Japanese Saw Types Explained

If you buy one Japanese saw, buy a ryoba — rip teeth on one edge and crosscut teeth on the other, so one saw does both jobs. If you buy two, add a dozuki for joinery, which is the backed saw with the fine crosscut teeth. The other four patterns are specialists and you will know when you need one.

This site has the western family side by side on saw types compared: panel, tenon, dovetail, coping. This is the Japanese equivalent, and the family is organised on different lines — not by size and tooth count the way western saws are, but by what the plate is shaped to do.

The one idea the whole family is built on

A western saw cuts on the push, which puts the plate in compression. A thin plate in compression buckles, so a push saw's plate has to be thick enough not to, which means a wide kerf, which means more material removed and more force per stroke. A backsaw adds a spine to stiffen it further.

A Japanese saw cuts on the pull, which puts the plate in tension. Nothing buckles in tension, so the plate can be as thin as the steel allows — often half the thickness of a western equivalent. Three things follow, and they explain nearly everything else about these saws.

The kerf is narrow, so you remove less wood, the cut is more accurate, and each stroke takes less effort. Japanese vs western saws has the full trade-off.

The teeth are usually impulse-hardened,because a thin plate holds a hardened tooth better than a filed one and the makers chose edge life over renewability. That means most of these saws cannot be sharpened and are designed around a replaceable blade instead — how to replace a Japanese saw blade is the routine.

The handle is a straight wrapped grip, because a pull stroke is a pull with the arm rather than a push from the shoulder, and a pistol grip would be in the way.

The six patterns

Ryoba — the double-edged one. Rip teeth along one edge and crosscut teeth along the other, unbacked, so it cuts as deep as the plate is long. The most versatile saw in the family and the one to own first: it will rip a board to width and cross-cut it to length without changing tools. Which side of a ryoba do you use answers the question everyone asks about it, and ryoba vs dozuki is the choice between the first two patterns here.

Dozuki — the backed joinery saw. A stiffening spine along the top of a very thin plate, fine crosscut teeth, and the most accurate cut in the family. It is the Japanese dovetail and tenon saw. The spine limits depth of cut to roughly the plate below it, so it is a joinery saw and not a panel saw. What is a dozuki saw covers the pattern.

Kataba — the single-edged, unbacked one. One toothed edge, no spine. It splits the difference: deeper cuts than a dozuki and more accuracy than a ryoba, because there is no second set of teeth to scratch the work on the far side of a deep cut. Usually sold as a crosscut. What is a kataba saw has the detail.

Kugihiki — the flush-cut saw. A very flexible unbacked plate with teeth that have no set at all, which is the whole point: the plate lies flat on a finished surface and cuts a dowel or a plug off flush without scratching the face either side of it. It will do nothing else — it binds in any cut more than a few millimetres deep. What is a flush cut saw explains why zero set matters.

Azebiki — the curved-edge starter saw. A short, wide plate with two convex toothed edges, rip on one and crosscut on the other. The curve lets you start a cut in the middle of a board face, which no straight-edged saw can do: it is the tool for beginning a groove or a housing where there is no edge to start from. A genuine specialist, and the one most likely to sit unused.

Anahiki — the big coarse one. A long, heavy unbacked saw with large rip teeth for green timber and construction work. It is a carpenter's saw, not a joiner's, and the overlap with the best hand saws for 2x4s is where that work lives on this site.

Two tooth geometries, and which face to protect

Within the patterns there are only two tooth types, and the distinction is the same one western saws make.

Rip teeth are filed like a row of tiny chisels, square across, and they shear fibers lengthwise. They cut along the grain fast and tear across it.

Crosscut teeth are filed to points with a bevel, and they sever fibers across the grain cleanly. They cut across the grain well and are slow along it. Rip vs crosscut teeth has the geometry, and saw TPI explained covers how the tooth count interacts.

And one thing that is easy to get backwards and free to get right. Teeth tear fibers on the side where they exit the cut. A Japanese saw cuts on the pull, so it exits on the upper face. The face you care about goes down. This is the exact opposite of a western push saw, and it is the single most common reason a careful cut comes out fringed on the wrong side.

Four saws covering the family

One of each of the patterns most people actually use, from our registry, with the live price for each in the table above.

SUIZAN Ryoba 9.5 in— the one to buy first. Rip one edge, crosscut the other, impulse-hardened and the blade is replaceable, which SUIZAN sells directly. If you own no Japanese saw, this is the purchase.

Gyokucho Dozuki Noko Giri 9.5 in— the joinery saw, and the dozuki most Japanese joiners own. Backed, fine crosscut, impulse hardened, and long enough to reach tenon depth as well as dovetail depth.

HIBINO Kataba 7.5 in— a published 14 TPI crosscut, unbacked, made in Japan, and the cheapest saw on the page by a distance. No replacement blade is listed, so treat it as a consumable and buy it accordingly.

SUIZAN Flush Cut Saw 6 in— the kugihiki. Zero set, so it lies on a veneer or a finished face and trims a plug or edge banding off without marking anything. Nothing else substitutes for it, and it does nothing else.