thumb|right|300px|A ripsaw
A ripsaw (or rip saw) is a wood saw that is specially designed for making a rip cut, a cut made parallel to the direction of the wood grain.
Design
The cutting edge of each tooth has a flat front edge and it is angled backward by about 8°, in contrast to a crosscut saw, which has teeth angled backward by about 15°.
With the "rip" tooth pattern, the edges are sharpened at right angles to the cutting plane, forming chisel-like cutting surfaces, whereas crosscut teeth are sharpened at an angle, so that each tooth has a knife-like cutting point in contact with the wood. which is similar to the hand powered pit saw. Some sawmills also use crosscut saws to cut boards and planks to length.
Cutting styles
On the vast majority of saws throughout the world, the teeth are designed to cut when the saw is being pushed through the wood (on the push stroke or down stroke). However, some saws (such as Japanese saws and the saws used by Ancient Egyptians) are designed to cut on the pull stroke.