A large pipe cutter, tubing cutter, or filter cutter are the best tools.
Any one of those will leave the filter attached to the screw base, remove the outer canister, but makes no chips.
If you just want to compare elements ... rock and roll with that hack saw!
But just cut the outer canister, don't cut through the element itself.
The Fram filter is the red headed step child in the racing world. Nobody I know uses them.
The word is they have a higher delta/P (greater pressure drop).
-G
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