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Leatherman Blast Review
Submitted by An Outdoor Idiots Team Member.
The Leatherman Blast: Saw
The saw is simply called a "saw", rather than, for example, a "wood saw". It is presumably, therefore, designed to be a general-purpose thing.Here is the saw:
The cutting edge is about 6.5cm (about 2.5") long. The blade is very thin (about 1mm) and rather bendy.
The first time it was used, it stayed bendy. This is what it now looks like:
This was disappointing, but is not exactly a great surprise for a small folding saw. In general such things seem incredibly easy to damage. The problem is that, on the push stroke, if it catches in the work piece for any reason, then you end up bending the saw blade greatly.
There are two ways in which you can help to guard against this: either saw very slowly and carefully, only putting real force into the pull-stroke (the saw blade is designed to do most of its work on the pull stroke anyhow); or, if you wish to saw rapidly, then make very small movements, keeping the blade well within the workpiece. In the case of a saw this short, such small movements seem absurdly small, but it does work and can get through wood surprisingly fast.
The above bent saw blade was not the disaster it could have been. This can normally render a saw unusable, as the blade always jams in the workpiece. However, the blade of the Blast's saw is so thin and so bendy that it still seems to work tolerably well - it straightens out once it is in the cut. Therefore, although the saw blade bent the very first time it was used, we have been able to continue testing it, as follows.
It can cut through wood as thick as the blade is long:
Using very fast and tiny strokes, it got through the above in about half a minute, leaving this devastation behind:
It was rotting at the top anyway, so don't write in.
The teeth of the saw do not stick out at all, and so it is possible to produce very neat cuts with it. Here is wood that was liberated from a mop handle courtesy of the Blast's saw:
This shot is probably not the best way to show how smooth the cut is. Anyhow, all the prominent lines in the photo above are the grain of the wood, not artifacts of it being cut with a saw.
In addition to the live and dead wood shown above, we also used it to cut through a PVC pipe. Considering that some saws have very different blades for dealing with live wood and dead wood, it seems that the teeth of the Blast's saw have indeed been well designed to work in a variety of materials.
Summary: The Blast's saw is versatile, sharp and effective. However, it is a small folding saw, and needs to be treated very carefully indeed.
Manufacturers of small saws like this should probably work out how on earth the blade of the Bahco Laplander folding saw is made, because this seems to be a very rare, if not unique, example of how to make a small and bendy, yet very robust, saw blade. Once again, when reviewing a folding saw, we find ourselves citing the Bahco Laplander as a shining example, rather than the one that we are reviewing.
Page 15 of 18 Previous Next [Top of Page]
Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: Overview: Vital Statistics; The Metal; The Plastic; Quality of Construction
Page 3: Overview: Usage
Page 4: Rulers
Page 5: Wood/Metal File
Page 6: Small Bit Driver
Page 7: Screwdrivers
Page 8: Bottle Opener
Page 9: Wire Stripper
Page 10: Can Opener
Page 11: Needlenose Pliers
Page 12: Regular Pliers
Page 13: Wire Cutters
Page 14: Hard-Wire Cutters
Page 15: Saw
Page 16: Scissors
Page 17: Knife
Page 18: Conclusion
Page 2: Overview: Vital Statistics; The Metal; The Plastic; Quality of Construction
Page 3: Overview: Usage
Page 4: Rulers
Page 5: Wood/Metal File
Page 6: Small Bit Driver
Page 7: Screwdrivers
Page 8: Bottle Opener
Page 9: Wire Stripper
Page 10: Can Opener
Page 11: Needlenose Pliers
Page 12: Regular Pliers
Page 13: Wire Cutters
Page 14: Hard-Wire Cutters
Page 15: Saw
Page 16: Scissors
Page 17: Knife
Page 18: Conclusion
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