How to choose a first hand saw

A first saw is a question about the cut, not about a brand. I have not made the cut. The brand comparison, Japanese against western, is already in this notebook. This note is only the tooth.

What the geometry says

Medium. Two Lee Valley pages, both commercial, describe the teeth. They are not an independent test.

On the Veritas tenon saws, the rip pattern is 9 teeth per inch with a 14° rake, for cutting with the grain. The crosscut is 12 teeth per inch, with a 15° rake and alternating 15° bevels, and Lee Valley says those teeth sever fibers instead of tearing them.¹

That is the whole difference I am willing to repeat: crosscut teeth are knives across the grain, rip teeth are more of a chisel along it. I did not file either one.

Their construction pull saw is sold as one 14 tpi blade that both rips and crosscuts, cutting on the pull stroke, including plywood and particleboard.²

One blade, two jobs, is the beginner case. Two dedicated saws are for when you already know which cut you do all day.

Where they disagree

They do not, on this narrow point. A shop that sells both a dual-purpose pull saw and a rip/crosscut pair is not telling you those are the same tool. The pair is for tenons. The pull saw is the one they describe as covering both directions. I have not used either, so I am not ranking them.

My take

If you are buying one saw before you know whether you rip or crosscut more, the published description that matches that job is a pull saw the seller says does both. If you already cut joinery to a line, the filed difference above is why a crosscut backsaw and a rip backsaw are not interchangeable. Mark the line first. The knife note is here.

The photo is a kugihiki. Do not shop from it.

Where a saw fits in a whole first kit is in beginner woodworking tools.