Japanese Harima Kugihiki Flush Cutting Hand Saw

An update:

Stopped into my local store and ordered one of each of this as they were already sold out. They are expecting more stock in this area on Monday, but we'll see if I get the call this week or not.

Looks like the code SAWDUST is in fact dead for good. The store associate told me this was a temporary code due to the Covid situation and was deactivated yesterday morning. He was told by his superiors that this is a permanent change :/

Kudos to yardost for finding the code MASTERBUILDER which at the time of this posting appears to work for free shipping.

For those inquiring, there are a few major differences between Japanese style saws and the Western style saws. Most notably Japanese saws cut on the pull stroke, Western saws cut on the push stroke. This is why the Western saws have a pistol style grip as opposed to the horizontal barrel grip on the Japanese saws...it's a different movement & body mechanic.

Western saws use a set to alternately push the teeth outward; this is done to prevent sawdust from binding the blade. This is also why the kerf (the slot made by the saw) is wider than the thickness of the saw blade itself. A Japanese saw has a 0 degree set - instead the teeth are alternately sharpened at an angle. The kerf on a Japanese saw is the same as the thickness of the blade.

Western style saws generally need thicker and/or deeper blades as they have to be able to withstand the force of being pushed through wood. Japanese saws can be thinner as they are pulled through.

Most modern Japanese saws have impulse hardened teeth. This means that the steel will be too hard to sharpen and are therefore disposable (also why replacement blades are sold). Non-hardened teeth can be sharpened with a specific file called a Feather file. It's a very tedious process.

Different Japanese saw types:

Ryoba - A spineless saw with teeth on both sides of the blade. These are general purpose saws that usually have a higher TPI for rip cutting on one side, and a finer TPI for crosscutting on the other. There are different TPI combinations for hardwood/softwood, different lengths, and blade thicknesses. The lack of spine allows for deep cuts.

Kataba - A saw that has either a partial spine or no spine designed for crosscuts. Generally a finer TPI there are also different combinations of these. Teeth are on one side only.

Dozuki - A spined saw with a finer TPI and thinner blade meant for dovetails and other fine joinery tasks. The spine limits this saw to shallow cuts, but the fine TPI and thin blade affords very precise, finish cuts.

Mawashibiki - The Japanese style keyhole saw. Think of this as a stiff coping saw; it allows curved cuts and cuts from the center of material (via a drilled hole).

Kugihiki - A spineless, Japanese flush cutting saw. Flexible, thin blades allow making flush cuts on pegs, dowels, dovetail ends, and other similar joinery tasks. The blades on these are generally narrow and can reach into smaller openings. These come single and double sided.

There are others, but those are the main ones you are likely to see. All of these saws are fine woodworking saws....if you are framing or wondering why you can't just use a Sawzall or Circular Saw, then assuredly these are not the tools for you. If you are building furniture, making boxes, doing trim work, or any kind of precision woodworking tasks these likely have a home in your collection. In today's world I think of these as an accentuating tool; they probably don't replace electric tools, but work when a powertool will not.

There are a lot of arguments about which is superior....Western style or Japanese. I personally prefer a nice Western style backsaw since I learned with that tool a long time ago, but I have several Japanese saws in my collection since they server a different purpose. There's no question that a Japanese saw makes cleaner cut, however as a practice you should plan on cleaning up your cut with a rasp/chisel/plane/etc. I've found that the thinner, more flexible blades produce a more variable cut, predominantly because I haven't mastered Japanese saws.

Sorry for the long read, but thought it might be helpful to someone.

Also worth mentioning; you can order these if they are backordered (online and in-store) for this price, however there is often a wait time of several weeks to get these in. The last saws I ordered took about a month to come in. The store associates have told me these are very quick to sell out in most locations and they have to wait for more stock. Buyer beware - that said, I've never had an order cancelled on me.

If you can wait, this is pretty much the best deal (40%-50% off the normal price) you'll find on similar Japanese handsaws. Blade replacements alone generally cost more than this.

I use it mostly to cut dowels flush with the workpiece when covering screw holes. Very common in pocket hole joinery as well as many other types of joinery.

Idk why but I get giddy whenever I see a woodworking deal. I don't need this but TU