Ring Saw

A ring saw is a form of bandsaw in which the cutting band is a rigid circular ring rather than a flexible oblong loop, coated with a diamond abrasive rather than cut with teeth. Because the ring holds a constant radius, its blade need not flex as it runs, which lets it hold an abrasive coating too brittle to survive the repeated bending an ordinary bandsaw blade takes. Abrasive ring saw blades of this kind are used mostly in the working of art glass, where a stained-glass or fused-glass artist uses one to cut thick glass, tight curves and intricate shapes that a hand-held glass cutter cannot manage cleanly, though the same abrasive-ring principle is also applied to other hard, brittle materials such as ceramic tile and mineral specimens.