Score Your General Purpose Hand Saw

What We’re Scoring On (Your “Dream General Purpose” Anchor)

We start by defining one perfect general purpose hand saw — our dream model. Every spec you enter gets compared to these ideal values. Each metric begins at 10 points and loses points the further it strays.

• Blade length: 22 inches
• TPI (teeth per inch): 10 TPI
• Tooth pattern: Combination / universal
• Blade material: High carbon steel, heat treated teeth
• Weight: 750 g

Note: This tool does not cover every possible specification. The formula used is only made to give a general idea of what a good product may look like. It’s a great way to shortlist your choices, but this tool is not 100% bias-free, and cannot replace real-world testing insights

Values for the Best General Purpose Hand Saw

Metric	Dream Spec	Score at Perfect Match
Blade length	22 in	10
TPI	10	10
Tooth pattern	Combination / universal	10
Material	High carbon, heat treated	10
Weight	750 g	10

Enter any real-world spec into the tool and each metric starts at 10 then loses points as it deviates.

How Score Changes with Deviation

Here’s how the scoring works.

Blade length

• Rule: Subtract points as the length strays from 22 inches.
• Examples:
  • Exactly 22 in → 10 points
  • Within ±1.0 in (21–23 in) → 9 points
  • Within ±2.0 in (20–24 in) → 7 points
  • Within ±3.0 in (19–25 in) → 4 points
  • More than ±3.0 in away → 2 points

TPI

• Exact match → 10
• 1 tooth off → 8
• 2 teeth off → 6
• 3 teeth off → 3
• 4 or more teeth off → 1

Tooth pattern

• Combination / universal → 10
• “Combination” or “general purpose” variants → 9
• Crosscut only or rip only → 6
• Fine or coarse specialty → 2
• Not stated or clearly wrong for general work → 1

Material

• High carbon steel + hardened / heat treated teeth → 10
• Carbon steel or alloy steel (no treatment listed) → 8
• Stainless steel (no hardening) → 6
• Not stated but appears low end → 3
• Stamped thin steel or clearly cheap → 1

Weight

• Exactly 750 g → 10
• Within ±50 g (700–800 g) → 9
• Within ±150 g (600–900 g) → 7
• Within ±300 g (450–1050 g) → 4
• More than ±300 g away → 1

Overall Score

1. Enter the spec values in the General Purpose Saw Spec Scorer tool.
2. Each metric outputs a 0–10 score based on its deviation rule above.
3. The tool averages the five metric scores to give a final rating from 1.0 to 10.0.

Use this page to quickly compare general purpose saws by their spec sheets. Higher scores mean a closer match to the dream hand saw every all-rounder wants in the shop.