TESTED: Nakaya Ryoba

Review and photos: Raf Nathan

This Nakaya Ryoba combination saw is beautifully made. It is a traditional Japanese saw with rip teeth on one edge and cross cut teeth on the other, meaning you can use the one saw to rip to width and then cut to length.

This sample has a 210mm long blade, but longer blades of 240mm and 270mm are available. It has a simple and comfortable bamboo handle which is normal for this type of saw.

The machining of this sawblade itself appears to be perfect. In fact the middle of the blade is scraped, making it thinner than the kerf so it won’t jam in the cut, if you saw straight of course.

The crosscut edge has 20tpi (teeth per inch) giving a fine to medium cut which is excellent on softwoods. I don’t think it was as comfortable cutting very hard Australian woods however.

The rip edge has progressively sized teeth which I understand is to help start the cut easily. The teeth count near the handle is 12tpi and at the end is 8tpi. The rip sawing action is outstanding and the saw sailed through softwoods as expected, but was also very good on hardwood as well. This is a great rip saw for furniture sized components.

It’s a very good saw for making mortise and tenon joints, general purpose sawing and component sizing.

Available from Japanese Tools, see www.japanesetools.com.au

Raf Nathan is a Brisbane-based wood designer maker.