Gilmour versions of the 30 inch saw are lightweight and well balanced, but their tensioning handles are not as firm. The cheap plastic hand guard on the Bahco saw I own actually fell off the first time I used it and I have had to wrap the saw with tape to keep the handle tight.
I have used the Fiskars 30 inch bow saw in trailwork and around the home, felling, bucking and limbing trees up to 14 inches in diameter quite easily. It cuts well in both green and dry wood with a Bahco No. 51 blade (all cutting teeth, no rakers), and it is small enough to get into tight places, which is often needed when clearing blowdowns or when limbing large trees. To increase the size of trees one can handle, one can, of course, cut from two directions. With a little practice, one can master the art of getting both cuts to meet so that the log is cut through cleanly, almost as if it was done from one direction only.
I use this saw all the time in combination with the Fiskars Pro Chopping Axe, which is a superb tool and an excellent companion to the bow saw for forestry and trailwork. My only regret is that Fiskars doesn't make a 36 inch bow saw in addition to the 30 inch and 21 inch models.
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