Which saw should I buy for general use?

Saw buying goes wrong in the same way every time: people buy for the most demanding job they can imagine rather than the ones they will actually do. Two tools cover the overwhelming majority of household cutting.

Safety

Step by step

1. Start with a hardpoint hand saw.Inexpensive, needs no power, and cuts timber, board and plastic accurately enough for most jobs. The teeth are hardened and cannot be resharpened, so it is replaced rather than maintained — which is fine at the price.
2. Add a jigsaw as the first power saw.The most versatile and most forgiving. Curves, straight cuts, internal holes, and it cuts wood, metal, plastic and laminate with the right blade. It is not the most accurate, and that rarely matters.
3. Buy a circular saw only for sheet material.Much faster and far straighter than a jigsaw through plywood, MDF and long boards. It is also the least forgiving tool in the list, and it needs a guide rail or a clamped batten to earn its accuracy.
4. Buy a mitre saw only for repetitive trim.Skirting, architrave, decking, framing — anything where you cut the same angle many times. It is superb at that and useless at everything else, and it takes up permanent space.
5. Consider a multi-tool for awkward cuts.An oscillating multi-tool cuts flush against a surface, into a wall, or in a space no other saw reaches — undercutting a door frame for flooring, for example. Slow, and it does jobs nothing else can.
6. Get a tenon saw and mitre box for occasional trim.A fraction of the cost of a mitre saw, no power, and accurate enough for a few cuts. If the job is one room of skirting, this is the sensible answer.
7. Match the blade rather than the saw to the material.Tooth count and set matter more than the tool. Fine teeth for laminate and metal, coarse for fast rough cuts in timber. A cheap saw with the right blade beats an expensive one with the wrong one.
8. Check the depth of cut before buying a circular saw.It must clear the thickest material you will cut, at the angle you will cut it. A saw that will not get through a fence post at 45 degrees is a disappointment discovered too late.
9. Think about dust and noise.Circular and mitre saws produce a great deal of both. If you work in a garage attached to a house, or a flat, that affects the choice as much as the specification.
10. Hire for the one-off big job.A weekend hire of a track saw or a large mitre saw costs a fraction of buying and gives you a better tool than you would have bought.

Tips

• Most merchants cut sheet material to size, often free. For a single project that can remove the need for a circular saw entirely.
• Blades are consumables. Budget for replacements rather than persevering with a blunt one, which is both slower and more dangerous.
• If buying cordless, buy into the battery platform you already own. The battery is the expensive part.

Common mistakes

• Buying a circular saw as a first power saw — It is the least forgiving and needs a guide to be accurate. A jigsaw does more different jobs and is far easier to control while learning.
• Persevering with a blunt blade — It burns the cut, wanders off line, and needs so much force that control is lost — which is when injuries happen.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask