Hackensack River Canoe &
Kayak Club
www.hrckc.org
Sven Saw
I originally purchased the Sven-Saw (I've come to fondly call it
"Sven") for hiking trail maintenance, but now that canoeing and
canoe camping have become the dominant pastimes of my life, Sven finds himself
now working in a much wetter environment.
Sven works like a standard 21" bow-saw purchased from any hardware store,
except that Sven dismantles to store in its handle for easy and safe
portability.
I've used Sven for cutting out stream blowdowns, firewood at camp, and as I
said, removing blowdowns from hiking trails, and it hasn't let me down.
I have only one gripe about Sven, which became apparant when I started using
it on the water... Setting up and dismantling Sven requires the removal and
installation of a wing-nut... While no problem on land, I know that one day
that nut is going to end up in the water. So I carry a spare in my ditty bag.
Original replacement blades cost $6.99 and come with a new threaded attachment
mechanism. Instead, I buy standard 21" bow-saw blades for a few dollars
and reuse the old threaded mechanism, it's very easy to do.
The "What-A-Saw" is Sven's main competitor. It sets-up and stows
much faster and has no loose parts to drop in the river. But it has no blade
tension adjustment and the blade locking mechanism is plastic. Sure enough,
one friend's blade always binds due to lack of tension and another friend's
plastic mechanism broke.
Wooden frame buck-type saws are also available and do perform better in a camp
setting, being able to cut larger logs faster. But the wooden frames make them
unsuitable for use on the water as immersion causes the frame to warp.