Sawtooth oscillations are observed in the small tokamak TOSCA with a period of 100–200 μs. The q = 1 singular surface occurs at a radius of 1–1.5 cm. The sawtooth oscillations are not suppressed by shaping the plasma into a triangle. By comparing the results with those of larger tokamaks an empirical scaling law for the repetition time is obtained. It is demonstrated that this scaling law is compatible with Ohmic heating and a resistive instability whose growth rate is dependent upon the decrease in q below unity.