Hacksaws

Despite the rise and rise of electric and air tools in the average motorist's garage, one of the most essential bits of kit remains one of the simplest: the hacksaw. Okay, so you can get air-powered versions, but the amount of use a DIY mechanic will put it to hardly justifies the cost.

With a 12-inch blade set into a steel or alloy frame, hacksaws may look similar, but we found plenty of variation in quality, comfort and price. All blades were held at either end by a pin or spigot, and some could be adjusted to allow cutting at different angles, typically 90 and 45 degrees - handy when space is tight.

With one exception, the blades all had 24tpi (teeth per inch), which is ideal for cutting the aluminium, mild steel, cast iron, brass and copper found on cars. If you are working with material thicker than 5mm, go for 18tpi. Less than 2mm, and you may need a blade with 32tpi.

If you are building or heavily modifying a car, and so working your hacksaw hard, look for one with a quick-release system to make blade swapping as easy as possible.
So which hacksaws were at the cutting edge? To find out, we headed to the workshop with 12 best-sellers and a pile of scrap metal.

Verdict

In the Standard category, the Bahco 317 nudged Draper's 31131 into second, thanks to its build quality for not much more cost. The Quick Release win was decisive: the Dra-per 55812 combined reasonable quality and comfort with a keen price.Standard saws
1st Bahco 317Quick Release saws
1st Draper 55812
2nd Stanley 300 1-20-110