For the fastest cutting across the grain on both the forward and return strokes with a coarse finish.

Note that it was my understanding at the time that it was a rip saw. That’s what it said on the tag from the store where I bought it and that’s what I was doing with it. Ripping.

Not that it matters that much, really, but the other saw I had bought that morning was the one I should have been using. Although it was designated by the store tag as a crosscut saw, in actuality, according to Spear & Jackson, it’s a universal saw, for both ripping and crosscutting. More importantly, it doesn’t cut on the return stroke. And it produces a standard, not coarse, finish.

Let’s just go ahead and stipulate that I would have cut my hand anyway. Likely, though, the cut wouldn’t have been so severe, is maybe the point here.

But if we’re looking to assign any blame, it’d still have to be all mine mine all mine. Although the store tag said “rip,” the cardboard cover, on the saw I was using for ripping, clearly says “fleam” on it. And of course, rip saws have no fleam. Crosscut saws do.

Duh.

So, while technically true that neither saw I had that day was a rip saw, the universal saw would have been a smarter choice over the fleam saw.