Suitable for woodworkers (and cooks?)

It’s never too soon to start gathering ideas for holiday gifts, and this one comes from my friend Ashton, who loves woodworking so much he makes his own guitars and who writes, “For under $50, in most cases, a good Japanese saw is a must have." I had never heard of these tools, but I see from pictures that a hand saw can never be too thin or too sharp, and even better if it comes on a skinny wooden handle.

Turns out Japanese saws cut on the pull, so they they are narrower and nimbler than American-style saws, which must be rigid because they push. And being so flexible, Ashton points out, makes Japanese saws useful for cutting slots and hard-to-reach places. Googling around took me to an old post at Kevin Kelly’s Cool Tools blog, which in turn took me to Lee Valley, a Canadian company that sells a Japanese keyhole saw for $16.50, along with other models that can be viewed on pages 25-27 of the company’s online catalog. Because I am not a woodworker myself, I am wondering if couldn’t repurpose one of these in the kitchen – to slice a small cake horizontally before filling it with ganache, for example.