The bow saw is one of the ancient tools used for cutting and trimming woods. Remember this as a HE-MAN tool that is still used even today, being a favorite of most woodcutters and professional loggers.
Not only is it simple and convenient but is very affordable being equally durable and efficient. What else, just imagine how efficient it is!
In this article, we are going to reveal 10 bow saws that offer exceptional performance when we are talking about cutting logs. However, once you have found a good quality bow sow for cutting logs, you can also use it once autumn arrives, to trim dead branches and fallen twigs of tree effectively.
10 Best Bow Saw For Cutting Logs Reviews 2022
The best bow saws come must incorporate good safety features and should be made out of high-quality materials to offer a long-lasting performance with durability. Just ensure you’ve found the perfect bow saw for cutting logs, by digging into the detailed reviews of these top 10 bow saws provided below.
1. Bahco 30 Inch Ergo Bow Saw – For Heavy Duty Applications
Bahco’s 10-30-23 is a high-quality bow saw designed to cut through green and dry wood alike with suitable blades. Featuring a 30-inch long blade, the saw frame is made of high strength & sturdy steel tubing providing durability and power. The pointed nose design allows this saw to easily access tight areas such as under shrubs.
Although Bahco has a range of frame sizes for this saw including, 21-, 24, and 30 inches, we currently are focusing on the largest version with 30 inches saw frame.
The saw is designed for demanding and heavy-duty applications and can cut through green wood as well as seasoned logs using the replacement hardened blades featuring triangular set teeth.
Its innovative blade tensioning mechanism is designed to apply high tensions to the saw blade providing accurate straight cuts. Weighing only 0.08 kilograms (2.8 ounces), this saw is lightweight yet can perform heavy-duty work.
It is equipped with an ergonomically designed handle having a knuckle protector simultaneously providing safety plus comfort. The brightly colored enamel paint allows you to readily locate the saw while protecting the tool from rust.
2. Truper 21-Inch Steel Handle Bow Saw – For Medium Duty Work
Truper 30255 is a hardy bow saw designed for medium-duty work. Its raker style 21-inch blade can slice through larger branches like a charm. With its 21 inches long blade, although it’s not the largest bow saw in the market but it can do some very serious cutting of green or even dry wood (using different blades).
It comprises a well-built and sturdy frame to house the greenwood blade. Although the strength of the saw frame contributes towards the weight of the saw making it around 1.33 pounds (over 21 ounces), still this saw is not the heaviest you can find.
It features a unique cam-lever design for tensioning the blade. This design is excellent in keeping the blade straight and at the right tension for your day-to-day cutting.
This high-quality tensioning mechanism along with the knuckle guard for your hand’s safety make this saw an ideal tool for you to always keep in your garage or tools shed.
Although the bow saw is designed around a raker style blade for cutting green wood only, it is not easy to find the replacement blade for cutting hard/deadwood for this saw design. However, its excellence in cutting makes it an ideal option for a casual home user.
3. GreatNeck BB24, 24 Inch Bow Saw – Heavy Duty Hardwood Saw
GreatNeck’s BB24 is a high-quality yet simple bow saw designed for heavy-duty work. The 24-inch blade gives it sufficient stroke length to cut through branches as thick as 6.5 inches. The saw has a super-strong S-2 steel frame to support the 24 inches blade.
The sturdy frame is planned in a two–piece design for ease and simplicity. Giving its strength and sturdiness, the frame is made out of S-2 steel tubes. The extra hard 24 inch blades are cut out of chrome alloys to ensure extra sharpness and long life.
Weighing only 1.13 pounds (18 ounces), this lightweight and compact bow saw has excellent maneuverability and is made for quality cutting. The blade can be attached to the saw via a chamfered drive end, allowing for steady and quick blade change.
The low cost of this bow saw results in the deficiency of some features which are nowadays considered standard like lack of ergonomic handle and knuckle guard to keep your hands safe during cutting.
However, once you know the limitations of your stroke depth and the degree of strength required for a specific cut, you can easily and quickly deal with any hardwood you want.
4. GreatNeck BB24, 24 Inch Bow Saw – Heavy Duty Hardwood Saw
The frame and the blades are heat-treated and hardened to provide super strength and sturdiness. It is supplied with a total of six 24 inch super sharp blades. The blades have two cutting edges on each tooth making it possible to cut on both push and pull stroke.
The blade can be quickly and easily detached and attached to the bow saw via a clamping lever. This makes it very convenient in terms of blade changing especially if you switch to different wood types. It is also supplied with a cover to protect your fingers when the saw is not being used.
The ergonomic design of the shaped handle with a cushioned grip is accentuated with another cushioned grip on the front end allowing for excellent control in delivering power to the blade.
The safety of the user’s hand is ensured by means of a plastic knuckle guard which won’t let your hand smash into the workpiece/ branch or log. The only drawback is its color which can cause you to easily lose it if placed among the foliage.
5. BAHCO Pointed Nose 21 Inch Bow Saw – Suitable for Moderately Thick Logs & Trees
Bahco 332 10-21-51 is another one of the state of the art bow saw. However, as compared to other Bahco bow saws, this one is a handy and small model offering a lower profile form factor. The pointy nose design of the saw features a 21 inches blade which makes it ideal for jobs involving tight spaces and hard to reach corners.
The frame of the saw is made out of the same steel tubing as with other Bahco bow saws. Therefore the frame of this model similarly is quite durable, sturdy, and yet lightweight.
Weighing just around 0.3 kilograms (10.6 ounces) this saw is one of the lightweight marvels for its cutting ability. The model is equipped with a blade tensioning system similar to other Bahco bow saws and is quite easy and effective.
It also features a unique D-shaped knuckle guard which is designed to complement the ergonomic handles offering both safety as well as stability of the saw during cutting.
The peculiar ergonomic handle is the final thing you should focus on as this feature help you reduce fatigue from longer cutting sessions. This model is very much suitable for pruning jobs and the likes due to its smaller size.
6. Stanley Garden BDS6510 Bow Saw – Reliable & Durable
Stanely Garden’s BDS6510 is a large precision bow saw designed for tackling logs and shrubs alike. This 24 inches bow saw has it all in terms of reliability and durability.
The frame is made out of durable steel giving it a sturdy feeling. Its 24-inch high carbon steel blade comes with a brand name of Armor™ cutting blade and is known for its sharpness and strength.
With a weight of 1.36 pounds (21.8 ounces), this bow saw is a great balance between weight and power. The unique tension controlling mechanism can be triggered by a control lever up front with ease and precision.
Its durable protective knuckle guard can be attributed to the safety considerations in the design. It also features a comfortable molded grip for better grip designed to reduce fatigue during push and pull strokes of cutting action.
Moreover, the ergonomic handle comes with a knuckle guard for the user’s hand safety and escorts a limited lifetime guarantee too. They are so sure of their products that they even offered a limited-time warranty to secure their client’s investment.
7. Thrive Tools 21 inch Bow Saw – Great for Quick Cutting Jobs
This 21 inches Heavy-Duty Bow Saw from Thrive Tools can be used both as a tree saw or a pruning saw for limbs and branches. Equipped with 2, 21-inch blades specified for cutting green wood and the other one for dry wood, this light, and compact bow saw is great for quick cutting jobs.
To make holding the bow saw more comfortable for your hands and to be used for long hours, it features an ergonomic handle design while a handguard is present to protect your knuckles from falling branches or accidental cuts, when in use.
This bow saw features an innovative twisting blade tensioner system to help tighten the blades, retaining the high tension to provide swift and straighter cuts, correspondingly making blades changes quick and easy.
However, it lacks any sheath that could help protect and lengthen your blade life. The highly maneuverable 21-inch bow saw built of high-quality steel tubing is light in weight and durable as well.
Its compact design and versatility allow it to be used for both large-scale and small-scale applications, having the ability to make fast cuts on both green wood and dry wood. Though it is a highly recommended bow saw but sometimes during heavy woodcutting, it tends to bend a little.
8. Bond BS21, 21-Inch Gardener’s Choice Bow Saw – For Low Density Materials
This gardener’s choice bow saw from Bond can tackle a lot of your cutting needs with its 21 inches tempered double-cut steel blade. The blade is extremely durable plus the heavy-duty, sturdy tubular steel frame is built to last for years; moreover, it comes with a 3 years warranty.
Sometimes, when cutting trees and logs we might need to employ both hands at the same time. This bow saw is designed as such that it has a provision of working with one or even two hands simultaneously.
Bond BS21 weighs1.23 Pounds and is a perfect lightweight choice for pruning trees. The saw has a pull and push blade which is made tough from dual cut steel and so is sharp enough to cut through hard stems, logs, and branches.
It also has a simple release technique for replacing blades at a swift pace; to unlock the blade, just push and pull the bow sideways. That’s it!
Although quite basic with a tight-angled triangular nose, it is very functional as it can easily get into tight spots between branches on trees or bushes. However, this tool lacks a handguard, and also the handhold is over top of the tensioning fastener, which is not very comfortable for most users.
9. BERGER 69042 Hand Bow Saw – With 360˚ Rotatable, Exchangeable Saw Blade
BERGER 69042 is a perfect hand bow saw from BERGER for sawing trees, branches, shoots, shrubberies, bushes, etc. Featuring an easily replaceable 13.8 inches high-performance saw blade with rough teeth, having especially toughened tooth tips, this saw blade is sure to serve for a long lifetime.
This well-made saw is prepared in Germany accompanied by a VPA-GS seal for approved safety and KwF professional test seal for the supreme usage in the forestry ranges with being DLG Signum test approved.
BERGER 69042 pruning bow saw includes a beechwood handle, which permits for working at all temperatures comfortably.
The 360 degrees continuously rotatable, exchangeable high caliber saw blade can be fixed quickly all thanks to the distinct die-cast zinc lever.
With an overall length of 49 cm and a weight of1.46 pounds, this hand bow saw is extremely maneuverable and offers extremely clean and precise cutting of logs and trees alike. This bow saw also escorts a limited lifetime warranty.
10. Kenyon 41455 WP-7630 Bow Saw – Professional Grade Bow Saw
Cutting tools from the Kenyon brand are small but powerful and highly functional to provide you an edge over others. Seymour Kenyon WP-7630 is an industrial-grade 30 inches bow saw designed to cut effortlessly with the presence of a replaceable steel blade and guard.
The Kenyon 41455 WP-7630 comprises a tubular steel bow with an effective blade attached to it. Added with the round steel frame with sharp edges are the shock absorbers to automatically clean the teeth of the blade (self-cleaning), clearing out wood pulp/ waste with every push or pull.
And while Kenyon is conferred with several distinct features, for instance easily replaceable steel blades with protection, which also brings about an easy and smooth blade switch.
Although the WP-7630 is an ideal choice for cutting thick tree branches or even logs but is not suitable for most tasks. Though it is a simple saw with basic functionality saw and lacks a lot of the bell and whistle features but excels in its cutting capacity.
This pro-rank bow saw from Kenyon doesn’t look like anything special and lacks tensioning knobs or quick change blades, or even any knuckle protection, but this larger bow saw has an increased capacity for cutting larger branches with its sharpness, self-cleaning teeth.
The Buying Guide of Bow Saws For Logs
Although bow saws are not power tools, their purchase still requires you to know a tad bit about some of their key features and characteristics. Our following buying guide is designed to walk you through these features to help you make a better decision.
- Saw Length
Bow saws are available in the market in a variety of sizes ranging from 17 inches to 30 inches. The nature of cutting also varies with the changing size.
Smaller saws that have a length below 20 inches are designed for light-duty jobs like trimming small branches and shrubbery; while longer saws with blade size nearing 30 inches are more useful for tougher jobs like cutting not-so-thick trees.
For your log cutting requirements, it is advisable to get something with a length in between the two extremes. Although the choice of length alone may not give you away from the most suitable option, it certainly is one of the most important factors.
- Blade Type
Bow saw blades can be generally divided into two distinct categories. One type is to cut the softer, greenwood and the other type is meant to deal with the seasoned or the so-called deadwood.
For cutting the greenwood, the blade has raker type widely spaced longer teeth that can easily slice through fresh wood without getting entangled with the soft fibers.
This type of blade is mostly used for gardening and clearing underbrush. The other type of blade has peg-style teeth which are most suitable for cutting hardwood. These blades are mostly used for cutting logs and firewood.
- Tension Adjusting Mechanism
With usage and depending upon weathering by humidity and high temperatures, the blade tends to loosen which can result in wobbling and becomes quite dangerous to be used in that state. Therefore pulling the blade to appropriate tension is something any bow saw owner has to do every now and then.
Tension adjusting mechanisms are therefore integrated design features which help user utilize bow saws efficiently, smoothly and safely. Most of the bow saws offer tool-less tensioning mechanisms but the opposite can also be found.
- Handle, Guard and Grip
These three things relate to the same area of the bow saw. The handle bears the most important due to being the only pivot point of the saw. An ergonomic handle with soft, possibly rubber, and grip offer comfort and deliver maximum power to the blade.
Similarly, a knuckle guard is there to protect your hand from any abrasive wood during cutting thereby saving you from any misfortune.
- Material and Shape of Frame
The frame of a bow saw is also another important characteristic you should keep track of. Generally, some smaller bow saws are rather triangular shaped rather than a bow to allow them to slip into difficult and hard-to-reach locations. Similarly, the material of a frame also plays an important role.
A steel frame, for example, is quite sturdy and would have a long service life but is quite heavy and not suitable for something like a camping trip.
- Safety and Reliability
Since the bow saw’s blade is quite sharp, leaving it be can be dangerous and can cause accidental injury. A proper protective sheathing is thus a necessary item for your bow saw to keep yourself safe in your shed or during carrying it around.
Also, it may not seem anything much but when choosing a bow saw, try to choose one with a conspicuous bright color so that it can readily be spotted on the tree or among the dried branches. This decision will help you save a ton of time during your work!
Lastly, choose a bow saw whose good quality steel blades in proper size are readily available in the market to keep your saw up and running when you need it.
Wrapping Up
A bow saw is a handy tool to be used around a home garden for everyday gardening or in the fields and farms for cutting logs. It’s also very convenient without any hassle of maintenance like in the case of a chainsaw.
This gardening tool is very versatile, easy to use, durable as well as affordable, and has wide-ranging uses like trimming tree branches, pruning trees, or cutting firewood.
People Also Asked For Log Cutting Bow Saw
I have compiled the most asked questions that people ask about at different platforms;