Gent's Saws

Gent's saws are basically smaller back saws that generally range from around 3" on up to 10". I'm writing this blog to simply say no woodworker should be without one. The 10" is my favourite size and what cuts a lot cuts a little so I have little use for the smaller versions. All of these saws have different names on the plates and this causes confusion if you look in a catalogue and try to choose the best for your work. What might help is that there are indeed very few makers out there, so few in fact we can narrow it down to just two. Whereas there are some bijou makers who are usually engineers of one kind or another, most of their prices are for the wealthy collector user and not really for the working man. I mean they go up to £500 but they cut the same as a £20 one and they go dull on the teeth at the same rate so they will need resharpening in a few weeks.

The main supplier is based in Sheffield. The company produces the same basic saw with different brand names but the saws are all the same in terms of functionality, sizings and so on. Why I think everyone should own one is because they cut terrific dovetails and really, even the inexpensive ones cut equally to the very best.

My testing out half a dozen of them made me wonder how to address the confusion because they re all the same and looking through any of the catalogs can give the impression that there are differences that matter when that's not the case at all. Well, the term one-size-fits-all in this case really does measure up; man, woman and child can use one and it will generally suit every user with no changes necessary. That means that for a family working in the garage the saw can be passed from one another without any issues.

The list of saws made by the one maker are: Crown, Pax, Garlick, Dorchester, Lynx, William Greaves and Victor. I suggest you ignore the 6" and 8", they're too short.