The Spine
Traditional backsaws rely on folded sheet material or slotted solid metal as the saw spine. In addition to ensuring the saw blade remains straight, the finished assembly has to be attached to the handle. We knew that an important design consideration had to be how to interface the spine, blade and handle. But before we got to that point, we had to make some decisions about the spine itself. We investigated both extrusions and castings-extrusions lending themselves well to different lengths of saw (using caps at either end), and castings (or moldings) having the advantage of securely and permanently fixing the blade. Both methods require fairly costly tooling. We also had to consider the balance of the saw; where the center of gravity would be in the final product. Investigation of a number of materials left us stymied; we just couldn't get the right material with the properties we needed.

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