LAST UPDATED: May 8th, 2015
The Hooyman Saw is a great tool for clearing shooting lanes. But there is one thing you can do to improve the cutting ability of your saw.
After using mine a few times last year I noticed it wanted to get stuck in the limb after I had the branch half sawed off. I figured out that the teeth had no offset to them and when sap started sticking to the blade it would bind in the wood. There was no clearance for the back of the blade to slide through the saw cut.
After talking to the manufacturer at the ATA show this year, they said they were working on a new blade with offset teeth to fix that problem. But that didn’t solve my problem. So I decided to fix it myself. I clamped the blade in a vise just below the teeth and offset the teeth myself with a hammer and a punch. You need to strike the tooth on the “V” side (not the flat side) this pushes the cutting edge of the tooth out just a little bit and creates a bigger groove for the back of the blade to slide through. It doesn’t take much. Just alternate every other tooth and bend the others out the opposite direction.
Clamp your blade in the vise like this with a little metal showing below the teeth.
Place the punch on the "V" side of the tooth and tap it lightly until it bends slightly.
I didn't take a before pic, but here you can see the slight offset of the teeth.
After putting the offset on my saw blade it no longer gets stuck when cutting larger branches and cuts much better overall. If you have an older Hooyman Saw with straight tooth set give this a try and it will help.
