Gyokucho Razorsaw Blue Hard 240 mm Komame Fine-Tooth Ryoba Saw

The Komame (fine-tooth) Blue Hard 240 has a 1.3 mm pitch crosscut edge and a thinner 0.45 mm blade for cleaner cuts in hardwood, plywood and visible joinery, while the rip edge keeps the progressive 3.8 to 2.4 mm pitch. The kerf is about 0.7 mm and the whole saw weighs 215 g. A ryoba carries crosscut teeth on one edge and rip teeth on the other, so a single saw cuts across and along the grain; the rip teeth are progressive, finer near the handle for an easy start and coarser toward the tip for speed.

Blue Hard is Gyokucho's narrow-blade ryoba series: the blade is slimmer than the Seiun Saku of the same length, which makes the saw lighter and quicker to manoeuvre, and it rides on a traditional rattan-wrapped handle. The teeth are impulse hardened, an electrical heat treatment that makes the cutting edges much harder than the body of the blade, so they stay sharp far longer than conventional teeth. When the teeth finally dull, the blade is replaced rather than sharpened; a fresh blade restores the saw to new condition at a fraction of the cost of a new saw; the blade is held in the handle by a single screw that can be loosened with a coin, so changing it takes a minute.