encouraging my small sawyer

[Robert Hartmann]

Tony, I picked up the Veritas dovetail and small crosscut saws for my kids. My six yr old son loves them and has no issues using them. He's on the smaller side of average for his age. My 4 yr old daughter tried them out. She had some issues with control to the point I told her she has to wait a little while. FYI, daddy saying let me hold that so you don't get cut is a good idea for her...not so much for daddy. She made a couple cuts, one in the wood and one in my finger.

[Clay Parrish]

My best saw injury so far came from a coping saw, so even if you let your kids start with one, be aware they can still get ya.

[Adam Cruea]

Special tools?

I believe Pat was referring to your BadAxe saws.

Anyway, to add something to the thread. . .I agree with Ron. Have the little guy "help" with his own bench. Someone else said their grandfather got them a cheaper saw; wholeheartedly agree on that, too.

I think the big thing to remember is that your son is trying to spend time with you and connect with you. When I was that age, it wasn't really making anything I was interested in; I just wanted to spend some time with my dad. Be it him actually doing the sawing and me "holding" a board for him or whatever, it's just a son wanting to spend time with his dad.

That being said, you might be able to re-handle some tools (think like the Japanese saws or gent's saws) and even sheer down longer saws (again, Japanese saws are what I'm thinking here) to his size (or just a little over, since he's probably about to start growing like a weed).

[Mike Holbrook]

Several of the old saw makers made small saws, kid size. I have a couple hand saws that are kid size with kid size handles. They work well for joinery. The other saw you might consider is a Silky folding saw, basically a folding Japanese saw. Silky builds mostly arborist saws but they make some for woodworking too. It might be nice to be able to fold the saw up, protecting the teeth and errant young hands.