Craftsmanship in Wood

I bought a couple of Japanese saws (one razor saw and one Z-saw) and they seemed somewhat delicate. I am not at all clued up on Japanese tools so I was wondering if anyone could suggest a moderately priced Japanese saw that could be used to re-saw hardwood (Teak)? Any suggestion would he helpful. Many thanks.

Teak contains silica and therefore is rather less pleasant to work since it dulls tools fast.
For hardwood it is best to use a saw with teeth especially sharpened for this purpose. In your case I would try to find a replaceable blade saw set up to cut bamboo. I used to have one of these saws and it works quite well on hardwoods. Hida tool used to carry them but I rather recommend Suzuki-ya in terms of price and knowledgeable service.

I am afraid that saws will remain delicate. A gentle grip, good posture and concentration will take care of that.

I've done a lot of work with Burmese teak over the past couple of years. It's relatively soft, easy to cut and quite stable, however, as Mathieu say, the silicates in the wood will eat your edges very fast.

If you want to re-saw, then you are looking for a larger rip saw, maybe even an ōga. Depends upon the size of stock you are planning to rip. Regardless, you'll need a saw file to keep it sharp -frequently.

Do you have a bandsaw? If so, it would be cheaper to buy several blades for the bandsaw I would think.

Japanese rip saws are very much like western rip saws in that the file is held at 90 degrees to the saw when sharpening. The teeth are also very close with maybe a bit more forward aggression. Sharpening a Japanese rip saw is not very complicated and well within the skill set of most woodworkers. I do use a Japanese saw file rather than a typical triangle file. You can file a saw several times before you have to "set" the teeth. I say this because most people don't even try to sharpen a saw because they feel there is a long arduous process, usually you can think of it as a "touch up". In the pictures here, I am resawing poplar which is a soft wood. The process for hard wood (even very hard and abrasive) is the same - just slower and you will have to sharpen occasionally.

Here are more photos of this process.

I said the process isn't very complicated because - if can do it then most people can do it. The worst that can happen is your first attempts may not be as effective as those after practice.

Chris Hall: Bandsaw would surely do the job but unfortunately that's not an option for my tiny home workshop and budget.
Paul Atzenweiler: I saw your photo on re-sawing and that is exactly what I would like to do. The saw in the photos looks somewhat unusual though; could you tell me what make it is and aprroximately how much it might cost?
Thanks for your suggestions.

Most of the "non replaceable blade" saws I have I purchased off ebay. The rip saw in the above photos was about $25. The saw with the "pistol grip" handle came with no handle and was also about $25. I put the rip saw next to the rip teeth on a Ryobi and you can see how much more aggressive the teeth from the Ryobi are. I am going to replace the handle on the ripsaw which is why the handle is gone. I tried to photograph the markings on the saw but these are old saws and I don't read kanji. Hopefully someone like Chris can interpret them. I would suggest buying a replaceable blade saw first, because there is less effort in getting an "up and running" saw.

This is a very big topic and I certainly do not consider myself an expert.

Those characters are bit hard to make out, though I can see parts of kanji there. Not enough to give you the reading though, sorry. In the first picture of the mei I can make out the character 'ba' (場), meaning 'place'.

I don't know of any impulse-hardened disposable type larger rip saws though, so I think buying the regular kind and re-sharpening it yourself is the OP's only move. There are many for sale on Ebay, and they're pretty cheap for the most part.

Many thanks - that sounds encouraging. Will try to find something on ebay.