Apparently the lessons stuck.
Tuesday morning, on my own advice, I surfed over to Wyoming Knife to order a spare bolt-and-wingnut for my Wyoming Saw I. It seemed inefficient, somehow, to drop just 80 cents (plus shipping), so I scanned down the list of parts -- and that's when it hit me.
I spent another $8.95, paid with PayPal and hoped that my Erector Set intuition hadn't misled me.
Here's the deal: Wyoming Knife doesn't promote the building-block design of its three collapsible bow saws, but descriptions and diagrams suggested to me that two additional parts might transform an 11-inch Wyoming Saw I into an 18-inch Wyoming Saw II. I decided that nine bucks was a reasonable price to pay for confirming a hunch.
The package arrived yesterday. Here's my original saw, pictured with the newly acquired frame tube and longer wood blade:
Adding the frame tube and swapping blades gives me this:
Ain't modularity great?
Like I said on Monday, there are times when "a longer blade...would make things go faster." And although the Wyoming Saw I will remain as-is in our emergency kit, the 18-inch version will be another handy tool for dispatching backyard woodpile chores.
Incidentally, just in case anyone is wondering about converting either of those saws to the mid-size Wyoming Saw III, all it takes is a replacement frame tube, a 14-inch blade and $7.49 (plus shipping).
In closing, I want to give the folks at Wyoming Knife "props" for quick shipping -- Colorado to Ohio in two days via USPS First Class Mail is damned impressive. Also, to my surprise, they enclosed a nifty-looking little knife at no additional charge.
I'm not sure what I'll do with the made-in-USA Wyoming Camp Knife (MSRP $4.95). Its double-grind recurve blade is three inches long, made of some sort of stainless at RC 66-70 (so stated). The exposed tang, secured by two brass pins, extends roughly halfway into the handle, which is laminated wood.
The recurve makes it a slicer, obviously, and it feels like a decent food-prep knife. Once I've put my personal touch on the edge, I think it'll find a home in our camp kitchen.
