O.K., here's a really stupid question:

I bought a little Sheffield saw for cutting strips in my home-made miter box and am having some difficulties using it. The flanks of the blade stick to the wood as it cuts through. The blade has a plasticy coating of some sort on it, presumably to prevent it from rusting on the store shelf, that makes it difficult to use. It's not a plastic sheet like the kind of thing that you peel off a wristwatch, clock, etc. Is this coating meant to be removed before use, or do I just use the saw until it eventually wears away, as it's starting to do now?

Dean Trexel, Village Idiot