In woodworking and carpentry, hand saws, also known as "panel saws", are used to cut pieces of wood into different shapes. This is usually done in order to join the pieces together and carve a wooden object. They operate by having a series of sharp points, called teeth, of a substance that is harder than the wood being cut.
Hand saws have been used for thousands of years. Egyptian hieroglyphics exist depicting ancient woodworkers sawing boards into pieces, and ancient bow saws have been found in Japan. Cut patterns on ancient boards are occasionally observed to bear the unique cutting marks left by saw blades, particularly if the wood was not 'smoothed up' by some method. Twenty-four saws from eighteenth-century England are currently preserved.
