Will This Paper Saw Blade Cut Through Wood?

 

On Tuesday, Popular Science magazine (Harlan, Iowa) posted details of a recent experiment on their website. "Here's an interesting question, that's more fitting to be answered at home as a bar trick than a science experiment: can a saw blade made of paper cut through wood?" asked Popular Science. 

Most paper is made of wood pulp, so sharpened paper would be like sharpened wood. But what kind of wood can be sliced by a paper blade? Balsa? Balsa seems weak enough, the report suggests. But in reality, is it possible the paper saw concept can cut straight through fully grown hardwood trees?

 

 

 

Pictured above: Woodworker John Heisz constructed a saw system entirely built from products supplied by the forest industry. The entire frame is wooden, as well as the saw drives, and the small dark straight line seen on top of the wood is the sharpened paper blade designed to take on the brave challenge of attempting to cut through this thick tree.

 

We all know paper has some impressive capabilities if folded, but can the edge of a single sheet on a rotary motor work like a saw? Paper doesn't seem like something that would take well to high RPMs. It's also brittle and pliable. However, anyone who's ever had a paper cut also knows that paper isn't so weak and innocent. For those of us in the industry, we know certain grades and preparations of wood pulp derived papers can be very "tough" if need be.

So the team at Popular Science decided that maybe paper can do some damage... For the report, Woodworker John Heisz of the I Build It YouTube channel put it to the test. Watch the video to see how it performs!