The Bottom Line
Great fine bladed saws for hard to reach areas of wooden, plastic, resin, epoxy or polyclay miniatures. The sets each have a wide range of shapes with an assortment of points useful for reaching and opening awkward places. At roughly $12 per set, the cost per blade (8 or ten per set) is fairly inexpensive.
Pros
- Sold in Either Regular (set one) or Fine Thicknesses
- Photo Etched Stainless Steel Makes Them Resistant to Many Paints, Glues and Sweat From Hands
- Good Assortments of Blade Shapes Available on Each Sheet
Cons
- Found Only Online or in Specialty Model Stores.
- Must Buy an Entire Set, Even if You Prefer to Use One Particular Shape
Description
- Sets of photo etched fine or regular micro saw blades, either 0.01 or 0.005mm thick.
- Held in your fingers using a widened area of the blade which has a gripping surface to make the blades easier to control.
- Range of blade shapes and point styles to allow you to work the blades into almost any place you want to cut free.
Guide Review - Fine Hand Held Toothed Blades Designed for Precision Cutting in Tight Areas.
Available in two sets, both with a wide range of curved, hooked and straight blade shapes, the micro saws from Squadron under their TechStar line are photo etched from either 0.10 (set one) or .005mm (set two, fine) stainless steel. The blades are sold either eight assorted shapes (set one), or ten assorted shapes (set two) to a package, all are designed to be hand held, with cut out lines to allow a better grip.
With fine toothed, rather than surgically sharp straight blades, these saws will pull a narrow line of material out as they cut, unlike scalpel blades which can shear surfaces. The saws allow work on fragile parts, where pressure from a slicing blade might cause damage to shaped pieces. For modellers cutting openings for hinged canopies on airplanes, or cutting free parts which will be modified or reassembled, the ability to carefully guide the thin saw blades around surfaces using your fingers may be an advantage over thin scalpels which cannot be used easily to cut parts layered beneath other areas.These particular microsaws with their range of blade shapes, can be used to reach behind and around areas to cut a piece free where other saws and knifes cannot easily reach. The longer straight blades are also useful for cutting straight surfaces. The primary market for these blades is for modellers who build plastic or resin models for vehicles, planes and boats, or for figure builders or miniature gamers who like to modify three dimensional figures.
