Circular saw

A circular saw or a buzz saw, is a power-saw using a toothed or abrasive disc or blade to cut different materials using a rotary motion spinning around an arbor. A hole saw and ring saw also use a rotary motion but are different from a circular saw. Circular saws may also be loosely used for the blade itself. Circular saws were invented in the late 18th century and were in common use in sawmills in the United States by the middle of the 19th century.

"Buzzsaw" redirects here. For any other use, see Buzzsaw (disambiguation).

A circular saw is a tool for cutting many materials such as wood, masonry, plastic, or metal and may be hand-held or mounted to a machine. In woodworking the term "circular saw" refers specifically to the hand-held type and the table saw and chop saw are other common forms of circular saws. "Skilsaw" and "Skil saw" have become generic trademarks for conventional hand-held circular saws in the United States of America. Circular saw blades are specially designed for each particular material they are intended to cut and in cutting wood are specifically designed for making rip-cuts, cross-cuts, or a combination of both. Circular saws are commonly powered by electricity, but may be powered by a gasoline engine or a hydraulic motor which allows it to be fastened to heavy equipment, eliminating the need for a separate energy source.^[1]

A common claim is for a little-known sailmaker named of Southampton, England who obtained a patent in 1777 for a saw windmill.^[4]^[5] However, the specification for this only mentions the form of the saw incidentally, indicating that it was probably not his invention.

Samuel Miller

Gervinus of Germany is often credited with inventing the circular saw in 1780.

[6]

of Southampton had the blockmaking contract for Portsmouth Dockyard. In about 1762, he built a saw mill where he roughed out the blocks. This was replaced by another mill in 1781. Descriptions of his machinery there in the 1790s show that he had circular saws. Taylor patented two other improvements to blockmaking but not the circular saw.^[7]^[8]^[9] This suggests either that he did not invent it or that he published his invention without patenting it (which would mean it was no longer patentable).

Walter Taylor

Another claim is that it originated in the Netherlands in the sixteenth or seventeenth century.

[10]

The use of a large circular saw in a saw mill is said to have been invented in 1813 by , a Shaker inventor, after she noted the inefficiency of the traditional saw pits used by the sawyers in her community and sought an improvement.^[11]^[5]^[12] This claim is now mostly discredited.^[13]^[14]

Tabitha Babbitt

The Barringer, Manners and Wallis factory in Rock Valley, , Nottinghamshire also claims to be the site of the invention.

Mansfield

There is evidence for the prehistorical use of circular saws by people of Indus Valley Civilization during the Bronze Age. The same was excavated from the archeological site of Lothal, Gujarat.^[2]^[3]

The modern-day circular saw was invented around the end of the 18th century as a rip-saw to convert logs into lumber in sawmills and various claims have been made as to who invented it. Before the design was invented, logs were sawn by hand using a pit saw or using powered saws in a sawmill using an up-and-down saw with a reciprocating motion. The rotary nature of the circular saw requires more power to operate but cuts faster because the teeth are in constant motion. The sound of the circular saw is different from the sound of an up-and-down saw and earned it the nickname buzz-saw.

Sawmills first used smaller diameter circular saws to resaw dimension lumber such as lath and wall studs and for edging boards. As the technology advanced large diameter saw blades began to be used for the head saws and to cut clapboards.

Claims to the invention of the circular saw include:

Cutting is by teeth on the edge of a metal blade or by an abrasive wheel

The cut has narrow and relatively smooth surface finish

kerf

Cuts are straight and relatively accurate

The saw usually leaves burrs on the cut edge of metal and plastic (which should then be addressed with sand paper)

Saw setting should be done geometrically

Abrasive saw

Biscuit joiner

Brushcutter

Carbide saws

Cold saw

Concrete saw

(the combination of a compound miter and table saw)

Flip over saws

(chop saw, cut-off saw)

Miter saw

Multi-tool (powertool)

Panel saw

or swing saw

Pendulum saw

Radial arm saw

Sally saw

Swingblade sawmill

Table saw

or plunge saw

Track saw

In addition to hand-held circular saws (see below), different saws that use circular saw blades include:

Band saw

Dado set

Hewing

Saw pit

Water mill

Wood splitting

History of the portable circular saw

Hand held power saws – Has a section on handling kickback

Archived 2010-05-31 at the Wayback Machine

Circular Saw Safety Procedures

Archived 2016-06-30 at the Wayback Machine