Aspects of this topic are discussed in the following places at Britannica.
The familiar modern handsaw, with its thin but wide steel blade, cuts on the push stroke; this permits downhand sawing on wood laid across the knee or on a stool, and the sawing pressure helps to hold the wood still. Operator control is superior, and, because the line being sawed is not obscured by the fuzz of undetached wood fibres or sawdust, greater accuracy is possible. Some tree-pruning...
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