Wiley Horne--So. Calif.
Tony,

Yes, I agree with you. I have the 300mm Gyokucho ryoba, and it's very handy to have around. The teeth are 9ppi crosscut and 6-1/2ppi rip. It's a softwood setup, meaning an aggressive rake on the rip side. But like all Gyokucho, it's way sharp and holds it's sharpness. Good saw to have around.

From what you related about the 210 Gyokucho, the main problem was that any deviation from a perfect cut would get the saw timber bound, so you'd have to make stop cuts in order to get a new heading. The antidote to that is a saw with a heavier plate and more set, so that it is cutting a wide enough kerf as it goes along to keep itself cutting freely. I've included some data below to provide some context on plate thickness and set. There is still the problem of the lack of relief in any ryoba, because the set will provide clearance only until the opposing set of teeth enter the cut, and then you have zero clearance.

Here are some thickness data (all in inches) I just mic'ed off of three 240mm ryoba--Gyokucho, Chuyemon, and Yataiki--plus comparable data on the 300mm Gyokucho. The data illustrate some points better than my words do:

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Weld Shank Plate Total Set

240 GYO N/A 0.020 0.020 6 thou

240 CHU 0.074 0.043 0.018 8 thou

240 YAT 0.090 0.064 0.020 8 thou

300 GYO N/A 0.028 0.028 10 thou

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Point 1: Taper and stiffness. The handmade saws gradually taper from their weld through the shank and into the saw plate. Note that the Yataiki is about 3/32" at the weld, 1/16" in the shank, yet tapers into a plate which is about the same thickness (20 thou) as the 240 Gyokucho. The Gyokucho has no weld nor taper, so its resistance to bending is established by the 20 thou plate thickness. The Yataiki feels like a far heavier and stiffer saw--and it is. The 240 Gyokucho has minimal set compared to the others also. [The Chuyemon is intermediate between the Gyo and the Yataiki--it's a nice saw too, for the money. There is a 295 Chuyemon I have often thought of buying.]

Point 2: Set. The figures above for total set refer to the difference in thickness between the teeth and the plate just above. So, for example, a total set of 8 thou refers to 4 thou each side. Note the two welded saws are at 4 thou per side; the 240 Gyo at 3 thou per side; the 300 Gyo at 5 thou per side.

Point 3: The two Gyokuchos. A huge frustration is that the US vendors provide the most meagre data on what they sell (only Dieter Schmidt in Germany makes an effort). Look at what is happening between the 240 and the 300 Gyokuchos. The bigger saw has 40 percent more plate thickness and 67 percent more set. It will hold its line better and is more resistant to being drawn off course.

Wiley

P. S. Sorry my ad hoc 'table' of data didn't render, but the info is all there. For each saw, there are 4 figures, measured in inches, of
weld thickness, shank thickness, mid-plate thickness, and total set (as defined above).