Thanks for the after-action report. Good to see what worked and what didn't.

If you're looking for something to replace your saw, I've had really good luck with the Gerber/Fiskars Sport Saw. I got several of these years ago, and have one in each car and one in the garage.

Gerber Fiskars Sports Saw

Very aggressive teeth, stores well inside the very hard plastic/resin handle, and it's a very handy size. Only weak points I see to it is that you use that orange nut to tighten the blade into place feels like it may someday fail to snug down, or perhaps strip threads if used too roughly, and I take care about bending/flexing the blade too much when I'm sawing. That said, it goes right through branches in the 3-4 inch diameter range, and I've gone through bigger stuff when large branches were downed in my back yard by cutting at an angle to get a wedge out, then sawing straight through the remainder.

Anyway, thanks again for the update, and would love to hear how well the changes work out.

Dave