I hate to bring this up ... because it's a bit gruesome. I just got through watching the show "127 Hours". If you haven't seen this movie ... you should probably rent it sometime. My wife absolutely insisted that we watch it last night - because it reminded her of how we both were in our younger days when we were rock climbers. That movie is true to form about the "free spirit" behavior of people in the adventure community.

Anyway ... not to spoil the surprise but the guy winds up having to amputate his own arm. AGHHHHHH ! Watch the movie - you'll see what happens. The ironic thing is that he didn't have a good saw in his kit, and he didn't even have a good blade on his pocketknife. So it was the worst of all possible circumstances.

Anyway, if you really need to amputate something, a small fine-bladed saw would be a very good choice. And it does need to be able to be operated one-handed.

OK ... very sorry to hijack this thread with these gross comments.
Ha! Ha! Ha!!

other Pete