
A circular saw or a buzz saw, is a power-
saw
A saw is a tool consisting of a tough blade, Wire saw, wire, or Chainsaw, chain with a hard toothed edge used to cut through material. Various terms are used to describe toothed and abrasive saws.
Saws began as serrated materials, and when man ...
using a toothed or
abrasive
An abrasive is a material, often a mineral, that is used to shape or finish a workpiece through rubbing which leads to part of the workpiece being worn away by friction. While finishing a material often means polishing it to gain a smooth, reflec ...
disc or
blade
A blade is the Sharpness (cutting), sharp, cutting portion of a tool, weapon, or machine, specifically designed to puncture, chop, slice, or scrape surfaces or materials. Blades are typically made from materials that are harder than those they a ...
to cut different materials using a rotary motion spinning around an
arbor. A
hole saw and
ring saw also use a rotary motion but are different from a circular saw. ''Circular saws'' may also be loosely used for the blade itself. Circular saws were invented in the late 18th century and were in common use in
sawmill
A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...
s in the United States by the middle of the 19th century.
A circular saw is a
tool
A tool is an Physical object, object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of the surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many Tool use by animals, animals use simple tools, only human bei ...
for cutting many materials such as
wood
Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...
,
masonry
Masonry is the craft of building a structure with brick, stone, or similar material, including mortar plastering which are often laid in, bound, and pasted together by mortar (masonry), mortar. The term ''masonry'' can also refer to the buildin ...
,
plastic
Plastics are a wide range of synthetic polymers, synthetic or Semisynthesis, semisynthetic materials composed primarily of Polymer, polymers. Their defining characteristic, Plasticity (physics), plasticity, allows them to be Injection moulding ...
, or
metal
A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...
and may be hand-held or mounted to a machine. In woodworking the term "circular saw" refers specifically to the hand-held type and the
table saw
A table saw (also known as a sawbench or bench saw in England) is a woodworking tool, consisting of a circular saw blade, mounted on an mandrel, arbor, that is driven by an electric motor (directly, by belt, by cable, or by gears). The drive ...
and
chop saw are other common forms of circular saws. "Skilsaw" and "Skil saw" have become generic trademarks for conventional hand-held circular saws in the United States of America. Circular saw blades are specially designed for each particular material they are intended to cut and in cutting wood are specifically designed for making
rip-cuts, cross-cuts, or a combination of both. Circular saws are commonly powered by electricity, but may be powered by a gasoline engine or a
hydraulic motor
A hydraulic motor is a mechanical actuator that converts hydraulic pressure and flow into torque and angular displacement (rotation). The hydraulic motor is the rotary counterpart of the hydraulic cylinder as a linear actuator. Most broadly, ...
which allows it to be fastened to heavy equipment, eliminating the need for a separate energy source.
History
There is evidence for the prehistorical use of circular saws by people of
Indus Valley Civilization
The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation, was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form from 2600 BCE ...
during the Bronze Age. The same was excavated from the archeological site of
Lothal
Lothal () was one of the southernmost sites of the ancient Indus Valley civilization, Indus Valley civilisation, located in the Bhal region of the Indian state of Gujarat. Construction of the city is believed to have begun around 2200 BCE.
Di ...
,
Gujarat
Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...
.
The modern-day circular saw was invented around the end of the 18th century as a
rip-saw to convert logs into
lumber
Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...
in sawmills and various claims have been made as to who invented it. Before the design was invented, logs were sawn by hand using a
pit saw or using powered saws in a sawmill using an ''up-and-down'' saw with a
reciprocating motion
Reciprocating motion, also called reciprocation, is a repetitive up-and-down or back-and-forth linear motion. It is found in a wide range of mechanisms, including reciprocating engines and pumps. The two opposite motions that comprise a single ...
. The rotary nature of the circular saw requires more power to operate but cuts faster because the teeth are in constant motion. The sound of the circular saw is different from the sound of an up-and-down saw and earned it the nickname ''buzz-saw''.
Sawmills first used smaller diameter circular saws to resaw dimension lumber such as
lath
A lath or slat is a thin, narrow strip of straight-grained wood used under roof shingles or tiles, on lath and plaster walls and ceilings to hold plaster, and in lattice and trellis work.
''Lath'' has expanded to mean any type of backing m ...
and
wall stud
Wall studs are framing components in timber or steel-framed walls, that run between the top and bottom plates. It is a fundamental element in frame building. The majority non-masonry buildings rely on wall studs, with wood being the most common ...
s and for
edging boards. As the technology advanced large diameter saw blades began to be used for the
head saws and to cut
clapboards.
Claims to the invention of the circular saw include:
* A common claim is for a little-known sailmaker named
Samuel Miller of
Southampton
Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...
, England who obtained a patent in 1777 for a saw windmill.
[Inventors website](_blank)
/ref> However, the specification for this only mentions the form of the saw incidentally, indicating that it was probably not his invention.
* Gervinus of Germany is often credited with inventing the circular saw in 1780.
* Walter Taylor of Southampton had the blockmaking contract for Portsmouth Dockyard
His Majesty's Naval Base, Portsmouth (HMNB Portsmouth) is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Clyde and HMNB Devonport). Portsmouth Naval Base is part of the city of Portsmouth; it is loc ...
. In about 1762, he built a saw mill
A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...
where he roughed out the blocks. This was replaced by another mill in 1781. Descriptions of his machinery there in the 1790s show that he had circular saws. Taylor patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...
ed two other improvements to blockmaking but not the circular saw. This suggests either that he did not invent it or that he published his invention without patenting it (which would mean it was no longer patentable).
* Another claim is that it originated in the Netherlands in the sixteenth or seventeenth century.
* The use of a large circular saw in a saw mill is said to have been invented in 1813 by Tabitha Babbitt, a Shaker inventor, after she noted the inefficiency of the traditional saw pit
A saw pit or sawpit is a pit over which timber is positioned to be sawed with a long two-handled saw, usually a whipsaw, by two people, one standing above the timber and the other below. It was used for producing sawn planks from tree trunks, ...
s used by the sawyers in her community and sought an improvement. This claim is now mostly discredited.
* The Barringer, Manners and Wallis factory in Rock Valley, Mansfield
Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of the Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area and the second largest settlement in Nottinghamshire (following the city ...
, Nottinghamshire also claims to be the site of the invention.
Process
Typically, the material to be cut is securely clamped or held in a vise
A vise or vice (British English) is a mechanical apparatus used to secure an object to allow work to be performed on it. Vises have two parallel jaws, one fixed and the other movable, threaded in and out by a screw and lever. The jaws are ofte ...
, and the saw is advanced slowly across it. In variants such as the table saw
A table saw (also known as a sawbench or bench saw in England) is a woodworking tool, consisting of a circular saw blade, mounted on an mandrel, arbor, that is driven by an electric motor (directly, by belt, by cable, or by gears). The drive ...
, the saw is fixed and the material to be cut is slowly moved into the saw blade. As each tooth in the blade strikes the material, it makes a small chip. The teeth guide the chip out of the workpiece, preventing it from binding the blade.
Characteristics
* Cutting is by teeth on the edge of a metal blade or by an abrasive wheel
* The cut has narrow kerf
A saw is a tool consisting of a tough blade, wire, or chain with a hard toothed edge used to cut through material. Various terms are used to describe toothed and abrasive saws.
Saws began as serrated materials, and when mankind learned how t ...
and relatively smooth surface finish
* Cuts are straight and relatively accurate
* The saw usually leaves burrs on the cut edge of metal and plastic (which should then be addressed with sand paper)
* Saw setting should be done geometrically
Types of circular saws
In addition to hand-held circular saws (see below), different saws that use circular saw blades include:
* Abrasive saw
* Biscuit joiner
A biscuit joiner or biscuit jointer (or sometimes plate joiner) is a woodworking tool used to Woodworking joints, join two pieces of wood together. A biscuit joiner uses a small Circular saw, circular saw blade to cut a crescent-shaped hole (call ...
* Brushcutter
* Carbide saws
* Cold saw
* Concrete saw
* Flip over saws (the combination of a compound miter and table saw)
* Miter saw (chop saw, cut-off saw)
* Multi-tool (powertool)
* Panel saw
* Pendulum saw or swing saw
* Radial arm saw
* Sally saw
* Swingblade sawmill
* Table saw
A table saw (also known as a sawbench or bench saw in England) is a woodworking tool, consisting of a circular saw blade, mounted on an mandrel, arbor, that is driven by an electric motor (directly, by belt, by cable, or by gears). The drive ...
* Track saw or plunge saw
Sawmill blades
Originally, circular saws in mills had smaller blades and were used to resaw lumber after it passed through an "up and down" (muley or sash) saw leaving both vertical and circular saw marks on different sides of the same piece. These saws made it more efficient to cut small pieces such as lath.
After 1813 or 1822 saw mills use large circular saws, up to in diameter. Large saws demand more power than up-and-down saws and did not become practical for sawing timbers until they were powered by steam engines. They are either left or right-handed, depending on which side of the blade the plank falls away from. Benching determines which hand the saw is. Saws of this size typically have a shear pin hole, off axis, that breaks if the saw is overloaded and allows the saw to spin free. The most common version is the ITCO (insert tooth cut-off) which has replaceable teeth. Sawmill blades are also used as an alternative to a radial arm saw.
Cordwood saws
Cordwood saws, also called buzz saws in some locales, use blade of a similar size to sawmills. Where a sawmill rips (cuts with the grain) a cordwood saw crosscuts (cuts across the grain). Cordwood saws can have a blade from to more than diameter depending on the power source and intended purpose. Cordwood saws are used to cut logs and slabs (sawmill waste) into firewood
Firewood is any wooden material that is gathered and used for fuel. Generally, firewood is not heavily processed, and is in some sort of firelog, recognizable log or branch form, compared to other forms of wood fuel like pellet fuel, pellets. ...
. The cubic meter
The cubic metre (in Commonwealth English and international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures) or cubic meter (in American English) is the unit of volume in the International System of Units (SI). Its symbol is m ...
and cord (unit)
The cord is a unit of measure of dry volume used to measure firewood and pulpwood in the United States and Canada.
A cord is the amount of wood that, when "racked and well stowed" (arranged so pieces are aligned, parallel, touching, and compact ...
are common measurements of standing timber (by estimation) or rough logs. "Cordwood" means unsplit logs long. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, farmers would supply householders in town with cordwood, which would then be re-sawn and split to a length and circumference suitable for woodburning heaters and ranges. Almost all these devices were designed to accept sticks, conveniently a piece of cordwood cut into three equal lengths. Once a piece of cordwood had been re-sawn to three 16-inch pieces, it could easily be split to stovewood size with an ax.
Most cordwood saws consist of a frame, blade, mandrel, cradle, and power source. The cradle is a tilting or sliding guide that holds logs during the cutting process. Certain cordwood saws are run from a belt from a farm tractor power takeoff pulley. Others, mounted on a tractor's three-point hitch, connect to the rear power takeoff shaft. Self-powered models are equipped with small gasoline engines or even large electric motors as power sources. The mandrel is a shaft and set of bearings that support and transfer power to the blade. The frame is a structure that supports the cradle and blade at a convenient working height.
Cordwood saws were once very popular in rural America. They were used to cut smaller wood into firewood in an era when hand powered saws were the only other option. Logs too large for a cordwood saw were still cut by hand. Chainsaw
A chainsaw (or chain saw) is a portable handheld power saw, power saw that cuts with a set of teeth attached to a rotating chain driven along a guide bar.
Modern chainsaws are typically gasoline or electric and are used in activities such as t ...
s [Chainsaws – Chainsaw History] have largely replaced cordwood saws for firewood preparation today. Still, some commercial firewood processors and others use cordwood saws to save wear and tear on their chainsaws. Most people consider cordwood saws unsafe and outdated technology.
Hand-held circular saws for wood
In woodworking the term circular saw is most commonly used to refer to a hand-held, electric
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...
circular saw designed for cutting wood, but may be used for cutting other materials with different blades. Circular saws can be either left or right-handed, depending on the side of the blade where the motor sits. A left-handed saw is typically easier to use if held in the right hand, and contrariwise for the right-handed saw, because the user does not need to lean across the saw to see the cutting line.
Blades for cutting wood are almost universally tungsten carbide
Tungsten carbide (chemical formula: ) is a carbide containing equal parts of tungsten and carbon atoms. In its most basic form, tungsten carbide is a fine gray powder, but it can be pressed and formed into shapes through sintering for use in in ...
tipped (TCT), but high-speed steel (HSS) blades are also available. The saw base can be adjusted for depth of cut and can tilt up to 45° and sometimes 50° in relation to the blade. Adjusting the depth of cut helps minimize kickback. Different diameter blades are matched to each saw and are available ranging from .
Saws can have two different types of linkages between the motor and the blade. In the type known colloquially as a ''sidewinder'', the blade is mounted directly on the motor's driveshaft
A drive shaft, driveshaft, driving shaft, tailshaft (Australian English), propeller shaft (prop shaft), or Cardan shaft (after Girolamo Cardano) is a component for transmitting mechanical power, torque, and rotation, usually used to connect ...
. In a ''worm-drive'' saw, the blade is driven by a perpendicularly mounted motor using worm gear
A worm drive is a gear train, gear arrangement in which a worm (which is a gear in the form of a Screw thread, screw) meshes with a worm wheel (which is similar in appearance to a spur gear). Its main purpose is to translate the motion of two p ...
s, which give higher torque.
The worm-drive portable circular saw was invented in 1923 by Edmond Michel. In 1924 Michel formed a partnership with Joseph Sullivan, and together they started the Michel Electric Handsaw Company, with the sole purpose of manufacturing and marketing the saw invented by Michel. The company later renamed itself Skilsaw Inc. Portable circular saws are often still called Skilsaws or Skil saws. Its successor is still sold by Skil as the model 77. To get around the Skilsaw patents, Art Emmons of Porter-Cable
Porter-Cable is an American company that manufactures power tools. Known for contributing to the development of the portable belt sander, helical gear, helical-drive circular saw, and portable band saw, it is a subsidiary of Stanley Black & Decke ...
invented the direct-drive sidewinder saw in 1928. Recently smaller cordless
The term cordless is generally used to refer to electrical or electronic devices that are powered by a battery (electricity), battery or battery pack and can operate without a power cord or cable attached to an electrical outlet to provide mains ...
circular saws with rechargeable batteries
A rechargeable battery, storage battery, or secondary cell (formally a type of energy accumulator), is a type of electrical battery which can be charged, discharged into a load, and recharged many times, as opposed to a disposable or prima ...
have become popular.
Cold saw for metal
Cold saw machines are circular saws that are used in many metal cutting operations. The saw blades used are quite large in diameter and operate at low rotational speeds, and linear feeds. There are three common types of blades used in circular saws; solid-tooth, segmental tooth, and the carbide inserted-tooth. The circular saw is typically fed into the workpiece horizontally, and as the saw advances into the material, it severs the material by producing narrow slots. The material is usually held in place during the cutting operation by means of a vise. The chips produced by cutting are carried away from the material by both the teeth of the blade as well as the coolant or other cutting fluid used.
Abrasive saws
The rotary motion of a circular saw lends itself to cutting hard materials like concrete, asphalt, metal, tile, brick, and stone with an abrasive saw such as a tile saw. Diamond blades and cut off wheels are commonly used in these applications.
See also
* Band saw
A bandsaw (also written band saw) is a power saw with a long, sharp blade consisting of a continuous band of toothed metal stretched between two or more wheels to cut material. They are used principally in woodworking, metalworking, and lumb ...
* Dado set
A dado set or dado blade is a type of circular saw blade, typically used with a table saw or radial arm saw, which is used to cut dadoes or grooves in woodworking
Woodworking is the skill of making items from wood, and includes cabinetry, ...
* Hewing
In woodworking, hewing is the process of converting a log from its rounded natural form into lumber (timber) with more or less flat surfaces using primarily an axe. It is an ancient method, and before the advent the sawmills, it was a standa ...
* Saw pit
A saw pit or sawpit is a pit over which timber is positioned to be sawed with a long two-handled saw, usually a whipsaw, by two people, one standing above the timber and the other below. It was used for producing sawn planks from tree trunks, ...
* Water mill
A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production ...
* Wood splitting
Wood splitting (''riving'',"Riving" def. 1.b. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 cleaving) is an ancient technique used in carpentry to make lumber for making wooden objects, some basket ...
References
External links
History of the portable circular saw
Circular Saw Safety Procedures
NIOSH Power Tools Sound Pressure and Vibrations Database
{{Use dmy dates, date=March 2025
Cutting machines
Metalworking cutting tools
Saws
Woodworking hand-held power tools
Woodworking machines