Alan DuBoff
>Mike,

I don't recommend that folks sharpen their saws like that either, in reality, but the point is that it certainly does work. Your photo proves that point very well.

Nobody really needs a lot of fancy frills to sharpen.

Would be good to start a thread on sharpening handsaws, the basics, what type of pitfalls to look out for, and some of the terminology used. Rather than just sending folks off to look at vintagesaws.com or Smalser's articles, the online Chris Gochnour's video at taunton, I think it's good for people to exchange thoughts and get people aware of it so that less folks have a phobic fear. I'm not sure if others are interested in that particular aspect of handsaws, maybe not and the majority are happy to send their saws off to Cooks, Weir, Werner, and

I am certainly no expert sharpener, but still I try to share any thoughts I can, as well as encourage folks to try it. I would agree that it is not intuitive for some, but it ain't rocket science either...and I wouldn't label myself as a natural sharpener...still I was able to learn enough to get the teeth sharper than they start out at...heck, if I can do it, most anyone can do it...

Regards,
Alan