Here are some pics of a batch handsaw’s I am restoring and sharpening. There are lots of great tutorials on this subject, I highly recommend the one on vintage saws.com. These are just some pictures of how I do it, and certainly there are lots of different ways to skin a cat.
I highly recommend learning how to sharpen your own saws. Yeah, it takes a little more practice than sharpening a plane blade with the jig, but the effort is definitely worth it! Lots of Neanders haven’t had the chance to use a sharp, well-tuned saw, and once you do you’ll understand how preindustrial woodworkers were able to build the buildings, ships, furniture etc. with well-tuned saws and muscle power. You don’t have to train at the knee of Henry Disston to learn how to sharpen a saw,anyone can do it.
A good way to start is with a vintage rip saw you didn’t pay much for. The steel in the entry-level models made by all the Golden era manufacturers is typically a lots ofter than their top-of-the-line models and a good place to build your skills.Geometry of rip saw’s is simpler than cross cuts (no fleam angle), which also makes this a good place to start.
IMHO saws sharpening/tuning is a matter of degree. Just like sharpening plane blades,some guys hone with the 4000 grit stone and go back to work, while others polish through multiple grit stones to get a highly polished edge. Neither way is right or wrong, just a matter of personal preference.
The difference with saws vs. plane blades is that saws stay sharp a lot longer than plane blades and considering that the cutting surface of the saw is very small (the apex of the tooth), you can remove a relatively large amount of metal with one stroke of the file. The upside of this is that if you’re careful, with little practice you can get to the final sharpened tooth line you want with less effort, on the downside you can also foul things up fairly quickly.
A couple general guidelines that work for me:
1.If you think your files is dull, it is! Use a sharp file, when it stops cutting, get another one. In my experience, the biggest mistakes come when you’re using a dull file which means you have to take lots of strokes and is a lot easier to foul up the geometry this way.
2.First things first, get the basic tooth geometry right before you start working on fleam angle, slope gullets or anything else. Work from one side of the saw and bias pressure on the file so that you get the spacing, rake angle, tooth line height consistent. Once that’s done, you can move onto the next steps. Trying to combine profiling with fleam/gullet angles is like juggling while riding a bike - easy to screw up both things.
3.Error on the side of too few strokes, rather than too many before you check the results. For example, when profiling teeth after you’ve profiled the teeth from one side, jointed them one more time, flip the saw end for end and do it again from the other side.
4.The test cut is what really matters. I’m not a machinist, I suck at math and my calipers are low-budget. It doesn’t matter if all the specs look right, if when you try the saw it binds, wanders or leaves a giant kerf – the proof is in the pudding.
I start with tote restoration. I described how I do this in a previous post, here’s a picture of what I use. First step is to make any repairs. Here’s a picture of a repair that maximizes the original horn. It’s a lot easier to get a solid glue joint if you just saw the top of the horn off in one plane, plane smooth and glue on the repair block (rubber bands make a good clamp).
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I soak the plates in Evaporust, and try and scrape is much of the corrosion off with a razor blade as possible before sanding. This gives you the best chance of retaining any etch in the plate. I start with 2 inch squares of 300 grit wet dry paper and WD-40, which is more than enough to get you a clean, usable plate. Don’t worry about any discoloration or pinprick pits in the plates, that’s purely cosmetic, you just one remove the gross surface corrosion.
I sand through 600 grit and then polish with buffing compound because I like slick, smooth shiny plates. Is that necessary – no. The functional benefit of the slick plate is that you can get by with less set in the teeth because the plate will slide smoothly through the kerf. Really I’m just a little OCD.
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Having consistent tooth line with all teeth the same height is critically important because any teeth below the tooth line aren’t cutting. Check with the straight edge and it will give you a rough idea of how much jointing you’ll have to do with the mill file to get all the teeth a consistent height. Here’s a picture:
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A breasted toothline is one with a convex curve. Nice because in combination with the natural motion of your arm when sawing it keeps more teeth working. Straight is fine, but concave is not. Here’s a picture of a nice breasted tooth line:
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Here’s my saws sharpening kit: I used to be able to do the coarser pitch saws without magnification, but now I pretty much use a magnifying visor for everything.Tolerances are small and especially when you’re starting it really helps to be able to see what you’re doing.
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I use a shop made wooden saw vice with C clamps at the end in a twin screw face vice. I use the slope of the outside edge of the jaws as a visual guide for gullet angles and marker lines on the top as a guide for fleam angles. For me it’s easier to see these in your peripheral vision rather than a guide block set along the teethline. For me adjustable point lighting is essential.12.jpg