Tenon Saw Virgin

[Petey83]

so I have decided try my hand at some hand cut tenons having just picked up a nice set of 4 old Sheffield made mortice chisels on the bay for £11!

question is do can i just get away with a rip cut saw or will i need a cross cut to? What saws do people recommend on a budget? Been looking at the veritas saws but unsure if they are worth the money..

any help greatly appreciated

 

[bugbear]

so I have decided try my hand at some hand cut tenons having just picked up a nice set of 4 old Sheffield made mortice chisels on the bay for £11!

question is do can i just get away with a rip cut saw or will i need a cross cut to? What saws do people recommend on a budget? Been looking at the veritas saws but unsure if they are worth the money..

any help greatly appreciated

Unless you have restoration and sharpening skills (and tools) the Veritas saws are your best buy. Search the forum for reviews and threads.

BugBear

 

[mikefab]

I think that just a rip saw will be fine. Something like 12-14 tpi. If you knife the shoulders then a rip saw is absolutely fine for those very shallow cross cuts.

As BB said, the veritas saws are decent. I have their dovetail saw which is nice to hold and cut well out of the box.

Mike

 

[Petey83]

Thanks for the replies gents.

was thinking to grab this as the tenons will be smallish - think coffee table etc

http://www.axminster.co.uk/veritas-rip-cut-carcass-saw

 

[mikefab]

Looks good to me!

 

[RogerP]

I have both the Veritas cross and rip saws and cannot fault them.

I also have some older tenon/carcase saws of respected makes and collected over the years..
but I almost always use the Veritas.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

For very small tenons (coffee tables, stools etc) a dovetail saw will serve, especially if it has rip cut teeth. Not ideal for medium to large tenons, though!

There's a very full description of the stages in marking out and cutting mortice and tenon joints, including what to do with rails meeting at corners and other such common occurences, in Robert Wearing's 'The Essential Woodworker' (a book with much else of great value in it). Available from Classic Hand Tools (scroll down the page - it's near the bottom) - http://www.classichandtools.com/acatalo ... Press.html

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Some other good books there as well. I wouldn't have thought to look there.

 

[HarryJ]

I also have the Veritas Dovetail saw, and use it for both the rip cuts and the cross cuts when dovetailing.
What I have found is that it is sharp enough to deal with the cross cuts neatly despite having a rip tooth set, so I would be willing to take the chance of just buying the rip saw and trying it out -if you cant make it work, or feel a cross cut saw would be helpful, you can always go back and buy the cross cut at a later date...

Harry

 

[Petey83]

For very small tenons (coffee tables, stools etc) a dovetail saw will serve, especially if it has rip cut teeth. Not ideal for medium to large tenons, though!

There's a very full description of the stages in marking out and cutting mortice and tenon joints, including what to do with rails meeting at corners and other such common occurences, in Robert Wearing's 'The Essential Woodworker' (a book with much else of great value in it). Available from Classic Hand Tools (scroll down the page - it's near the bottom) - http://www.classichandtools.com/acatalo ... Press.html

That is the very book i am reading at the moment and also the reason i have decided to temper my power tool purchasing with some hand tools.

I did think dovetail saw but i currently only have a gents style dovetail saw as that's what I learnt with on the course I attended - planning on asking for a traditionally handled dovetail saw for xmas

 

[DiscoStu]

What about Japanese saws?

I've cut a cross cut Japanese saw and it's fantastic. I can take an edge off that is only a couple of mm thick. Much cheaper than Veritas etc. As you mentioned budget.

 

[JimF.]

I just use either an orange handled Bahco backsaw got from screwfix or for dovetails I have a 50p gents saw picked up from a junk shop.

I do have a good old spear and Jackson waiting in the wings for when I get me sharpening gland working.

 

[Ed Bray]

I have a couple of Tenon Saws and a couple of Western Style Dovetail Saws but I have much better results from my Japanese Saws I have a Hassunme Handle with Rip and Crosscut Blades but the best saw I have for dovetails is a Japanese Dozuki Saw I bought from David Barron and it is superb, I get much better cuts from it than I do with any of my backsaws.

 

[MIGNAL]

No doubt that the Veritas does come very sharp but it will need sharpening sometime in the future, unless you view it as throwaway.
I really do like the Japanese saws though. Does anyone know if the Huntley Oak saw is X-cut, rip or a combination?

 

[dh7892]

I'll add a different opinion then:

I agree that the Veritas saws are a good buy if you want new. But I've got the cross-cut. I'm sure what others have said about being able to use the rip-cut on the shoulders is true but I vote for splitting your tennons rather than sawing them anyway so I don't need any rip-cutting for my tennons.

 

[Sawyer]

If you only want to buy one tenon saw, go for the crosscut: much more versatile and will do rip cuts adequately, albeit more slowly. Except in the case of very small teeth, rip teeth do not perform well in crosscut operations and would not give particularly good results on tenon shoulders.

 

[mikefab]

I have to disagree with sawyer.

The size of saw we are talking about *does* have small teeth and a rip saw will cut perfectly good shoulders. I don't have an x-cut tenon saw and have no problem with ragged shoulders.

Respected wood working teachers like David Savage and Paul Sellers both say that all you need is rip cut in this sort of size. I think that it is a different matter when you are talking about larger hand saws (say, 8ppi).

Not having an x-cut saw in this size I can't comment on how that would perform of course but I don't feel the need to own one....



Mike

 

[Petey83]

the Veritas i posted the link to arrived from Axminster today and it looks to be a great tool. Obviously not been able to use it yet but very happy with the fit and feel of it

 

[mikefab]

Have fun with it!