The inventor of the Straight Flush circular saw claims to have created the worm drive equivalent of a Swiss Army knife.

Worm drive circular saws have been around since the late 1920's and despite the many improvements made since that time, their form and function have remained the same. But Seattle-area inventor Jake Cuzdey hopes that will change with the introduction of his Straight Flush Saw, a worm drive model that performs all of the functions of standard circular saws plus those of several other machines.

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Used primarily by framing carpenters, worm drive saws have powerful inline motors and rely on worm gears to flip the axis of rotation 90 degrees, a design that produces high torque and results in a saw that is long and narrow rather than short and wide. In this regard the Straight Flush Saw is like any other worm drive. But the similarities end there; the blade on Cuzdey's saw has a recessed arbor hole and is set flush to the blade housing.

With the fence and blade cover removed it can do something no other circular saw can do, cut tight to a wall and all the way into inside corners. Flipped on its side the tool can be used in place of a jamb saw—to undercut existing baseboard and door trim so flooring or tile can be slipped underneath. A "ramp" at the front of the shoe can be folded away to further expose the blade, allowing carpenters to use it in place of a recip saw for cutting plates out of door openings and to remove sheathing from rough openings from inside the building.

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As scary as the saw looks with the cover removed and the blade exposed, it still has a guard—which can be retracted with the push of a lever. The lever is attached to the top of the grip and retracts the guard by means of a sheathed cable similar to the brake cables found on bicycles. The saw takes a proprietary 8 1/2-inch diameter blade with a recessed arbor hole and is capable of cutting material up to 3 1/8 inches thick—enough to cut two layers of 2-by material at once.

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Cuzdey came up with the idea for this saw when he worked in construction. He noticed how many different cutting tools it took to frame buildings and he wondered if there might be a way to perform all of those functions with a single machine. He conceived of it as a multi-tool, the circular saw equivalent of the Swiss Army knife.

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I met Cuzdey this May when his saw debuted at the National Hardware Show but had spoken to him by phone when it was still in development. It was interesting to see how the design changed over time.

One of the patents for Cuzdey's Straight Flush Saw

Early prototypes were modified versions of an existing model from Skil (now Skilsaw). That's what I expected the production model to be because that's how specialized saws (like the ones from Big Foot Tools and Prazi USA) are usually made. But Cuzdey is having his saw built from the ground up by an OEM manufacturer in Taiwan. Early versions had the usual fixed handle but the production model has a rotating grip akin to that on certain recip saws. The grip can be set parallel to the blade or rotated 45 or 90 degrees off of it—which makes for more comfortable cutting when the tool is used at odd angles.

Another change from the original is the maximum bevel. The bases on most circular saws can be tilted no more than 53 degrees. The base on the Straight Flush Saw tilts 65 degrees, an angle that previously required a specialized accessory known as a swing table.

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There was one thing missing from the pre-production model at the Hardware Show that I hope makes its way onto production models—the logo found on the prototype, five cards that make up a straight flush hand in poker (in this case a royal flush). It's the coolest logo I've ever seen and completely appropriate for Cuzdey's saw—which after all, made its debut in Las Vegas.

The Straight Flush Saw is now taking pre-orders and scheduled for release the summer of 2016. The expected retail price is $575.