When it comes to power tools like saws, heavier doesn’t always translate to the best cutting efficiency.
Oftentimes, you’ll find certain equipment too heavy to carry with you, making them impractical for your desired applications. If you’re looking for a quality cutting tool that’s lightweight and compact, a folding saw is an excellent choice.
The best folding saws are designed to be incredibly light, enabling you to carry them to your job site, camping ground, and yard. To help you find the right one, we’ve reviewed the top-rated folding saws on the market. Read on to learn more.
The 8 Best Folding Saw Reviews
1. Corona Razortooth Folding Saw
The Corona Razortooth often earns the title of the best folding saw as it strikes an excellent balance between pricing and features. It's affordable, yet it offers many of the features you’ll find in high-priced counterparts.
Right off the bat, one thing you’ll notice is its curved blade. As you’ll see later, this curvature plays an important role as it enables you to use it for overhead applications.
With regards to blade length, this folding pruning saw is 10 inches long, providing a decent amount of cutting power. According to the manufacturer, this should enable you to cut branches that are at least 5 or 6 inches in diameter.
Better yet, you’ll have no problem using the saw Corona Razortooth folding saw as it has an ergonomic handle. To be a little more specific, it’s made of premium-quality co-molded material, resulting in a firm and secure grip.
The configuration of its teeth is another point worth noting. Each razor tooth has a three-sided design, resulting in faster cuts. To add to this, the teeth remain sharper for longer.
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Have you been searching for the best professional folding saw? If you have, you’ll love the Silky Bigboy 2000 model.
It’s super compact and light without compromising on the blade's size. To be precise, the saw has a weight of 1.25 pounds, making it light enough to carry on your backpacking trips.
Surprisingly, its blade is a whopping 14.2 inches long. Not only does this result in an extended reach, but it also provides greater cutting depth and longer strokes for faster cutting. Also unique to this blade is its low angle cut that facilitates smooth cutting of branches.
With regards to material, the manufacturer has used premium-quality SK4 high-carbon steel, which is about 1.4 mm thick. This material makes the saw sturdy enough to be used for a variety of projects, ranging from pruning to yard work and construction.
Like the Corona Razortooth, the folding saw Silky also contains impulse-hardened teeth that further enhance its cutting abilities. Thanks to this, the teeth last up to 3 times longer than conventional non-hardened teeth.
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Another folding saw that never disappoints is the Bahco Laplander Folding Saw.
Right out of the gate, you’ll notice that this tool is aesthetically pleasing. It’s strange to attribute a design aspect to a tool as utilitarian as a saw. But compared to the Silky and Corona alternatives, the Bahco Laplander has a much better-looking design.
The Bahco Laplander Folding Saw is not just about looks. It offers a stellar performance too. It gives you 7 ½ inches of blade to work with. And even then, it’s very compact, thanks to its lightweight and well-balanced design.
With this folding saw, you can work for extended periods of time without getting overly fatigued. Part of this is because it’s very comfortable to hold.
The Bahco Laplander’s handle comprises a hard plastic build with a tactile rubber over-mold. The rubber provides a firm and comfortable grip; hence, minimizing the risk of user fatigue.
In case your Laplander’s blade ever dulls, replacing it will be a cinch. All you need to do is unscrew the pivot using a flat head screwdriver, remove the current saw blade and insert the new one. Just be careful not to overtighten the screw as this will make it difficult to deploy.
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Have you been yearning to buy one of the best folding pruning saws? If you have, the EverSaw Folding Saw is the ultimate pick.
The key highlight of this saw is its blade. For starters, it gives you a decent 8 inches to work with, which is more than what other folding saws offer.
Secondly, this blade is made of triple-cut hardened teeth, resulting in fast and smooth cuts. And with 9 teeth per inch, this folding saw is designed to cut wood, branches, bone, and plastic as long as they're less than 4 inches in diameter. Also important to note is that this is an SK-5 carbon steel blade, a material that's revered for its longevity.
Another draw of the 8-inch EverSaw folding saw entails its handle. This handle constitutes a rubberized overmold, providing an ultra-firm grip. This significantly reduces the chances of the blade slipping from your hands during use.
To top it all off, it has a gear-tight locking mechanism that locks the blade firmly into position. However, you can adjust the tension of the saw blade using the pivot pin integrated into the saw.
You will also be impressed with how versatile this folding saw is. Apart from pruning trees, you can also use it as a camping saw, game saw or backpack saw. This makes it a fantastic addition to a survival gear kit.
Moreover, the EverSaw folding saw is designed with portability. When stretched out to its full size, it’s about 17 inches long. But once you fold it, it’s just 9 ½ inches long, and has none of its teeth exposed, making it easy and safe to carry.
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Want to invest in the best folding saws for bushcraft? If you do, the Rexbeti Heavy Duty Folding Saw is particularly suited for this application.
There’s a lot to love about this folding saw starting with the fact that it has one of the longest blades. The 11-inch blade gives you plenty of cutting power and reach. In fact, the manufacturer claims that it can easily tackle trees that are up to 6 to 7 inches wide.
Better yet, this blade is constructed from quality SK-5 steel. SK5 is a type of Japanese heavy-duty carbon steel that’s revered for its wear resistance and extreme hardness.
Another thing you’ll love about this blade is that it has 7 staggered saw teeth. Thanks to this configuration, it’s able to make smooth and sharp cuts.
We were also impressed to learn that the Rexbeti folding saw’s handle is rubber-coated. This results in an ultra-firm and secure grip, making it suitable for use in any weather condition.
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Have you been hunting for the best budget folding saw? If you have, the Green Mount Hand Pruning Saw is a fantastic choice! It is one of the cheapest you can ever buy a saw for.
Similar to Rexbeti, the blade on this folding hand saw is also made of Japanese SK5 carbon steel. As such, you can expect the same resistance to wear and tear.
Better yet, the blade is fitted with teeth that are able to maintain their sharpness for longer. In total, you get 7 saw teeth per inch that sport a three-edged design for effective cutting.
If you’re looking to work for prolonged periods of time, you’ll find the Green Mount folding saw super comfortable to hold. This is due to the ergonomically-designed and anti-slip handle that offers a firm grip.
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If you’re looking for one of the best folding bow saws, you’ll be hard-pressed to find an option better than the Coghlan Folding Saw.
As you might have guessed, it gets this name from its bow shape. So contrary to other folding saws that contain hinged straight or curved blades, this one stretches out to form a triangle.
It comes with a 21-inch serrated blade. The fact that it's longer, means you get more cutting capacity. However, this makes it less portable than others. So even though it’s compact when folded up, it can’t quite fit in your pocket. But, it can fit in a backpack.
On a more positive note, the fact that its blade is serrated is a huge bonus. This means that you can use the saw to cut through ropes, belts, fabrics, and a ton of other textured materials. Serrated blades are also great for tackling soft, flexible wood.
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Silky saws are pretty popular, so it’s not surprising that another one of their inventions has made it to our list. The Silky Pocketboy Folding Saw is cheaper and smaller than the model we reviewed earlier; hence, best suited for light-duty cutting.
Even then, it gives you a full 6 ¾ inches of blade to work with. More importantly, it’s designed to cut on the pull stroke.
The pull cutting action offers several benefits. For one, it requires less energy, and two, it gives you better control of the blade. We also like how sharp the blade is, enabling it to slice through wood like a hot knife through butter.
Also worth noting about this blade is that it contains 7 large non-set teeth, providing maximum cutting efficiency. The blade itself is made of quality hard-resistant material and then it’s chrome-plated to enhance its durability.
Another thing that makes the Silky Pocketboy worth checking out entails its lightweight profile. This is among the smallest and lightest of the Silky folding saws.
With the carrying case included, its weight is about 7.8 ounces and just 6.2 ounces when it's excluded. Plus, the blade folds into a more compact unit, resulting in a closed length of 6.7 inches. This is a fairly easy-to-justify length and weight, especially if you're looking for one to add to your survival kit.
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What are Folding Saws?
A folding saw is a cutting tool that contains a toothed blade. However, its most distinguishing characteristic is the fact that it can be folded inside its handle; fairly similar to how a pocket knife works.
As you can probably imagine, such a folding hand saw doesn’t offer half as much cutting power as a full-size saw does. In fact, if you're planning to split larger pieces of wood, an ax or hatchet is better suited.
However, a folding saw offers incredible flexibility and portability. You can fold it into a compact tool, and take it literally everywhere you go; be it a camping or hunting trip.
Benefits of Folding Saws
Wondering whether you should invest in folding saws? Well, here are some of the benefits you’ll gain:
Versatility
A great folding saw is designed to accommodate a variety of blades enabling you to tackle any material. Better yet, this makes it ideal for different tasks; be it for lawn maintenance or using it for survival in the woods.
Lightweight
One of the biggest draws of a folding pruning saw is its easy portability. Since it's light, you can hold it for a prolonged period without getting fatigued.
Cheap
Another advantage it offers entails its pocket-friendly price. This gives you the freedom to buy multiple units if you prefer.
How to Choose the Right Folding Saw
There are a couple of points you should keep in mind when purchasing a folding pruning saw. These include:
Intended Use
Contrary to popular belief, these hand saws aren’t all created equal. So while one tool might be suited for activities like hiking and camping, another might only be good enough for light-duty tasks around the home.
As such, you should think of the specific uses you’ll be subjecting your folding saw to. Do you want to saw through bone or only use it to clear bushes?
Size and Weight
One of the best things about a folding saw is that it comes in a small and compact structure. As a result, it's fairly lightweight, and it's why it's included in most survival kits.
However, there’ll be size and weight differences even among the best folding table saws. So if you plan to carry your folding saw from one location to another, then go for the lightest you can find without compromising on your cutting needs.
Blade
The blade is the heart of every folding hand saw. For this reason, you should pay more attention to this feature than others. Specifically, check out the blade design of your folding saw.
Blade design here refers to how long it is, its shape, and the material used in the construction. Here’s a brief guide to help you:
Length
Folding saws come in a wide variety of sizes. Some are quite short, extending to just 3 inches. Others are big, giving you up to 15 inches to work with. The majority though are in the medium-sized bracket with lengths ranging from 6 to 9 inches.
Shape
Based on this aspect, folding saw blades can be categorized into two: curved or straight. To choose between the two, think of the saw’s intended application.
A straight blade is best suited for cutting tasks in the vicinity of your torso or waist as this is where most of your energy will come from. Conversely, a curved blade is ideal for making both overhead and low cuts as the curvature aids in holding the saw in place.
Material
Almost every folding saw is constructed using steel or high carbon steel. The general rule here is that the higher the amount of carbon in the steel, the harder the saw’s blade.
However, high-carbon steel is more susceptible to rust. So if you opt for such a blade, ensure that it’s either plated or coated to protect it against rust.
Whenever possible, we recommend going for blades made of impulse-hardened steel. With this material, the teeth maintain their sharpness for longer.
On a side note, you'll also want to consider the cost and ease of buying replacement blades for your folding pruning saw.
While some brands have readily available blades, others don't. Similarly, some manufacturers- like Bahco Laplander -offer replacement blades at a reasonable cost. With others, however, the replacement blades cost just as much as the saw.
Size, Configuration, and Number of Teeth
Another factor you should account for when choosing the best folding saw is the configuration of their teeth.
This is what will determine whether the saw slices material with a push, pull cutting technique, or a little bit of both.
If the teeth are designed to slope forward, then the saw cuts on the pull stroke. But if they’re sloping backward, it means the blade cuts on the push stroke. Another configuration is where the teeth extend straight out. In this case, the saw employs either the pull or push action.
A pull stroke cutting action is perfect for tackling hard materials. However, a blade that employs this pull action is also likely to snap under pressure. On the other hand, a push stroke delivers more accurate and delicate cuts.
Aside from configuration, also be mindful of the number of teeth. Ideally, the manufacturer should have indicated the number of teeth per inch (TPI) on the package.
The rule of thumb here is that the higher the TPI count, the longer the tool takes to cut, but the smoother and cleaner the results will be. On the other hand, a lower TPI means the blade cuts more aggressively, leaving rough edges.
The number of teeth present on a given saw also determines the types of wood that can be cut. For instance, a 7 tpi blade is great for tackling green wood. One with 8.5 tpi is ideal for cutting softwood while a 17 tpi blade can slice through hardwood and bamboo
Here’s a chart to offer more insight into this:
Tooth Per Inch (TPI) | Types of Cut | Most Suitable Materials |
|---|---|---|
6 to 8 | Rough | Green wood |
10 to 14 | Fine | Wood, plastic |
16 to 20 | Ultra-smooth | Particle board, plywood, laminate |
Adjustability
If you're looking for a good folding saw, then buy one that comes fitted with an adjustable blade. Such tools have screws that let you tighten or loosen the blades. This way, you can configure it to be long, short or swap it completely with a stronger blade.
Grip
Buying a folding saw means you’ll want to get the most out of it. To achieve this, check how comfortable the handle is and whether it offers a secure grip.
A premium-quality handle is one that’s contoured to fit nicely in your hand so as to prevent you from experiencing fatigue too early on. On the same note, the handle should be made of non-slip material to minimize the risk of injury.
Safety Features
We have to admit that folding saws carry a higher level of risk than others.
Their folding feature is somewhat of a bitter-sweet situation. On one hand, it makes the tool highly portable. But on the other hand, it poses a safety hazard.
Imagine a scenario where the locking mechanism snags, causing the blade to unlock suddenly. At best, this would result in serious injury. At worst, it would chop off your finger. To avoid such situations, learn to handle the blade carefully.
More importantly, consider buying a saw that has a dual locking system. This means that the blade can be locked into position both when it’s open and closed. As a result, there’s zero chance that the blade will end up opening unexpectedly.
Another feature that enhances the safety of a folding saw is the sharpness of the blade. Sharpened blades are always safer than dull ones. This is because they don’t require an excessive amount of force, and they facilitate proper cutting techniques.
Ease of Use
For the most part, folding saws are user-friendly power tools.
But some have special features that make them much easier to use. For instance, some come with a sheath or carrying case to provide convenient storage and portability.
Others include a replacement blade. This way, you always have a spare blade to use; thus, improving your productivity.
Conclusion
Folding saws offer one key benefit: portability. But this doesn’t mean that they’re created equal.
If you’re looking for one of the best folding saws, the Corona Razortooth is precisely what you need. While it’s not the cheapest tool, it still has a very pocket-friendly price tag, making it affordable for most buyers.
More importantly, it comes fitted with a 10-inch razor-sharp blade. This gives you the ability to cut branches that are up to 6 inches in diameter. To add to this, the blade’s teeth sport a 3-sided design, guaranteeing efficient cutting.