Hacksaw

A hacksaw is a saw for cutting metal. Small hand-held hacksaws consist of a metal arch (with a handle) that fits around a narrow rigid blade that has many small saw teeth along one side. The teeth need to be placed so that they face away from the handle (they cut on the push stroke, and clear any powder-swarf on the pull stroke). The blade is normally quite brittle, so care needs to be taken to prevent snapping the blade.

A panel hacksaw eliminates the frame, so that the saw can cut into panels of sheet metal without the length of cut being restricted by the frame. Junior hacksaws are the small variant, while larger mechanical hacksaws are used to cut working pieces from bulk metal.