Nokogiri (Japanese pull saw)
Nokogiri (sierra japonesa de tiro)
- Date
- c. century XVI · confidence low
- Place
- Kyoto, Kansai, Japan
- Credited to
- Japanese carpenters and craftsmen
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A saw with a very thin blade and teeth sharpened on several faces that cuts on the pull, so the blade works in tension and can be thinner without buckling. The ryōba, dozuki and kataba variants serve for crosscutting, fine joinery and ripping.
The pull-saw principle is old (Egyptian saws cut on the pull); in Japan the large ōga blade arrived from China in the Muromachi period and thin-blade types became established in the Edo period. The date is an indicative synthesis.
What it led to
- fine joinery in Japanese nail-free carpentry
- clean cuts with minimal kerf
- Japanese pull saws now common in the Western workshop