Hand Saw Restoration and Re-teething of a 99p saw Completed

[deema]

Jacob, good points you raise, as always.

It actually took me just under 30 minutes to sharpen this saw which included stripping off the teeth. I have found that once you know how to saw, and what a good saw feels like you can just re-sharpen a secondhand saw. For me though, I often find that the last owner didn't know how to sharpen the saw and has damaged one or more teeth making it better to strip them off and start from a clean plate.

For someone new to wood working, without that knowledge, I wanted to present a method that will give them the best possible chance to create a saw for very little money that cuts and performs like a new premium saw.

 

[deema]

Let's have a look at number of teeth and what it will cut.

The saw in the photos is a 11TPI or 12 PPI

The wood is c3/4" or 19mm, a fairly useful size, you can see that there are a number of teeth in contact with the wood, the saw will cut well.

Going down to 1/2" or 12mm, again plenty of teeth will engage with the wood.

Going down to 3/16, or c 4mm there are only two teeth in contact with the wood, the teeth will 'bite' too deep and the cut will be very rough with a lot of blow out at the back.

However, this can be greatly improved by angling the saw when cutting, with this saw you can get 3 teeth engaged with the wood. Not brilliant, but the cut will be a lot better. The photo shows hopefully how when starting a cut the corner of the wood 'sinks' into the gullet of the tooth and makes starting any cut difficult. By drawing the saw backwards initially you present the back side of the tooth which has a much lower cutting angle and will help to start the cut. As you start to make a kerf you engage more and more teeth lifting the wood out of the gullet which enables you to start to cut pushing forward.

If you have a broken tooth, or teeth that are big and small (Cows and Calves) for most sawing you won't notice. However when sawing thin material the missing tooth or the calve (low tooth) will effectively reduce the PPI and cause the saw to suddenly judder / a 'rough' spot as you push forward. It's extremely unpleasant and does not help you to either keep the saw straight or cut cleanly.

The only way to remedy a broken tooth or a calve is to sharpen the saw until the tooth reappears on the saw line.

 

[Jacob]

What I like about the minimalist approach is that you end up with a scruffy looking old saw which actually cuts like magic, and after enough use still looks scruffy and old but shiny in part, from use.

 

[deema]

Marking out the spacing of the teeth can be done in a number of ways, this is just one of the solutions. I will typically use one of the spacing patterns available on:

Blackburn Tools - articles & reference material

This WEB site has a lot of good information as well as a library of saw tooth templates. Down load the template that you want and print it out. Most importantly check the actual TPI that is printed, my printer reduces the size so a 13 TPI is actually a 14 TPI., this is what I used. The printed sheet on A4 is too small for the full length of the saw, so I print out a couple of sheets and carefully join them together. My weapon of choice is sellotape!

Trim to the right length and wrap is over the saw plate and either stick it to the plate or just clamp it with the saw in the vice. I normally just clamp it, however the main thing is that it must be tightly wrapped around the plate.

 

[deema]

To ensure that you file at the correct angle consistent a simple jig is required. A small piece of wood with a small hole drilled into it and marked with a line at 8 degrees is all that is required. Push the end of the file into the hole aligning one of the three faces if the file with the line.

I normall place a groove in the top of the jig so I know which way is up and also make an arrow pointing to the heel (handle).

The jig is a little dirty as I took the photos after I'd used it.

I've recommended a slim file, the reason is that each file has three useable sides, and a slim file is just big enough for 11 to 14 TPI that when filing the teeth you won't sink more than half the file into the gullet. This leaves the three other sides unused.

 

[Bm101]

Thank you Deema. A fantastic series of lessons for the uninitiated like me. Please keep it up! Threads like this are such a great source of information and experienced know how. Brilliant. =D>

 

[deema]

Your now ready to start urging the teeth. One of the reasons I advocate this method for anyone starting to learn how to sharpen a saw is that repetition builds up both confidence and technique. You will have to file each tooth about 4 or five times, for a 12" saw at 14 TPI thats circa 840 individual file strokes.

The first stage is to transfer the markings on the paper pattern to the saw plate. I do this with the file. Place the file exactly on the line and take a single full stroke of the file. Move to the next line and repeat.

The better you do this the easer it will be to cut the teeth. Inevitably you will make an error and some will be slightly off the line, don't worry, it's easy to fix. As you can see, mine were a bit sloppy in their position. I could suggest I did this deliberately for the sake of this thread, but I didn't, my eye sight lets me down!

Concentrate on letting the fie do the work, don't press down on the file, let it cut. Keep the file level (horizontal) and as you would when sawing push straight without veering off. Try to maintain the same length of Stoke and the same pressure on the file. You will now have made c178 stones with the file, your technique will have improved and you will now be getting a feel for the file.

The file should be held so that the jig arrow points to the heel. The jig should be held level (horizontal) along its length (inline with the saw blade ps length) so that the file creates an 8 degree face on the front of the tooth. The focus should be in keeping everything level, maintaining a constant strip length and letting he file cut. It's sounds far mire difficult than it is. Just hav a go, you will be amazed ow quickly you pick it up.

When you've finished marking out the tooth spacing remove the template after carefully checking you haven't missed any!

 

[deema]

Take a black marker and run it along the teeth, this helps you see where you've been in the next pass along the teeth.

You now take a second pass, one stroke in every notch. DO NOT be tempted to do more than one stroke, this technique requires you to do everything consistently. Start at one end and file until you end up at the other, it does not matter which direction you go in, toe to heel, or heel to toe.

Right, you will now start to see the teeth developing. They will typically be about 1/3 of the way to being fully formed. Have a good look at the black tops of the teeth, there will inevitably be some that are wider than others and some that are narrower. Without some correction the wide ones will develop into big teeth, Cows, and the narrow ones into small teeth below the tooth line, Calves. Study the pattern and you will see that a wide top will be next to a Short top, you need to reduce the length of the long top by moving the groove (gullet) away from the short top.

Now, start at one end and file every gullet again, one long even strokes in every gullet. As you come to a tooth form that has a long and short top, concentrate, place the file in the gullet, and push gently as the arrow shows towards the long top whilst taking the stroke. As you push the file keep looking at the length of the long top, stop the stroke short if you reduce the long top to the same length as those you have already filed. The short top won't have reduced. You may not be able to even up the tops in this pass, don't worry, you will by the time you've done the next pass or two. DO NOT try to correct the tooth form by taking more than one stroke of the file.

 

[deema]

Now, repeat filing for one end of the plate to the other, correcting and teeth as you go. Sometimes you will have to correct a narrow top by filing a long top that is either side of it.

You keep going until the teeth look to be fully formed. This will typically be after about 4 or 5 repeated filing passes. If it's all gone wrong, don't worry, just strip off the teeth and have another go! It's highly unlikely that you won't have after 840 stokes of the file not arrived at a good result.

The following photo shows the saw plate after the second, third and forth pass. This is to show how the teeth form and is NOT what you should do. The middle of the blade is after the second pass (following the first pass to mark the blade) the left hand side is after three passes and the Righ hand side after four passes. You will see some cows and calves as a result of my poor marking in the middle, reduced on the left and gine on the right. Sorry for the photo, I forgot to wipe off the fillings. I only corrected the cows and calves fully during the fourth pass.

The saw is not finished yet!

 

[Jake]

What I like about the minimalist approach is that you end up with a scruffy looking old saw which actually cuts like magic, and after enough use still looks scruffy and old but shiny in part, from use.

Do you see some of yourself in this?

/psychobabble

 

[Jake]

What a great guide by the way Deema.

 

[bugbear]

...a good dose of raw linseed oil (all over) and a sharpen say 30 minutes max. The wood and the steel will then polish up with use. Even a very rusty blade develops a black/brown low-friction and reflective sheen, which after a great deal of use will go steely grey in patches.

I find simply rubbing dirty steel with Silicon Carbide (wet 'n' dry) very much more practical and effective than rubbing steel with wood, which works very slowly indeed as you say.

BugBear

 

[MarkDennehy]

Brilliant guide for us newbies Deema, thank you!

 

[Jacob]

...a good dose of raw linseed oil (all over) and a sharpen say 30 minutes max. The wood and the steel will then polish up with use. Even a very rusty blade develops a black/brown low-friction and reflective sheen, which after a great deal of use will go steely grey in patches.

I find simply rubbing dirty steel with Silicon Carbide (wet 'n' dry) very much more practical and effective than rubbing steel with wood, which works very slowly indeed as you say.

BugBear

No you missed the point: you'd brush off loose rust before applying oil, and just the first few strokes would leave a skid mark but after that "a very rusty blade develops a black/brown low-friction and reflective sheen" and is perfectly usable in that condition. It may go on to look more steel-like but with no particular advantage

 

[deema]

The teeth are now formed and relatively sharp, the next step is to apply some set, this is where one tooth is bent to one side of the blade and the next to the opposite side of the blade. This is repeated down the entire blade. The alternative bending of the teeth effectively increases the width of the blade and when cutting creates a slot or kerf that is wider than the blade. The kerf needs to be wider than the blade to stop the blade from binding and getting trapped in the wood.

How much set should be applied to the teeth? well, in theory the bigger the teeth the more set that is required as the cut will be rougher and the walls of the kerf won't be as even which might trap the blade. If you saw hardwood you don't need as much set as you do for softwoods which are generally more resinous and 'stickier' wood. If you cut Dovetails with the saw you want a fine kerf to help with accuracy.

Just a note, the only real difference between a Dovetail saw and a tennon saw is
1. The death of cut, that is from the teeth to the back is narrower for a Dovetail saw
2. The saw plate is often just a smigin narrower on a Dovetail saw.

Neither of these IMO really make the saws different and you can use a well tuned tennon saw to cut Divetails.

What to do in practice? well I add as little set as I can get away with on the saw, I know I can always add a little more set if I need it, but I can't reduce the set once I've done it very effectively (apart from sharpening the teeth which reduces the amount of set due to the teeth being bent. The tips of the teeth being bent the furthest away from the plate, sharpening reduces the tip height and therefore the amount they are bent away from the plate.)

Initially you want to add a few thousands of an inch of total set, that's the width of the kerf compared to the blade.

The Eclipse saw set has a hammer (moving bit) and an anvil that can be rotated to different positions. All Ecliose saw sets that I have seen (fine and course) go up to 12. I normally leave my Eclipse set at either 10 or 11 for a backed saw. The difference between the two is so small it's not worth worrying about.

With the saw in the vice place the saw set on the blade and starting at the heel (handle end) on the first tooth set the saw set down on the teeth with the hammer positioned exactly on the tooth. Squeeze the handle and keep looking at the tooth. You will see the tooth move, now continue sneezing, and you will start to see the tooth slightly deform, remember the pressure needed to move the tooth and the higher pressure needed to deform the tooth (squash it a little). For all subsequent teeth you want to apply a pressure a little more than needed to move the tooth and not enough to deform the tooth. You can normally feel a difference between moving the tooth and when you start to deform it. Sounds complex, but once you've done it, you will know what you are 'feeling for'

Move the saw set missing the next tooth and set the third tooth. Repeat for every other tooth....1,3,5,7,9...

Turn the saw around and repeat for the 2,4,6,8,10....tooth, in other words the teeth that you haven't set. You will now set the teeth.

You can see how the hammer is positioned on the tooth and also to the left the teeth set with one tooth bent to one side and the next the opposite way (this was done for the photo)

The first few teeth are the most difficult to set, as the Eclipse guide is not resting fully on all of the teeth and needs to balanced. Be careful not to let the Ecliose drop down the hammer needs to be positioned so that it pushes just under the tip of the tooth.

 

[deema]

The next step is to finally sharpen the teeth ready for use. Setting the teeth will have damaged the tips slightly, so we need to resolve this.

Take a black marker pen and blacken all of the teeth again.

Taking the second cut file, and run it ONCE only along the teeth just as you did when stripping off the teeth initially. You will now see bright shiny fiats on all of the teeth, they should be very small and even in size.

Starting at the heel (I would always recommend starting at the heel as these teeth will rarely if ever get used when sawing, and any 'wobbles' in technique as you are starting won't matter) file each gullet again stopping the stroke when you have reduced the shinny flat by half its width. Move to the next tooth and file again, this time the shinny flat surface of that was halved will disappear altogether and the untouched shinny flat surface will be halved when this occurs.

Repeat all of the way down the saw.

If you have done this well, you have now sharpened the saw.

To test the saw shapness (being very, very careful) I press my finger onto the teeth after I've sharpened each one, if it sticks it's sharp. I read somewhere this phenomenon, and didn't understand it until I tried it, the guy could wrote it called it sticky sharp.

If the saw is not sticky sharp, you haven't removed the flats completely from the tops of the teeth. The simplest way to resolve this is to start at the heel and file half a stroke on every tooth all the way down the blade and test again. DO NOT try to individually sharpen teeth until you have some experience!!


Reattach the handle. If the handle is loose when you have done up the bolts, or you broke some of the studs, don't worry, remember it cost 99p or some small amount, it's not a museum piece. I use araldyte, No More Nails or something similar to glue the handle onto the blade and any broken studs back to make it look nice. You will not saw well unless the blade is held firm. Don't worry, you won't need to remove the handle for subsequent sharpening. With a little care, only you will ever know it's glued!

I think it looks rather nice now, and does not resemble the awful thing I bought.

 

[deema]

Test the saw. If you find it is sticking in the Kerf add a little more set. If it pulls to one side,you've not applied even pressure when setting the teeth and the side opposite to the direction the saw pulls in is under set, reset these teeth.

This saw cuts reality nicely, this is a piece of oak, and you can see even with a RIP pattern there is very little blow out in the back edge of the cut.

Thickness of the plate

The width of the kerf

I test a saw normally by sawing a hardwood, the reason is to see if I've been careless and left a big tooth it will let me know. A big tooth can be detected by a sudden jolt whe pushing forward on the saw, you will feel it if it's a problem. To find it I push the saw forward slowly until I feel the jolt and then stop, using a black marker, mark the blade where it's entering the wood. Remove the blade and look towards the toe from the black marker to find it.

The technique I've described is designed to prevent you having this problem, by doing everything consistently and not 'filing' each tooth this should not occur.

To resolve the 'big tooth' use the second cut file to create flats on top of all of the teeth. Check that all teeth have been flattened by doing as many full strokes of the blade as necessary. Your not stripping off the teeth, just creating flats. Now form the teeth again sharpen, set and final sharpen.

To sharpen this saw took me just under 30 minutes, that's from start to finish. In total, it's taken just under an hour of my time, spread over a few days.

The saw cuts as well as any saw I've ever used, or the premium high end saws I've tested at shows. Total cost less than £20, which has included buying all of the equipment needed. Another saw will only cost me......99p!

 

[deema]

Finally to maintain the saw periodically apply some silicon free wax, it will make it cut better as well as act as a rust inhibitor.

When the saw starts to loose it's sharpness and does not cut well, you simply using the triangular file, sharpen every gullet half a stroke. This will normally bring it back to being 'sticky sharp'. The next time you sharpen it you will need to use the 2nd cut file to create flats, and then just sharpen again. This stops the teeth becoming uneven.

I find I need to reset the teeth every second or third sharpen.

Once sharpened initially it takes me about 10 minutes to re-sharpen a saw. A lifetime of sharpening will only reduce the plate depth by a few millimetres!

As already suggested, if I want a saw with a different tooth spacing I buy another 99p saw.

To improve my saw sharpening technique I occasionally buy old saws and do them up. If I don't want them I either give them away of sell them on eBay. If you sell the saw on eBay you can end up recovering more than you've spent and make a small profit. A 99p saw sharpened with all of its problems solved will sell for c£30. Not bad for an hours work!

Good luck, and have a go, it's not difficult.

 

[NazNomad]

My handsaw collection is pretty dire, but now I'm inspired to improve it..

 

[rdesign]

Thank you for the detailed post. Is there quality new equipment to buy to sharpen and set a blade or do you recommend getting second hand gear?.

Links to recommendations would be appreciated.

Something I have been wanting to learn about.

Regards Richard