The US population is made up of by roughly 13% left-handers but blade left saws are not exclusively just for them. Skilsaw was made popular because of the incredibly tough and powerful worm-drive saws which are all predominantly blade left designs. Many righties love the Worm-drive design as well, personally I am a lefty and do prefer the left handed saw configuration. The new Skilsaw Sidewinder Southpaw SPT67M8 ($129) is an all magnesium 15amp direct drive circular saw with all the premium features you’d expect from a high end corded circular saw.
The Skilsaw brand at one point meant top quality tools you’d invest in and pass down to your grandkids because they’d certainly outlast you. The Skil brand took an ugly detour down to the low low price point tool market in the 90’s however in the last couple years and now under new ownership the SKILSAW brand of professional saws has gone back to its heritage and again some of the highest quality corded circular saws you can buy! The partnership with Freud Diablo Blades putting the highest quality cutting blade on the saws right out of the box was very smart however for some reason the Southpaw is the only exception here which comes with a basic Skilsaw blade.
The real battle Skilsaw is facing however is customers are leaving corded circ saws in the truck and using cordless more and more often on the jobsite. Not to say a cordless circular saw have or will total replace corded but people seem much more willing to get-by with an older corded saw and spend their new tool dollars on cordless technology.
Will Skilsaw go cordless soon, almost certainly they will, recently acquired by Chervon who has manufactured cordless power tools for many other brands for years, they have all the engineering knowhow to do great things in cordless. Just look at their EGO 56V Mowers ($599) they launched for Home Depot, part of a whole lawn & garden line and within 2 years some of the top battery tools in the space. Of course a lawn mower is a little different, for Skilsaw to have cordless success they’ll need a full construction tool offering of drills, lights, grinders and many other tools to inspire people get on a new battery platform. We will be interested to see what the future hold for Skilsaw.
