Surgical saw for actuating a saw blade with an oscillating head, the saw having a coupling assembly for releasably holding the saw blade

A method of navigating a surgical saw with a navigation system having a navigation processor, said method comprising:

• indexing a head of a surgical saw about a longitudinal axis of the surgical saw;
• attaching a saw blade assembly to the indexed head of the surgical saw;
• touching a tracked pointer to one or more reference points on the saw blade assembly;
• determining a position and orientation of the surgical saw;
• tracking the position and orientation of the tracked pointer as the tracked pointer is touched to the one or more reference points on the saw blade assembly;
• determining an angular orientation of the saw blade assembly based on the position and orientation of the tracked pointer when touching the one or more reference points on the saw blade assembly;
• and
• determining the position and orientation of a distal end of the saw blade relative to surgical saw using the navigation processor based on the position and orientation of the saw, the angular orientation of the saw blade assembly, and a length of the saw blade assembly.