I can honestly say that it is WAY better than my old iron saws, which, as of today, are now in retirement.
Drawbacks: The blade takes longer to insert; the blade cannot be used once it has broken - on my iron saws, the frame can be shortened to take partial blades; it is quite difficult to insert the blade into a drilled hole and then tighten the saw, though I think that might be practice; the saw is considerably more expensive than a traditional saw.
Advantages: The saw is unbelievably light which means that there is no fatigue when cutting; there is no tendency for the back section to swing about (a problem with 5 and 8" iron saws) so cutting is more accurate; because the saw is rigid, blade snagging is minimised; cuts are considerably easier to start as blade judder is minimised by the rigidity too.
I am slightly concerned about the threads on all parts as they seem less robust than on my old saws and they look as if they could well wear out more easily if over-tightened or not regularly cleaned, but that remains to be seen.
Overall, a winner!
The Cold Genius piece has been somewhat slow today. I decided that I wanted a little window on the silver "scrim" (a second, inner lid on the box, photo above) so that the Cold Genius could teasingly be seen in part without opening the box. None of my stone suppliers had anything suitable to hand and so I cut down a quartz bead into a "lens" to make the window. It was done with a diamond bandsaw, a diamond abrasive wheel and various grades of micromesh abrasive:
Not much other work done today. I threaded the catch mechanism:
