| Ice Saws are the Bee's Knees! | ||||||
Want a fast way to make a big hole in the ice? Nothing beats an ice saw for simplicity and effectiveness. It may look like the spear of Neptune or a Deathsword from a faraway galaxy, but an Ice Saw is a great tool for a more innocuous and sometimes arduous task. |
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| What you see in the picture above is the first whole I've ever cut with an ice saw. Around Ely, unless you hang out with guys who spear a lot of fish through the ice, you really never see one of these tools laying around. You also rarely have the opportunity to get up close and personal like I did on Dec. 5, 2004. It's been a warm, snowless winter so far and the ice the lake that we live by is not the greatest. I was out on Jasper Lake testing a Marcum VS 460 underwater camera because I've never used one of those before (review) either. After I made several test holes, further out, I headed in a bit closer to shore looking for thicker ice to test the saw.
On both saws you lock the blade in place - Nils has a wingnut, Fish has a lock pin. As I pushed down on the shaft, the VERY aggressive teeth slice through the ice in either case I've now tried two both brands of ice saws and Fish's Ice Saw is the best. The Nils Master was a nice saw and costs less than the Fish model, but when you try the two of them side by side, there's no contest. The Nils cuts fast, but it doesn't cut smooth. Who cares about "smooth", you might say as long as it gets the job done? I dunno - but the Fish saw feels like it's WAY less effort, so I'd say smooth is good and less jarring on your joints. It was pretty easy to buzz a large hole in 7" of ice with the Nils and even easier with the Fish saw. Both Fish's and Nils say that you don't really need to make a hole with a chisel or auger because you can quickly chip a hole throught with the point of the saw and that may be so, but I had a chisel and chipping a small hole was effortless. I sawed a big cube of ice with each saw and shoved the cubes under the ice and out of the way. Then for the "heck of it" I cut out a triangle of ice (Nils saw) out of one side of the rectangle and you can see it in the picture below. Even if you own a power auger, I could see a lot of good uses for this saw. Drill four holes, one in each corner and cut out the middle. When there's not a lot of ice, make one little hole with a chisel point of the saw and cut a remaining hole that an airplane could land on. Ice saws are fast, simple to use and lay nicely in the bottom of your shelter sled. We can special order the Nils saw for you, but because I like the Fish saw better we're stocking it instead. Both are made in USA. Call us at 1-800-280-1078 to order the Nils saw for current pricing and special ordering. Fish's Ice Saw only $104.95 - Order Online Here
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