Saturday tool fun, thanks to a little help (long) *LINK*
MIles
>Been meaning to post a message describing a little weekend tool fun and some help from the famous Bugbear (who hasn't posted recently, I notice...) which made for a really good workshop Saturday. BB, hope you aren't embarrassed by public thanks :-) Thanks are due to WC as well, as it was via here that I 'met' BB and later found that he lives only about 50 miles away.
As you all know BB's a keen tool restorer, and I originally asked him for advice about restoring a sweet little Sorby dovetail saw I had picked up, which had teeth like a comedy witch, all different sizes and shapes, and a slightly distorted blade... not a great start. I straightened the blade, but needed help sharpening. A quite different saw emergency (which is too painful to admit here) made me ask him if he knew any 'really good' sharpening services in the UK... as the answer was No, and we discovered he lived not far away, he then volunteered his Saturday to come over and have a go, being no mean sharpener himself. This was very generous, but I was pretty stunned when he turned up with two large boxes of his own tools he thought would be interesting, to look at, play with, and generally enjoy. This is the kind of shared enthusiasm that seems to energise lots of WC discussions - but live!
In the boxes he had several nice backsaws he'd sharpened, as comparisons for mine, with a useful variety of tooth geometries (interesting to try, esp. the 8 deg rake & fleam BB-special). The benefit of extra weight of a thick brass back and the appropriate tooth type, was very apparent when trying them. Just relax & let the saw do the work...
Also stunningly good in the hand were a pair of lovely woodies, a scrub & a jack, with nicely cambered old laminated Preston blades. I have a couple of woodies, but these really showed how good they can be - light and 'fast' to use, and these were very well flattened so could easily be set very fine. I want some like these! Perhaps BB had anticipated the desire to properly camber some blades, as an Eclipse camber-sharpening jig also made an appearance, along with the casual comment 'I brought you this as I have 3' - I have used it and it works :-) I don't need to say that this was an unexpected bonus on top of the time and effort already given... BB you're a gent!
(he also left behind a spare copy of the Workbench Book... there was no end to the nice surprises on this particular Saturday)
After 'wasting' some considerable time just looking, and trying various things, we had to get down to the intended serious work of saw filing - which proved to need some patience, as the little DT saw was going to be retoothed at 15ppi (see templates on website, very useful!). The surprise was that although care was needed to keep the spacing, a good file cuts _really fast_ and we had teeth to size in no time flat (with BBs guide tricks, I found it pretty easy to get the hang of it after a few tentative teeth). Final shaping needed steady hands and this is where BB took over to leave me with a fully sharpened antique Sorby DT saw, that cut pretty jolly well. Very satisfying, and nice to know that this _is_ something well within the reach of us amateurs, even if the Adria's of the saw world still manage to produce (by hand?) unfeasibly perfect teeth that might take a good bit more practice to aspire to! (I have a couple of these and they are amazingly good, just a joy to hold and use. Far too good for me... and now I appreciate even better just how subtle and critical the filing has to be to achieve that result!)
I hope this ramble has given you a nice picture of a sunny English afternoon with the gentle rasping noise of files carefully reshaping some old English steel, & the happy murmer of a couple of galootish enthusiasts finding out that some other people do indeed share their interests, and are generally a generous type happy to share knowledge & time. A good day indeed!
cheers to all