If you've got a Yeoman Bow Saw, then you're going to know that you have a beast of a saw for the garden that will stop at nothing, and the main element that gives it that cutting power is the Yeoman Bow Saw 21" Blade.

I've had a Yeoman Bow Saw for a few months now after finding that my ordinary garage wood saw wasn't quite up to the job of pruning branches etc in the garden, and with a price tag of just under £10, it was an absolute bargain. In addition, with the spare blades only costing £5.55 on Amazon at the time, I thought it worthwhile to invest in one of those as well. It wouldn't be a major outlay to purchase the blade to just keep it hanging in the shed, but more importantly it gave me the peace of mind knowing that if the worse happened and I did manage to snap the blade, I did have a spare one in the shed that I quickly get in order to carry on pruning.

But what is so special about these Yeoman blades that give this Yeoman Bow Saw such cutting power? Well for starters when you look at the blade, you'll notice that the teeth are a lot bigger and courser than those on your conventional garage wood saw. That's because a bow saw blade is not designed to be a precision cutter, but more of a device that just rips through wood as fast as possible in order to achieve the cut. So when you are pruning away at trees (and this Yeoman Bow Saw can handle dry wood up to 12" thick), you just want the device to cut, and not be too bothered about getting a nice smooth finish.

Added to this is the fact that this Yeoman blade is made from precision tempered steel. For those of you who may not understand the process of tempering and what it does to steel, it basically improves the overall toughness of the steel, making it more resistant to cracking from use, wear or impact. In addition, it also improves a quality know as the malleability of the material, which is basically improving the bendiness of the blade. So overall through tempering, what you end up with is a tough blade that can take some knocks and abuse, with enough flexibility to take the odd misalignment as you cut through something. Coupled with the large teeth and course grading, and Yeoman have created quite a formidable bow saw blade that is ideal for lopping away at trees and bushes in the garden.

Now through use, there will come a time when you will need to replace the blade on your bow saw, normally indicated when it is starting to get difficult to cut through things, and to replace the blade in your Yeoman Bow Saw is a very quick and simple affair. At the back of the saw there is a handle closed up around the back of the 'C' shaped frame. Pulling this handle open causes it to pivot around the end of the frame, where the other end is attached to the back of the blade. So opening the handle takes the tension off of the blade. Take the old blade out, slot the new blade in, and then close up the handle again to re-apply the tension, and then you're ready to start cutting away again - as simple as that.

What's it like to use? As I said before, the blade is the key to the cutting power of this saw, and whilst the manufacturers say that it will cut through up to 12" of dry wood, I've cut through 5-6" thick live branches with ease that were causing an issue across the house. It gives a good clean cut, very quickly and with ease, making it ideal for use around the garden on those bigger pruning jobs.

In summary, this is a very good quality blade that had been precision designed to cut through trees and bushes with ease, and the cost is relatively so cheap that you can purchase a couple to keep hanging in your shed, ready to use when necessary. This is definitely a 5 star product to recommend.

Review also on Ciao under Randal1.