Buying a Sawset

Paul recommends buying a secondhand sawset as they are cheaper and rarely wear out. These are readily found on eBay and also in secondhand outlets, such as flea markets and car boot sales. When buying a secondhand sawset, check there is a spring in between the sawset handles before purchasing. Avoid Eclipse plastic handled sawsets as they flex too much. Paul uses both the Eclipse and Somax brands of all-metal sawset.

Secondhand Eclipse sawsets come in only one size and you can expect to pay £10-20 for one.

If you want to buy a new one, these are considerably more expensive. You can buy a Somax, which are Japanese copies of the Eclipse. Somax sawsets come in 2 sizes, one is for smaller teeth and one for larger teeth. If you buy a Somax, then we recommend the smaller size, as this can set all the more generally sized saw teeth whereas the larger one cannot be used to set smaller teeth. If you can only buy a larger Somax model, see Paul’s blog on refining a sawset, which shows you how to alter the size of the hammer in the sawset.

Update October 2021

🇺🇸 Paul recommends this one for $52.99*. Please note this meets the specification, but hasn’t been tried out by Paul.

*Price checked October 2022