Those little Lidl Japanese saws are not what they used to be....

[toolsntat]

Once again Lidl have been penny pinching and changed the manufacturing of summat.
Those little saws were the best I'd ever used and now I find them unusable....
Is it just me?
Cheers, perplexed Andy

 

[Just4Fun]

I never could use them. Am I ahead of my time?

 

[JohnPW]

Mine is few years old, on the blade and packaging:
"OWIM GmbH & Co. KG"

I think they changed the handle shape on the more recent ones.

 

[Rorschach]

That's a shame, I was hoping to buy more in the future. Glad I bought more than one when they first came out although I think I only have one spare one now

 

[Spectric]

Penny pinching, it really often does not pay and a good tool will last and give you good service, not to mention the hassle of buying again and delays in getting something done. Ok you might strike lucky and get something half decent but personally I like to get something decent first time without the hit and miss aspect.

 

[D_W]

What's unusable about them? The interesting thing about these japanese saws is that in japan, the ones we like (z, gyochuko, etc), don't cost much. I'd guess a z-saw replacement blade is about $5, or maybe ever so slightly higher. I bought a pack of 24 of them for somewhere around $5 each (add shipping and proxy fees, though, and it's another $1.50 or so for each). those are Z @265 blades (which are about $20 each in the US).

One individually with shipping inside japan was about $7 on japan yahoo, their ebay. I'm sure shipping is cheap there and would also guess that western buyers drove up the bigger pack that I bought (which ended up just being a store display box of four packs of 6).

 

[robgul]

Yep - I bought a couple a few weeks ago to replace an old one I had mislaid - blades are VERY flexy to the point of the saw being useless for anything but the smallest flush cutting of very thin dowels.

 

[D_W]

thanks for the clarification - that and too much tooth set are the two issues with cheap saws over here sold at hardware stores vs. Z and gyochuko, etc.

Even though the japanese saws have unhardened blades, they're stiffer than the cheap saws (perhaps they are partially hardened). At one point, irwin brand sold saws made in japan, but those, too, had greater set, a rubber handle instead of rattan wrapped, and were very floppy. $20 for a ryoba instead of $45 here (though the Z ryoba is probably $20 in japan), but the rubber handled saw takes a conscious effort to not flop the blade around.

 

[Bm101]

Once again Lidl have been penny pinching and changed the manufacturing of summat.
Those little saws were the best I'd ever used and now I find them unusable....
Is it just me?
Cheers, perplexed Andy

That's a shame. I have one spare blade left. I wish I'd had the foresight to buy far more.
Also if you grind the tip off you can have a saw that will start a cut on a flat surface.

 

[toolsntat]

I find the blade doesn't push very easily and wants to stick. It does look like they have put a coating on the blades this time.
The shape of the new handles bug me and I was thinking of just using my old ones but they've changed the bayonet fitting.
I'll have a try of the others and if no good I'll take em back....
Cheers Andy

 

[LJM]

Penny pinching, it really often does not pay and a good tool will last and give you good service, not to mention the hassle of buying again and delays in getting something done. Ok you might strike lucky and get something half decent but personally I like to get something decent first time without the hit and miss aspect.

Not to mention the environmental impact of repeat purchases and through away tools, where there is a lifetime version

 

[toolsntat]

Not to mention the environmental impact of repeat purchases and through away tools, where there is a lifetime version

Interested to know which pull saw you have and how you sharpen it to make it last a lifetime or are you on about something else?
Cheers Andy

 

[toolsntat]

Penny pinching, it really often does not pay and a good tool will last and give you good service, not to mention the hassle of buying again and delays in getting something done. Ok you might strike lucky and get something half decent but personally I like to get something decent first time without the hit and miss aspect.

No, what I was saying is that lidl were doing the penny pinching....
It seems I may want a better option now, which do you find is best?
Cheers Andy

 

[Spectric]

I originaly brought a Japanese saw at Harrogate show just to see how I would get on with it and supprisingly I found cutting on the pull so easy and controlable that I now have a few, some from Woodworkers workshop, some workshop heaven and an Axminster one that I only use for roughing.

 

[LJM]

Interested to know which pull saw you have and how you sharpen it to make it last a lifetime or are you on about something else?
Cheers Andy

A feather file can be used to sharpen a Japanese pull saw.

but I actually meant tools in general. Even if we accept that some tools have inherently disposable parts, Lidl changing the mode of attachment of blade to handle illustrates an issue with tools like this.

 

[Droogs]

No, what I was saying is that lidl were doing the penny pinching....
It seems I may want a better option now, which do you find is best?
Cheers Andy

@toolsntat
Whatever you do Andy, do not buy any Draper pull saws. What a bag of rollocks they are, even worse than the short POS in the Aldi diy tool kit

 

[JohnPW]

Are people saying the current Lidl saw blade is too flexible and sticky?

My old one is 0.5mm thick, and flexible enough to do a flush cut but still stiff enough so that if you hold flat in mid-air, the blade only bends under its own weight by a tiny bit.