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How to strip, set and sharpen a handsaw

Set the saw in to a sawhorse ( a saw horse is a frame 3 ft high by 30 ins wide which allows the blade to be held in place along it's running length with wedge shaped side supports about 3 ins deep, driven in to a V- slot in the frame ends, accommodation has to be made for the shape of the handle)

Place the saw in the horse and tighten the wedges leaving about 1in. of the blade clear of the top, with a flat file, a bastard will do the job, run this file along the length of the teeth, maintaining the crown until all teeth have a white point, this ensures all teeth are the same height, remove to set the teeth ( if your saw is straight just maintain this, a saw with out a crown will not handle and cut as good as a crowned saw, simply because of the natural action of the users shoulder, the teeth of a straight saw are inclined to slip through the material rather that biting ). a tenon and dovetail saw are maintained straight, A rip saw should have a crown of about 1/4 to 5/16 in. crosscut 1/8 to 3/16 in. panel saw 1/8 in. and or variations.

Making sure all the teeth have white points, it now time to set the saw teeth, to set the teeth I personally use a Sandvik saw set, this set has the ability to set only the top third of the teeth, ( less set is required ) most other saw sets are inclined to set more of teeth as a whole not the top, of course you set each teeth alternately, the amount of set is dependent on the saw and the material. choose the correct sized file for the saw at hand, ( three cornered ) always start at the front and file towards the handle, on the teeth and set that are facing away from you, in other words you are filing the front of the teeth, file until the white points disappear, ( some teeth will require more filling that others ) reverse the saw horse and start on the other alternate teeth. For a rip saw you hold the file level and at 90 degrees to the handle, for a crosscut you incline the file 7 to 10 degrees towards the handle and 5 to 7 degrees from the horizontal to the point of the teeth, and or variations thereof, the panel saw is filed the same but a slightly less aggressive degree in both directions, which will have less bite, ( will not cut as fast but will stay sharper longer ) . Back angle or rake of the teeth , that is the degree that the front of the teeth are filed and set back to the handle are any where from 3 to10 degrees. Having completed this operation it is now time to check the final adjustment, place a small needle in teeth groove at the handle end and allow it to ride all the length of the saw, if your saw is correctly set and sharpened it should ride all the way off the end, failing that you have to revisit the point where the needle fouled or fell off. If satisfied you have to add the final touch and that is with the saw laid on a flat surface, slide a whet stone once over all the teeth from one end to another, this will remove any burs and a line the set.

C-Clamp Hints

Afraid of scratching the wood when clamping things with your C-clamps? Here is a couple ideas to make those cast iron C-Clamps a little more wood friendly.

Put self adhesive chair foot pads on each clamping surface, these small stick on pads are easy to replace, and inexpensive. As an alternative, you can also use those plastic milk bottle lids or the screw off tops from 2-liter bottles. You can leave them loose, or glue them to the metal with hot-melt glue.

 

 

Finishing Scrapers

One of my favorite finishing tips I got from Jim Kull. He taught me to use a blade from a utility knife to remove nubs, runs or anything sandpaper would normally be used for between finishing coats. Use it like a conventional wood scraper. It never clogs up and saves a lot of time and sandpaper. It is amazingly easy to scrap down a finish. I buy different size relacement utility blades at my local hardware stores. They are CHEAP!

Ron Duncan

How to choose a good hand saw in the rip,crosscut and pannel category

first and formost there must be a crown of at least 1/4in. to 1/2in. depending in which category you are looking at, the rip saw would have the larger crown,in other words the crown of the blade should look like a salmon belly.Secondly the blade has to be taper ground from the teeth to the back of the blade and thirdly it has to be well blanced,to test for this hold the saw between two fingers a third of the way from the handle,the saw should be roughly in a horizontal position Seumas MacCombie at http://www.island.net/~macduff/