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First attempt at sharpening a saw.

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First attempt at sharpening a saw.

#1

First attempt at sharpening a saw.

Joe Rogers, Northern Virginia

>Well...the house was empty. I had 20 to 30 min to myself. I had watched Tom Law's video and had a freshly sharpened #4 12"Disston Tom had redone for me to aspire to. I broke out the files and jointer and the flea market saw vise. Then the Tyzack E-Bay (which didn't cut worth a darn) got sharpened. 14" and 12 tpi. May have been origionally rip but I needed crosscut to fill out the stable.

Guys It Ain't Brain Surgery.

My first attempt isn't pretty. The teeth aren't perfectly shaped. They aren't perfectly sized. They are the same height, except for the very short ones, because I din't want to waste the metal. And getting the height is easy after jointing. But ,and this is the kicker, I cut a hard Maple 2x4 unit block left over from the kids younger days and it took about 30 seconds to lop it off. All and all I am completely satisfied. I will only get better the next time. And the experience demistified the process.

If you have a dull saw..sharpen it!

Your ego and your saw will benifit.JR

Re: First attempt at sharpening a saw.

#2

Re: First attempt at sharpening a saw.

Brad in Ottawa

>Good job! Pretty rewarding too! What did you use for a sawset?

When I first started I used a regular Stanley SawSet... I picked up a 42X for $12 of eBay and I am happier then ever with that aspect of my sharpening.

Did you use a jig to help? Was it the one from the Pete Taran article?

Brad

Re: First attempt at sharpening a saw.

#3

Re: First attempt at sharpening a saw. *LINK*

David Miller from Iowa

>Well done - my Grandpap taught me how to file saws in the 1960s, but I still learned a thing or two from Bob Brode's excellent tutorial on the web


Saw Sharpening with Bob Brode

Re: First attempt at sharpening a saw.

#4

Re: First attempt at sharpening a saw.

paul womack

>The teeth aren't perfectly shaped.

Tooth size doesn't matter too much, but tooth shape translates as rake angle, and rake angle matters.

Pete Taran (another great site) suggests a block crammed on the end of the file, but I found this got in the way of the filing action.

Robert Wearing suggests a different gadget, and here's my version

BugBear (with some nice sharp saws)

Re: First attempt at sharpening a saw.

#5

Re: First attempt at sharpening a saw.

Dave (Arlington, VA)

>Congratulations, Joe. You said you were going to do it, and, by george, you did. You�re right. It�s a pretty satisfying experience. Bring this saw to the next get together and let us oogle it. In the meantime how about a few details? How did you blacken the teeth? Sounds like you jointed it first, right? I have a bit of trouble seeing the teeth at 12 tpi and higher. Was this a problem for you?

I agree totally with your comment about how trying to sharpen a saw yourself �demystifies� the process.

Were there any surprises? Anything harder than you thought it�d be? Easier?

Regards �

Dave

Re: First attempt at sharpening a saw.

#6

Re: First attempt at sharpening a saw.

Todd Stock

>Once again, I've got to wonder why FWW, etc. continue to publish some of the most asinine 'tips' imaginable, while good, workable, not-in-the-least-bit wacky stuff (e.g., your link) never sees the printed page.

Re: First attempt at sharpening a saw.

#7

Re: First attempt at sharpening a saw.

Joe Rogers,Northern Virginia

>Brad,this particuar Tyzack had plenty of set. I didn't see the need to reset at this point. When I reset I have a Millers Falls 214 to use.I also filed the teeth freehand. I was too lazy at the time to make any jigs. (Bugbear your tip is on my to do list) In retrospect I could have gotten more consistent tooth shape with some alignment assistance. My rake angles are too laid back. This makes for easier engagement of the saw to start the kerf tho. I also used a file that was too big. I should have used a 4 or 5 xxslim taper and used a 6. The gullets are very rounded due to the file shape. Dave, I rolled a black "Sharpie" into the teeth to blacken prior to work. Due to the abysmal shape of the saw to start, I figured I could do no harm so to speak. As I said there are some teeth that didn't kiss the jointer so I have some future work ahead. Next time I plan to process the sharpening like Pete Taran advocates. Starting ath the handle and sharpening the away tooth. This is the opposite of Tom Laws video. If this is the worst I do I turned a display beauty into a user.

BTW old saws are the sauce for comfort. The handle on this saw is like "butter" in the hand.JR

Re: First attempt at sharpening a saw.

#8

Re: First attempt at sharpening a saw.

paul womack

>I also filed the teeth freehand.

This is amazingly difficult to do consistently. Filing a single gullet is (of course) trivial.

Filing 120 gullets to create even teeth is very difficult.

The closest analogies I know of are knitting and laying small ceramic tiles. The induividual action is easy. Performing it many, many times, and corrrecting inconsistencies at the macroscopic level is much harder.

These comments apply principally to restoring a saw in bad condition; touch up sharpening of the 2-strokes-per-gullet style is rather easier. Of course the ardent rust hunter is likely to be working on poor condition teeth...

BugBear

Re: First attempt at sharpening a saw.

#9

Re: First attempt at sharpening a saw.

Joe Rogers, Northern Virginia

>I concur Paul. The next saw that I devote any time to sharpening will be with the benefit of jigs. I need to address the consistency of the work. The saw just cuts so much better even sharpened poorly;-) that I have much more confidence to attempt it again.JR

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