The $6 snow saw

Thought I'd share a design I came up with for a pole-mounted snow saw for my Leki poles.  It uses about $6 of off-the-shelf parts but requires handiness with a Dremel or equivalent (to cut a notch in some plastic and do a little trimming).  It took a lot of hunting around Home Depot, carrying my ski pole, to find the exact right parts.

I've got the parts list and a few more details here: www.hodgebodge.com/?p=194

It's essentially a 12" saw blade attached to a PVC pipe that fits over the end of the ski pole with the basket removed.  A PVC cap permanently mounted to the pole secures the saw in place.

Thats cool,

Fwiw: Voile makes a saw that fits in to the end of their shovel handles

Works best with the special "t-wood" handle, but I'm pretty sure it will work with most Voile shovel handles.

www.voile-usa.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc...PVS&Product_Count=15

Mark showed this to me last year. Great Idea. What I like about this is you get the full length of your ski pole to cut the backs of Rutsch Block Test. The BD one only allows you to use half your pole (from what I have seen). You can also just use the saw (not attached to the pole) for Compression Tests. Nice job Mark.

I haven't had a chance to extensively test this yet but I discovered you can securely clamp a reciprocating saw blade in a bd ski pole upper.

Nice! Looks like a $4.29 snow saw if you use a 12" blade...