Chainsaws are wonderful tools for wood cutting. But chainsaws are not perfect. Chainsaws are heavy. Chainsaws are noisy. Chainsaws require supplies of fuel and bar oil. These limitations can be problematic during field use.
The Silky KatanaBoy Professional 700 presents an outstanding manual alternative to chainsaws for cutting trees and branches up to 14 inches in diameter. The saw is light and compact, weighing just four pounds and folding to a length of 33 inches. It creates so little noise that hearing protection is not required. It requires no supplies except the muscles of its user. And it uses those muscles effectively to cut wood more easily than any other handsaw that I have ever used.
The KatanaBoy 700 is made in Japan, as you might expect from its name. It is not inexpensive, costing $479.99 at silkysaws.com at the time of this writing. But it is a well-made and highly effective tool. If you need to cut wood at remote locations where it would be difficult to carry and supply a chainsaw; if you need a convenient, reliable, and compact tool in your vehicle for clearing downed trees over the road; if you need a light tool for woodcutting to be carried in a small aircraft; the KatanaBoy or some other Silky saw may be the ideal tool for you. I highly recommend them.
Background
Most handsaws get compared to other handsaws. But I noticed that many Silky saw reviewers compared those saws with chainsaws. That piqued my interest. So I contacted Silky to see if they could provide me with a sample for testing and evaluation. They were just introducing the KatanaBoy 550 and KatanaBoy 700 to the American market through their US distributor, Vertical Supply Group. They offered to let me review one. I eagerly jumped at the chance, and chose the KatanaBoy 700. In my world of woodcutting, I figured an extra 150 centimeters of blade might come in handy. A couple of weeks later, a FedEx truck drove up my driveway.
First Impressions
The 32 x 12.75 x 8.5 inch shipping box contained a 33.25 x 5.38 x 1.5 inch product box. Some cleverly sliced sheets of corrugated cardboard provided the padding for the product box.
The product box indicates that the saw is made in Japan, and that it is suitable for outdoor adventure, off-road use, and forestry.
The blade is electroless nickel-plated to provide superior wear and corrosion resistance. The nickel plating also makes the saw a beautiful tool. The rubber handle provides good comfort and grip. A nice carrying bag is included.
A ledger-sized sheet of paper is printed on both sides with warnings in English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, Finish, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic, Polish, Czech, Slovakian, Hungarian, Romanian, Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian, Turkish, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Farsi, and several other languages that I could not recognize. These warnings relate to things like using protective eyewear, avoiding power lines, wearing gloves, using only on wood, and keeping it out of the reach of children.
To deploy the blade, a security screw that prevents accidental opening and closing must first be loosened. Then the head of the screw must be pressed down and the blade opened. Once the blade locks into place, the screw should be re-tightened.
To close the blade, the security screw must be loosened, its head pressed down, and the blade folded half-way closed. At the half-way point, the screw head must once again be depressed to allow the blade to be fully closed. This is to reduce the risk of closing the blade over one’s fingers. Once the blade is fully closed, the security screw should once again be tightened to prevent accidental reopening.
A Measuring Line
I slung the saw in its case over my shoulder and headed out the door.
My first stop was the pole barn. I had noted that a replacement blade for the saw costs $252.99 at shforestrysupplies.com. I did not want to break the blade by getting over-ambitious and cutting a tree larger than the recommended 14 inches in diameter.
I multiplied 14 by 3.14 to calculate the maximum circumference for a tree that the saw could safely cut. That came out to 43.96 inches, so I cut a length of orange paracord to 44 inches and melted the ends to prevent fraying. When I pulled hard on the cord, I discovered that I could stretch it to 46 inches. So I cut a bit off one end, remelted it, and stretched and measured again. It was still just a little too long, so I cut it, melted, stretched, and measured one more time. It came out to 43.5 inches. So I knew that if I put the cord around a branch or tree at the point at which I wished to cut it, if I could make the ends touch, the branch or tree was small enough to cut with the KatanaBoy 700.
I tied the cord to the handle of the case at first, but eventually I had a better idea. I put the cord through the lanyard hole at the end of the saw handle and tied it as a lanyard. Then whenever I needed to measure a branch or tree, I just untied the lanyard and measured away.
Testing Interrupted
The first object of my testing was a tree that was leaning over my driveway. I wanted to fell that tree at a time convenient to me rather than waiting for it to fall during some random thunderstorm, leaving me to clear the driveway under less than ideal conditions.
It was early on a Saturday morning. I wanted to maintain good relationships with my distant neighbors, who may have been sleeping in on a Saturday morning. That gave the quiet KatanaBoy a real advantage over a noisy chainsaw.
There was a lot of brush and smaller trees surrounding the target tree. The KatanaBoy made quick work of clearing an eight-foot circle around the base of the target tree.
I untied the measuring cord from the lanyard hole of the KatanaBoy and placed it around the base of the target tree. The tree was too big. So I left that tree for later attention from a chainsaw.
Testing Continued
It was still early, so I went to the shooting range behind the pole barn. I wanted to widen the portion of the firing lane that stretched into the woods near the barn.
The mosquitoes were pretty thick, so I put on a bug jacket. Then I went to work.
The saw cut extremely well. In less than an hour, I felled nine oak, wild cherry, and beech trees, not counting numerous smaller saplings. One tree was 3.5 inches in diameter, two were 4 inches, one 4.25 inches, one 5.5 inches, one 6.25 inches, one 7.5 inches, one 9.5 inches, and one 12.5 inches.
The saw went through all the trees well, but it also provided a good cardiovascular workout. I learned to slow down, concentrate on smooth strokes, and let the saw do its job.
The saw is designed to cut on the pull stroke only. It was important not to push the saw or to twist it if it was caught in the kerf.
After I was done with felling, I noticed that the nearest neighbors were up and around. So I fired up the chainsaw to do the bucking. I misjudged the tension on one of the branches that I was trimming and got the bar of the chainsaw well and truly stuck in the kerf. It was nice not to have to go to the pole barn, take out the backup chainsaw, gas it up, fill the bar oil, and fire it up just to cut one branch. Instead, I could just grab the KatanaBoy to make an appropriate cut higher on the branch. That relieved the tension on the kerf, and released the bar of my chainsaw.
When I was done with the KatanaBoy for the day, I brushed the sawdust off the blade, oiled the blade, folded and cased the saw, and hung it on a hook on the wall of the pole barn.
During the course of the coming weeks I was able to use the KatanaBoy to cut branches that were too high over my head to reach with the chainsaw, and to cut up branches to burn in our fire pit.
The saw functioned extremely well throughout the testing period.
Conclusions
The Silky KatanaBoy Professional 700 saw is an outstanding tool for cutting trees and branches less than 14 inches in diameter. It is light, sturdy, compact, and cuts better than any other handsaw that I have ever used.
If you need to carry a saw on your back to a remote location; if you need to stand on a ladder while you cut a branch (chainsaws and ladders don’t mix); if you need to cut quietly; if you need a tool that can sit in a vehicle for long periods of time without creating gas fumes or leaking oil; if you need a tool that can be carried in a small aircraft without excess weight; if you are preparing for a situation when gas and bar oil may be unavailable; then the KatanaBoy or some other Silky saw may be exactly what you are looking for.
I highly recommend Silky saws in general, and the KatanaBoy Professional 700 in particular.
Disclaimer
Vertical Supply Group provided me with a sample of the Silky KatanaBoy Professional 700 for testing and evaluation. I tried not to allow their kindness to interfere with my objectivity in this review, and I believe that I have succeeded. I did not receive any other financial or other inducement to mention any vendor, product, or service in this article.
Read the full article here