Telephone: 01444 440188
Fax: 01444 414813
Email: info@airstream.co.uk
Independent Tool Review
by Peter Brett - March 2007
For more information call Christine
01444 440188
Boa Restricted Access Saw
You don't know you need one, until you do
A few years ago at the Totally Tools Show in London, those nice people from Boa promised me an in depth look at their restricted access saw. The saw then, was made of tough plastic and not quite as beefy as the new incarnation, but when I tried it on the stand it worked well and clearly was the solution to cutting various materials where access was restricted. At the time, I was doing some product development work with some plumbers, and I kind of wanted to try it out on them, but the Fates intervened, my sample didn’t arrive, and I guess the plumbers found out all about the saw for themselves.
However, I should be grateful, because the NEW Restricted Access Saw has been given a substantial facelift and a bit more bulk, and I have been given a sample to try out. With some irony I note that the new version would probably get the thumbs up from my plumbers simply because it is more robust.
There is no getting away from the fact that if you suddenly appeared carrying this saw in a High Street near you that you might get some funny looks because it looks quite a lot like a target pistol. But it is this resemblance that makes the saw so versatile and easy to use. It is no accident that pistols are pistol shaped, that is the best design to be able to shoot straight and hold it comfortably. The Restricted Access Saw makes use of the same principle, making it easy for the user to position the saw, “aim” it in use and also have the mechanical efficiency to create the reciprocating motion to enable the blade to cut.
In order to make a really tough professional product Boa has opted to make the new saw almost entirely from cast alloy. The handle has bright yellow rubberized comfort grips and is in fact quite comfortable to hold. It is also large enough to be able to use both hands on it should you need to in a really tough cutting assignment.
The spring loaded sliding bar that supports the blade is also cast from alloy, but the blade guide, which I presume is replaceable, is made from hard plastic, and does a good job of supporting the blade and keeping it vertical with the teeth fully engaged in the cutting
Should you perhaps want to cut some screws to release a doorframe from some brickwork, as I needed to do recently, all you, the user, has to do, is to place the pointy end of the saw blade in the gap where the screws are visible and push the saw forward to engage with what needs cutting. The standard hacksaw blade supplied with the saw (made in Sheffield I notice) made short work of the screws. Because the blade is well supported, and the handle is an efficient shape for your hand to grip, it really is that easy to use.
The old-fashioned mini- hacksaw does not have the ease of use nor the length of blade available of the Boa.
A nice touch is the yellow rubber stop on the end of the spring loaded bar, this not only stops potential damage to the surface being rested on, but also provides a good grip on that surface.
I found that I could use the saw easily enough with the saw teeth facing left or right and all points in between because of the pistol grip handle. I also managed to cut quite successfully with the saw blade mounted teeth upwards in the saw. It requires a bit of care, but it can be done and can be quite useful in some situations.
The designers of the Boa saw have gone for simplicity when it comes to the blade changing mechanism. A single large screw holds the blade in place, and of course all you need to do to change the blade is to unscrew the screw, pull the blade out and put another in. There is also a small amount of leeway, about 40mm, in where the blade can be fixed, so it is possible to allow some unworn teeth to come into play should you need to extend the life of the blade a bit.
Some might suggest that a toggle screw should have been used so that the blade change would not involve a hunt for a screwdriver. Surprisingly, many of the tradesmen I have questioned either can’t find a screwdriver in their toolbox or bag, don’t posses a decent one or use other tools that are vaguely “screwdrivery”, like a chisel. On the other hand, perhaps Boa’s designers have consulted with the same group of plumbers that I worked with, for whom a change of hacksaw blade every six months was considered a vast extravagance. Either way, I think a toggle screw might not be a bad idea, and perhaps the sales of hacksaw blades may even go up.
To continue the point on a serious note for a bit. The key to cutting some difficult materials is the choice of blade. There is no good reason why this saw cannot be used for cutting all kinds of metals, wood, fibreglass and even tiles and glass. All you have to do is make sure that the correct blade is installed and set to work. Boa gave me a hacksaw blade with carbide abrasive “teeth” that worked a treat on ceramic tiles and I even managed to cut a beer bottle in half. The difficult bit being finding a way to hold the bottle as it was being cut.
Boa claims in its packaging of this saw that the only limit to the uses for this saw is your imagination. To a large extent this is true, I kept on thinking of new ways I could use it, and I think that a regular trade user would soon find all kinds of new ways in which it could be useful. It is no toy or gimmick, but a “proper” tool, and it won’t set you back too much to buy one.
Independent Review by Peter Brett
Airstream Communications