I've been looking for an upgrade to my coughlins folding saw and my research has pointed me to this beauty. The Bahco Laplander, tough to find, amazon EU seems to have it, anyone have any experience with this saw or know where to find one?

http://outdoors-magazine.com/s_article.php?id_article=118

I just bought a Bahco 396-HP with a 7.25" locking blade but haven't had a chance to cut with it. It locks both when open and when closed. It feels well-built and I like the orange color at the hinge (in case its dropped).

I've got several folding saws - some, like the Trailblazer Take-down Buck Saw and a very old Sven Saw, but the problem is that these take a fair amount of time/effort to assemble and they're kind of big. With that in mind I purchased "The Un-Believable Saw" (from the folks who make the Pocket Chain Saw) and this Bahco 396-HP. I still need to test them both out, but my hopes are high for both.

Keep in mind that there are two models:

Bahco 396-HP has teeth designed to cut dead wood. This is what I want to take with me while out with the Scout troop as we don't cut green wood.

Bahco 396-JT has teeth designed to cut green or live wood. This what I want to use to cut live Buckthorn and pruning trees around my property. I'm planning to see if my local toolstore has this in stock.

I'm not sure what is best for "survival" use. For shelter-building this might involve green wood, but for firebuilding this would involve dead wood.

Hi Ronin,

I have broken 3 Coghlins folding saws and one no-name model in the last 10 years, all at the joint where the plastic handle connects to the blade.

So I spent the money ($27.00 CAN) and bought the Bahco Laplander at Mountain Equipment Co-op about 6 monthgs ago. It was advertised as having a green and black handle but when it arrived it was orange, which I like better.

I tested it cutting pine, spruce and white birch and it is a much better folding saw than the Coghlin's were. It cuts anything up to about 4" dia. quite fast, and is easier to set-up than a wire saw, pocket chainsaw or telescopic saw. It also feels much more solid that the other folding saws I have owned, you get what you pay for.

The down side is that it is not made to tackle large pieces of wood, a swede saw, crosscut saw (or my favourite a Husqvarna chainsaw) is much better at this.

I will carry the Bahco Laplander as my hiking/hunting saw (may even try it at quartering a moose this fall) and if my preliminary tests are an indication it should do the job just fine.

My recommendation is that if you need a folding saw, buy this one.

Mike

Hi Ronin,

The Bacho Laplander pruning saw is a firm favourite with European bushcrafters. It is lightweight, efficient, durable, functional and cost effective. Highly recommended for bushcraft survival. It is useful in the garden as well for pruning back shrubs and small trees. Bacho also make some excellent quality general purpose hand tools. Good Swedish engineering.

I finally googled "Bahco Laplander" and saw the UK Amazon site you were talking about. Don't fret, this is EXACTLY the same as the Bahco 396 I wrote about.

Just do a search in Amazon.com using "Bahco 396". Do consider whether you want/need to purchase the HP (dry wood) or JT (green wood). I actually bought my Bahco 396-HP from the U.S. Amazon.com.

Ken

I am heading to Maine in october for some wilderness camping and I am going to put the Bahco through its paces.

Thanks for all your help guys, this site rocks.

Peace

I love my Bahco Laplander saw. I am pretty sure I posted a review somewhere. I will look later and post if I can find it along with where I bought mine. Kinda sleepy now.

I gave up on the folding camp saws a few years ago. I bought a Stanley handle (you can get them at most wally worlds). You can use almost any saw blade made for a sawsall, hacksaw, or jig saw. For less than 20 dollars you you get a saw that will do every thing the Bahco Laplander saw will and so much more for less money. Even more important with extra blades it wieghs less. The only down side is I had to buy a case for it. I use a roll case made for wrenches to hold it. Not a big deal since it gave me a place to put other things too.

If any of you happen to live in the NW Chicago suburbs there is one green Bahco Laplander 396 folding saw left at Berland's House of Tools at the intersection of Route 12 & Plum Grove Road (just NW of the intersection of Rt. 12 & Lake Cook Rd). This is just like the one mentioned in the original post.

I stopped by there this morning on my way to work.

Ken

I got my Bahco from Tools Plus for $22.99.

Aloha raydarkhorse,

Can you post some pictures? I would like to check it out.

Thanks.

i'm looking for a source for this saw. i looked at mec, but apparently it turned out to be a cheap chinese ripoff saw.

i looked into tools plus, but the shipping to canada is more than the saw!

anyone know where i can get a bahco in canada?

I doubt that. MEC is a credible outfit.

MEC carries more than one folding saw, including the Bahco Laplander. Just be careful which one you look at.

Bump a 5 year old thread? If you just searched "bahco laplander canada" you would find what you are looking for in 10 seconds.

Did you look at the one next to your "knock off", or did you see some other brand and just assumed any folding saw not by bahco is knock off?

If you go the MEC website, it clearly shows that their Bahco saw is made in Sweden.

Bahco Laplander Folding Saw

Product Number: 4009-407

Made in Sweden

Weight: 180g

There's another folding saw that, as far as cutting speed and effort, some think (including me) is in a league of its own. It's the Silky Pocketboy. It's available in both 5" and 7" versions and I use the 7" version. The bad news is that the Japanese made Silkys are more expensive than the Swedish made Laplanders.

Silky makes several different interchangeable blades for the Pocketboys. I use the course (large tooth) blade the most. That blade is optimised for cutting green wood but I found it is the best general purpose blade. When I'm backpacking, I generally carry two blades – the course general use blade and either the hard wood blade or the dry wood blade (depending on the conditions). My wife has her own 5" Pocketboy. It has a blade that Silky designed just for cutting bamboo and she uses it in our bamboo garden.

I have heard about Silkys, but have never had the opportunity to try one. Gotta put that on my to-do list.

The Bahco is good but the Silky's are in a whole 'nuther league. I have two, a red Pocketboy (LG teeth) and a yellow Bigboy (360mm blade w/XL teeth). They're very thin and only saw on the pull stroke, pretty much preventing kinking/bending of the blade. The largest Silky saw, the Katanaboy, actually can rival a chainsaw for speed. I love my Silky saws!

Darn you for giving me another thing to covet!

Yeah they are pretty pricey. The 170 mm pocketboy isn't bad, about $5 more than laplander, but bigger ones gets expensive quick.

I noticed in the specs that Silky's yellow Bigboy has a curved blade (a big deal - faster, more aggressive than a straight blade) and is rated as having a cutting capacity of 7.1 inches. Sweet.

From my own personal experience, Silky is ultra-conservative in its ratings of cut capacities. A 7.1 inch official rating probably translates to being able to cut a 10 inch limb or tree that comes crashing into my living room during a hurricane, at least that's the way I look at it. I'll take two.

For what it's worth, I understand that Silky's new Genki-Temagari 500 has taken over (from Silky's Katanaboy) as the ruling "faster than any hand saw ever created". It's not a folder but has progressively larger teeth and what looks like four rows of them. Scary stuff.

I absolutely agree, GradyT34. The actual cutting portion is 13.5" exactly and it curves slightly. It will cut much bigger logs than 7.1". I'm not sure how large you'd want to try but it's a great cutter.

Below are the official "cut capacities" (ratings) for some of the more common Silky folders:

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Official Rating
PocketBoy . . . 130mm - 5.1" blade . . 2.6 inch tree
PocketBoy . . . 170mm - 6.7" blade . . 3.4 inch tree
F180 . . . . . . . 180mm - 7.1" blade . . 3.6 inch tree
Super Accel 21 210mm - 8.3" blade . . 4.2 inch tree
Oyakata. . . . . 270mm - 10.6" blade . 5.3 inch tree
Gomboy. . . . . 300mm - 11.8" blade . 5.9 inch tree
BigBoy (yellow) 360mm - 14.2" blade . 7.1 inch tree
Katanaboy . . . 500mm - 19.7" blade . 9.9 inch tree

My notes:
The Super Accel 21 is lightweight and about the largest that will fit comfortably in my backpack - but still usually take the 170mm PocketBoy. I plan to replace the Super Accel 21 that I keep in my truck with the Bigboy that I just ordered.
The Oyakata is only available with medium teeth (good for cutting dry wood).
The Bigboy 360 with extra large teeth is the only Silky folder with a curved blade.

Is the cut capacity measured in circumference or diameter? There is a big difference between the two.

Looks like diameter, which is consistent with the usual rules of 50% of the saw length. Obviously you can cut thicker, but it won't be efficient as the shavings will load up the teeth before being cleared.

Are you sure about that? A 9.9" diameter tree calculates to about a 31" circumference if my math is correct. That would make for quite a cutting task for a 19" blade.

Silky's cut capacity is the diameter of the tree.

For comparison sakes, most (round) dinner plates are 9-10" in diameter which gives a 28-31" circumference. I would not want to be cutting a log that big with a 19" saw...

Yes, I'm positive that were talking about a 9.9" tree diamater in regard to the Silky rating.

Agree that 3.1416 = about 31.1"/9.9".

Yes, it won't be as quick as with a smaller branch but doable. Remember these saws aren't like bow saw that has attachment on both ends, so you can pull it almost all the way out with only an inch or two still inside the tree, so this effectively made the saw longer.

I've cut 4" wood with my 7" saw, getting slow but can be done.

GradyT34 mentioned about the possibility of a 10" limb or tree coming through the roof of his home during a hurricane. If this were me and I was planning to cut up any potential fallen trees of this size with a handsaw such as the Genki-Temagari 500 or the Katanaboy, considering their price at close to $200.00 per, I would instead be looking at a good used chainsaw which depending on the area and local supply / demand, can be had for not much more then either of these saws.

Yeah, I don't think I'd buy them either at that price point, but they are a lot easier to pack and use than a chainsaw so I can see their advantages.

Actually, the trees and limbs that crush houses around here during hurricanes are mostly water oaks. They're notorious for falling over (roots and all) or for having humongous limbs splitting off and falling straight down onto a roof. The trunks and limbs most likely to go interloping are from mature, hollow and half rotten 40" and larger (sometimes a lot larger) trees that are already way too close to houses to begin with. Live oak and bald cypress trees in my area are the trees of choice in that they withstand hurricanes much better and are beautiful.

If your going to salvage a house with a tree in it, it's sometimes best to use an industrial back hoe or even in some cases, a track hoe (something like a Cat 320). And it's best to not touch anything until you have an enforceable agreement with the insurance underwriter (which can sadly take months after you get their attention).

I have a number of chainsaws and rotate them to the end that when I'm in the field on crew projects, we start every day with four or five saws that actually run (i.e. start right up) and have been sharpened.

As to preparing for the occasional hurricane, I test and then set several mid-range Stihls on my kitchen floor relative to helping out later if someone is struggling.

Trust me, after a major storm passes through (Rita, Andrew, Audrey, Ike, Camille, Gustav, Betsy and Katrina come to mind) you'll be grateful for every chain saw and any other kind of saw, ax, hatchet or sharp object you can get your hands on.

I ordered one of these yesterday from Amazon, it was on sale (Price drop 22% since I Wish-Listed it), and since I needed something to get me over $25 for free shipping, I jumped on it.

Can't wait to get it... There's some tree's growing up in my Alley I'm gonna take care of once and for all!