As an aspiring "Neanderthal" and being new to this forum, I wrote this up. The overall tone may sound negative, but I'm posting this with the intention of being able to look back in as little as six months and say "look how far I've come"
I have a few little wood projects around the house to "finish up" and a new one or two to get started on. In relation to these, I went out to my garage to cut up some representative pine samples to test of some finish on. Having been watching a lot of woodworking videos (Schwartz, Underhill, Klauz, etc), I grabbed a my handsaws ans started crosscutting a leftover piece of borg pine 1x4.
They say it is a poor craftsman that blames his tools, but wow did my saws do badly. I'm positive my lack of skill made things worse, but I'm really disappointed in my four borg saws. None of them demonstrated the fast, accurate, and easy cutting demonstrated time after time in videos.
The first is a Stanley with a red and black rubber handle and induction hardened teeth. Cut with a wide wandering kerf, left very rough stepped end grain on the cut. I know the consensus is that saws such as these are not worth the money as sharpening them is impractical.
Next was a "Buck Brothers" back saw, once again from the borg. It managed to cut with less wandering and a cleaner cut, but sawing through the soft pine took quite a bit of effort. Then I switched to another similar saw (a craftsman if memory serves, the plate is blank) with similar results. Both seem to be plain steel with a folded steel back and a easily visible set.
After that, I grabbed my most expensive handsaw: one of those flushcut/dovetail saws with an offset handle that can flip from one end of the saw to the other. I found offset handle made it impossible to get the saw to track plumb, and the plate grabbed in the kerf constantly.
To finish off, I made one final cut. I grabbed a 5 1/2" cordless circular saw with the stock blade and made the best sawcut or the night.
I still want to become a proficient or even accomplished handtool woodworker, but this is somewhat of a frustrating start. I need to find a saw that I feel comfortable with.