Handsaws are well-established tools for wood processing. Handsaw tooth geometries havecustomarily been adapted for hand-held electric saws, which utilise higher cutting velocities. Fundamentalstudies in wood cutting mechanics suggest that a cutting velocity of up to 50 m s−1 has negligible effect onthe cutting forces acting on an orthogonal cutting tool. There is a lack of research on the mechanismsinvolved in the use of native handsaw teeth for wood cutting. This study investigates how cutting velocityaffects the forces acting on four bevel-ground cross-cutting teeth extracted from a handsaw blade.Conditioned specimens of Norway spruce [Picea abies (L.) Karst.] were used in the tests. The meandensities of wood specimens were assessed using X-ray computed tomography. Cutting tests wereperformed on a pre-existing, custom-made cutting-force test machine. Cutting data were collected usingpiezoelectric dynamometers linked to a data acquisition system. Cutting velocity was controlled by therotational speed of the arm holding the wood specimen. A customised software application logged andprocessed the forces acting on the teeth. The results show that the mean resultant force does not varysignificantly within a 2.5–15 m s−1 velocity range. The current study suggests that velocity is nearlyindependent of the system mean cutting force acting on bevelled handsaw teeth cutting across the grain.The findings are particularly relevant for developing cutting tools for wood applications since knowledgefrom handsaw tooth geometry can be adapted for the design of cutting blades for power tools.