In this paper,influence of radial clearance angle of the sawtooth side edge in closed cutting and open cutting on the tangential force and normal force in different sawing conditions were evaluated.It was found that the tangential force which accounted for 4.6% to 20.2% of the total tangential force was the main force from the side edge while the normal force had no obvious changes.When the radial clearance angle increased or the cutting thickness decreased,the side edge cutting force decreased.The tangential force increased with increased cutting speed which had no obvious influence on the normal force.With the same radial clearance angles,the tangential force from the side edge in transverse cutting showed the biggest.