Desert Snake--

A couple of comments about the teeth.

1. The teeth on the Randalls were not originally intended for sawing wood--they were put on the military models to be used in escaping from downed aircraft.

Therefore, the design shown on Crutchtip's close-up above your last post might be the best for cutting through such things as Plexiglas and the aluminum skin of aircraft.

Note that the "cut" with these teeth is best achieved by sticking the knife through the material being sawn and pulling it toward you--it is a ripping action that can get the fastest results if you were desperate to get out of a downed chopped or whatever.

2. Folks at the shop might best explain how this original application of saw teeth to the military models migrated over to having teeth as an option on some of the other knives--although some of the other knives are also sold to military personnel who could have asked for them on their Model 1's etc.

3. The RMKs do not have any offset to their teeth simply because they weren't intended to make smooth cuts in any material such as metal (look at your hacksaw and you will see the same offset design as on your wood saw). The purpose of the offset is to cut a wider channel or "kerf" in the material being sawn than the thickness of the saw blade so the blade will not bind in the kerf.

4. Personal opinion--The saw teeth on the many sporting and military commercial and even custom knives are put there for eye appeal to sell knives to the Rambo wannabe, and are next to useless for sawing. Better to have a saw with you if you have to carry one of these knives.*

I suspect the original Rambo knife (done by custom maker Gil Hibben in collaboration with Sylvester Stallone) was designed to look "bad' for the movie--no doubt driven by what those two thought would make the greatest impression on the audience. Neither of them ever had to actually use the saw on those blades.

*Which suggests that maybe a survivalist should carry a folding saw along with a more modest fixed blade knife.

Larry