Which Side of a Ryoba Do You Use?

Use the edge with the coarse, fewer, chisel-faced teeth to cut along the grain, and the edge with the finer, more numerous, knife-pointed teeth to cut across it. That is the whole answer: ryobameans “both edges,” and the two edges are a rip saw and a crosscut saw sharing one plate. And whichever edge you use, the saw cuts on the pullstroke — you draw it toward you and it removes wood; you push it back and it does nothing but reposition. If you only own one Japanese saw, the SUIZAN 9.5 in ryoba is the one we would buy, because the maker actually sells replacement blades for it.

This is the single most common point of confusion for anyone coming to Japanese saws from western ones, and it is not helped by the fact that most ryobas arrive with no markings and no instructions. Nothing on the saw says “rip” or “crosscut.” You are expected to look at the teeth, and once you know what you are looking at you will never need to ask again.

Telling the two edges apart

Hold the saw so the light rakes across the teeth and compare the two edges on three things.

• Count them. The crosscut edge has visibly more teeth per inch. On the Gyokucho 240 mm ryoba the maker publishes the figures outright: 14 TPI on the crosscut edge, 7 TPI on the rip edge. That factor of two is typical, and it is obvious once you hold the two edges side by side.
• Look at the tooth shape. Rip teeth are little chisels: the front face is close to square across the plate, and each tooth pares out a shaving as it is drawn through fiber running the same direction as the cut. Crosscut teeth are little knives, with the faces beveled so each tooth severs fibers at an angle. The rip teeth look blunter and taller; the crosscut teeth look pointier and finer.
• Look at the length of the toothed section. On many ryobas the rip edge's teeth get progressively larger toward the tip, because ripping is bulk removal and the work happens in long strokes. The crosscut edge is more uniform along its length.

If you are still unsure, the test that never lies: make two short cuts in a scrap of softwood, one along the grain and one across it, with the same edge. The correct edge feels like it is cutting; the wrong one feels like it is scraping and chattering.

Which edge for which cut

Along the grain — the rip edge. Ripping a board narrower, cutting a tenon cheek, splitting a strip off the edge of a plank: anything where the kerf runs parallel to the fibers. Rip teeth clear a lot of material fast and leave a rough surface, which is correct, because a ripped face gets planed.

Across the grain — the crosscut edge. Cutting a board to length, cutting a tenon shoulder, trimming a rail: anything where the kerf crosses the fibers. Crosscut teeth sever rather than pare, which is why they leave a much cleaner surface, and why they are slower.

At an angle — crosscut, almost always. A miter is closer to a crosscut than a rip, and a cut at 45 degrees made with rip teeth tears badly. The rule of thumb: if the cut is more across the fibers than along them, use the crosscut edge.

In plywood, MDF or any sheet good — crosscut. There is no single grain direction to rip along, and the fine edge is the one that will not tear the face veneer. Rip vs crosscut teeth goes into the geometry, and saw TPI explained covers how coarse is too coarse for a given thickness.

Why it cuts on the pull

A western saw cuts on the push, which means the plate is in compression while it is doing work — and a thin plate in compression buckles. So a push saw needs a thick plate, or a stiffening back, to stay straight. A Japanese saw cuts on the pull, which puts the plate in tension, and a plate in tension cannot buckle no matter how thin it is. That single mechanical difference is why Japanese saws have much thinner plates, much narrower kerfs, and need noticeably less force per cut.

Three practical consequences follow, and they are the things people get wrong in the first hour.

Do not push. Lift the saw slightly on the return and let it ride back. Pushing hard into the wood is how thin plates get kinked, and a kinked plate never cuts straight again.

Start on a pull, with the saw almost flat. Place the teeth where you want the kerf, draw the saw gently toward you two or three times at a shallow angle to establish a groove, then raise to a working angle. A pull saw is far easier to start accurately than a push saw, which is one of its real advantages.

Let the weight of the saw do the work. The whole tool is designed around a light stroke. If you are leaning on it, the teeth are dull or you are using the wrong edge.

The three ryobas worth owning, and what separates them

All three of these are 9.5 in double-edge pull saws with impulse-hardened teeth, which means none of them can be refiled. What separates them is what happens when the teeth go.

The Gyokucho entry is worth a sentence on its own, because “hardwood geometry” sounds like marketing and is not: fewer, stouter teeth survive dense timber where a fine-toothed softwood saw strips its points. The flip side is in its cons — it is slower in pine than a softwood-geometry saw. If you mostly cut construction lumber, buy the softwood pattern and see the framing lumber roundup.

If what you actually want is the finest possible crosscut rather than a two-in-one saw, a ryoba is the wrong tool and a backed dozuki is the right one — ryoba vs dozuki is the direct comparison, and what is a kataba saw covers the single-edge pattern that splits the difference. When the teeth finally go, how to replace a Japanese saw blade covers getting the new one on.