Disston D8 22" saw - how many ppi

[Fitzroy]

Evening all. After my feeling of success with the 4ppi rip saw I went back to my box of gumtree saws and found this beauty. Blade was pretty straight but teeth were a mess so I took it back to a straight edge. Having taken it apart and cleaned it off I've found it's a pretty old Disston D8 with the 8 encompassed in the D so I believe c. 1920. Perhaps I was a little rough and hasty but too late now!

It's obviously been sharpened a fair few times as it must be and inch or more shallower than when first made with a good chunk of the etch now off the bottom of the blade.

My skills are not good enough to sharpen a cross cut tooth so I'm going to sharpen it as another rip saw. My question is how many tpi/ppi is a good number to have in the workshop. I was thinking 10 a good balance, thoughts?

Cheers

Fitz.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Afaik 8 is/was usual, 10 is a panel saw.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

I'd go for 8tpi as a rip, 10tpi as a cross-cut panel saw - so same as Phil.

These days, for someone doing mainly furniture work byhand in hardwoods, I reckon you could do all you need with a 26" 4tpi rip, a 22" 8tpi rip and a 20" or 22" 10 or 12tpi crosscut, (supplemented with a hardpoint in case any chipboard finds its way into the shop). I used to think that a large 26" 6tpi crosscut was an essential, too; nowadays I prefer to use the smaller panel-size saws whenever I can because they're lighter and consequently less fatiguing to use. You don't often need to cross cut thicker stock, and when you do a smaller toothed rip saw does almost as good a job as a full size large-toothed handsaw, so it's a bit moot whether owning a big cross-cut handsaw is really worth the initial cost or storage space.

One of the problems of finding all this out is that you end up buying and trying quite a lot of saws. Having done that - I now have quite a lot of saws that rarely see any use!

Thus, my 'versatile full kit' list of saws would be;

26" or 28" 3tpi or 4tpi rip - there's no other efficient way to rip thicker boards unless you have machines available.

22" 8tpi rip - nice saw for ripping thinner (1" and less) stock, and will also cross cut thicker stock, albeit not quite as neatly as a 'proper' handsaw.

20" or 22" 10tpi or 12tpi cross cut - for bringing thinner parts close to finished size without excessive break-out.

Hardpoint - any old 'shed-on-the-bypass' cheapy for chipboard and recovered timber with nails in.

Dovetail saw.

12" backsaw filed about 14tpi cross cut - mainly used with a bench hook for trimming parts to length.

14" backsaw filed about 10tpi rip - for larger tenon cheeks.

Coping saw.

Optional - flush cut saw, 12" turning saw.

I reckon you could do just about any furniture type work with that kit.