Thread: How to approach hand saw sharpening for a complete beginner

The following hand saw sharpening video may be what your after.

regards Stewie;

Sharpening Western Saws - YouTube

Folks your age seem to prefer getting their info off a screen, but if by chance you prefer text, this is a pretty thorough guide & includes a table of file sizes suited to the various pitches.

Reading or watching videos will prepare your mind & tell you which directions to go in, but only practice will school your hands, & that's the really important part.....
Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

... but only practice will school your hands, & that's the really important part.....

Last week I decided to touch up my favourite dovetail saw, which took an inch or so to get my hand back in. I guess one of the problems of using hand saws under hobby conditions is that following my flurry of tooth cutting and sharpening, it's been nearly a year since I last needed to sharpen a saw. Perhaps it's time to restore the rest of my haul from Matt's "great-saw-giveaway" for another flurry of sharpening to consolidate the motor memory.

Perhaps that's also a case for beginning with one saw, meaning it will need re-sharpening more often, thus providing more practise.

Originally Posted by LanceC

...I guess one of the problems of using hand saws under hobby conditions is that following my flurry of tooth cutting and sharpening, it's been nearly a year since I last needed to sharpen a saw....

Yep, you've put your finger on the pulse there, Lance. I probably sharpen quite a few more saws than average amateurs, but it's still not enough to keep my hand (& eye) in properly. Rips are rarely a problem, but if I haven't done a crosscut in a while I always approach it nervously. If I sharpen a batch of half a dozen, as I occasionally do (a couple of my own & a few 'foreigners'), I get pretty slick by the last couple, but then I don't touch a file for a month or more & next time I sharpen a crosscut it feels like I'm starting from scratch again. I've occasionally thought about touting for business to get more practice, but such thoughts are very quickly followed by the realization that my shed time passes too quickly as it is & having to meet reasonable turnaround times would soon become a chore & take out what little pleasure there is in it, entirely.

I reckon if you learn at a young age, you'll get your muscle-memory properly trained. My dad started his apprenticeship at 12 & kept his skill up until his mid 80s when failing eyesight & diminishing motor skills let him down. I was 50 when I started seriously trying to sharpen saws. Up 'til then I'd always lived within cooee of a real old-time saw-doc. They charged such a reasonable fee & did such a good job I never even thought of sharpening a saw myself! But the world changed for me in the early 90s, when I discovered that competent professional hand saw-sharpeners had become as rare as feathered frogs, so I had to start learning, real fast...

Take heart that a saw does not have to be perfectly sharpened to cut well, & certainly way better than a dull saw & you will get better, albeit slowly, even with intermittent practice..

Ian