408 THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 



has much sawing to do ; and a man never regrets having paid a 

 few dimes more for a good saw. 



605. A good saw is usually distinguished by a bright polish 

 a clear and lively ring -freedom from flaws in the blade and 

 in the teeth its great elasticity, and a good degree of hardness. 

 A coarse-looking, leaden-colored, dull-sounding, non-elastic, pew 

 ter-plate, coarsely -polished saw should be avoided. A hard saw 

 is worth a score of soft ones. A saw that is so soft when it is 

 filed that a thin sheet of steel hangs to the edge of the teeth, is 

 a poor thing. The two ends of a good hand-saw, or a crosscut 

 saw, if the blade is not too thick, may be brought together with 

 out any danger of kinking or breaking it. A saw that will kink 

 very easily is not as good as it would be if it were harder. Such 

 a saw will never retain its set of the teeth like a harder one. 



606. Another thing of great importance in selecting a saw is, 

 to select one that has teeth, many or few, adapted to the kind 

 of sawing to be done. The materials which a farmer has to saw 

 are so variable, that it is best for him to select a hand-saw for 

 ordinary purposes having a pretty stiff plate, and about seven 

 teeth to the inch. A saw with fine teeth will cut much smoother 

 than a saw with coarse teeth. Indeed, for some kinds of sawing 

 a saw with coarse teeth would do the work intolerably bad ; while 

 if the same saw had four times as many teeth it would saw neatly, 

 and just as fast, and sometimes much faster, with the same 

 power. If the materials to be sawed be of good thickness, the 

 teeth should be farther apart ; and if the materials be small, or 

 thin, the teeth must be fine, else they will take too rank a hold, 

 making a very rough, jagged cut. For sawing hard wood, both 

 across and lengthways of the grain of the wood, a saw with fine 

 teoth is best. A hand-saw, whose teeth are half an inch or three- 

 eighths of an inch apart is an ugly thing to saw a thin, hard board 

 with, or even hard plank. The teeth of a saw, for any purpose, 

 ought to be so fine that not less than four, in sawing soft wood, 

 and six or eight in hard wood, shall be cutting at once. In slit 

 ting hard plank, the teeth must be fine or the work will be very 

 rough. The reason of this is, when the teeth are far apart each 



