STANLEY FATMAX Hand Saw, 15-Inch (20-045)

Unbelievable. I have been using substandard saws from Home depot for years. Blisters, erratic operation, and in general poor performance. I read the reviews on this beast and figured: "Meh, twelve bucks. I'll give it a chance." This all changed when it arrived. From the moment I opened the well packed box from Amazon, I knew something was different.I unsheathed the noble blade from its protective cardboard cover, and immediately noticed the high quality craftsmanship involved in its birth. One could almost envision a sweaty blacksmith, laboring over the forge to craft a blade that would desiccate wood the way the warriors of old smote their enemies. The blade is twice as thick as any other saw I have purchased previously, and reinforced along the top edge. The finely crafted handle is lovingly wrapped in supple rubber, to prevent slippage and blisters. The ergonomics of the handle are flawless, allowing the hand to join seamlessly to the tool like two lovers embracing.One I calmed myself, I put the metal to its task. I began cutting a tree to pieces so it would fit in my trash. OUTSTANDING. The wood gave beneath the mighty blade with little effort on my part, like a butter knife through...butter! It was like the saw read my mind and performed the work for me. Who was really in charge...me... or FAT MAX?!Excellent , finely crafted piece of metal that deserves a place of honor in any mans tool collection. Five enthusiastic stars.

So I find myself in a strange position right now, I ordered this as a throw away saw because I did not want to waste my dragon saws on a deconstruction project ($40 per saw) and found myself using this saw as a first choice.This saws durability has yet to be fully tested but it ripped through rafters and columns like they were made of wet sand. This is a VERY aggressive cross-cut saw and I would not use it on an area I was not willing to sand out but if I ever had to neatly pull a building apart (yeah right, in the end we wrapped a cable around the house and ripped her down with a cat) I would choose this instantly.Now while I love this saw just remember, only reason I ordered a Stanley as a throw away saw is because of Stanley's famous quality control team (if you don't know what this is than just imagine Ray Charles doing visual inspections of all the products coming out of the factory, and yes Ray was blind), so not all products come out job site worthy, I got a feeling I was rather lucky on the draw, this or they just couldn't find a way to screw up a metal sheet screwed to a board...

Okay...it has a really aggressive bite...which is what you want if you are me. But what you don't want is to see it angling away from your end point...which it will do...despite your best intentions.So....as is the case with many things in life...patience is a virtue. Saw...look where you are going...saw some more. With effort you can angle yourself back on course...but this thing is so aggressive you need to be aware that you can go off course no matter how 'fat' the blade is.You want to cut a limb off a tree...this will do it no time flat.But, what it won't do is make people who are imperfect saw straight lines...unless they are patient.

Holy hamburgers this thing cuts like a beaver on speed! I don't know about all of you guys out there in internet land but where I grew up, my grandfather always had a few of these saws laying around. They all cut like **** too. I always thought I was making the wood commit suicide to get out of being bent so badly by the dull saws! Reluctantly, I needed a little hand saw for when I could not use a power saw. I did not expect much either. I was so surprised! This thing cuts faster than my jig saw and just about faster than my circular saw! I am not some contractor that does this stuff for a living either - just a guy that builds stuff at home. I am hugely impressed with this saw, the comfort, the ease of cut, and how straight the cut is. I swear, I cannot cut that straight of a line on a chop saw! I am very pleased with this little baby and I plan on getting more of the same kind in other sizes.

Pretty good hand-saw for me and like it very much. The last snow storm brought down a few small tree branches in the backyard and had to clear them up myself. I have a used hand-saw but that cost me 5+ minutes to take down one single half broken branch. Then I got this new Stanley and used it to cut it short so that I could dump them into my trash can. It worked pretty nicely and I could not believe one cut only took me around 1 min. Well maybe because it's brand new and pretty sharp at this time. But anyway for this price range I would not expect to see anything better. Very satisfied. Attached is the pic taken to show the size of the tree branch.

Great product!

One of my sons has this saw and after giving his a workout, I decided to get one of my own. It cuts so much better than my old hand saw. I attribute that to the way they grind the teeth to maximize the cutting power. My old hand saw just had very simply cut teeth. The rubber grip is nice and comfortable. The blade is much shorter than my old saw, but I really don't see it as a negative. With the fast cutting teeth, you really don't need long strokes to get through the material. With the shorter blade, it also makes it easier to find a place to hang up the saw over my workbench.

Great Hand Saw! Had a 25' tree die in my backyard after 20 years of enjoyment. Instead of paying the outrageous prices that they want these days, I decided to do it myself. I am 64 years old and don't have the greatest back in the world. I took my time and sawed the branches first. Then started on the trunk. Happy to say the tree is down and didn't cost me anything except the price of the saw and some physical labor of my own. I was shocked to see this saw cut into this tree trunk the way it did. I really didn't think it would handle the trunk but to my amazement it worked. Can't go wrong with this saw. Thank you Amazon!