Thread: One thing led to another, I end up lubricating my japan pullsaw with graphite wax

Originally Posted by justonething

.... Would graphite blunt the saw teeth?

Can't see why it should, graphite is pretty soft stuff. It's a great lubricant, and has the advantage of being 'dry' so it doesn't create 'grinding paste' with particulate matter. I use it a bit around my shed, but sparingly - as you say, it can be messy stuff!

Somewhere, I've seen a recommendation to spray one of those silicone products like 'silverglide' on saws, which was mainly for rust protection, but would have a pretty good lubricant action, and leave no detectable residue.

For my own saws, I just apply a thin coat of paste-wax now & then, wiped off with a clean rag so that a fingerprint barely shows. I do that more for a bit of rust protection, but it does make the saws a lot more 'slippery' in long rip cuts. For curiosity's sake, try your brew without the graphite & see how it performs. I'll be surprised if it doesn't work as well, or so close to it you'll be hard-put to tell the difference....

I do like the story of how you started out to do a job, got sidetracked, had a bit of fun & satisfied your curiosity, but didn't finish what you started out to do. I'm going to show it to my other half so she can see I'm not the only bloke what does this!

Cheers,

I like the wax idea. Graphite seems like it could easily go awry leaving black residue all over your cuts that could potentially leave black glue lines. Otherwise - it wont hurt anything though. As a general rule - I keep carbon black soot sort of things like graphite powder out of the shop. It always ends up leaving a sooty fingerprint or little black flecks in finishes.

As for silicone base lubes. Yikes no! The only place silicone belongs is tub caulk. Neither glue nor finish sticks to the silicone lubes right and its super persistant. You end up with loose glue joints and/or fish eyes all over your finishes. And even if it starts on your saw blade - it ends up on your fingers and everything in the shop including the wood. Fish eye city!

Now... I think the idea of a little wax on the saw is a fine idea. Certainly a gigantic leap above the current practice of spraying or dipping the saw in lacquer/finish... That makes a sticky mess that makes sawing 3x as hard.

Graphite must be a much better lubricant than wax alone. I put some of my brew on the soles of my planes and man do they glide. And the smoothness last for much longer than wax alone. There is not much residue of black soot at all. I think I'm going to experiment a bit more by either adjusting the amount of graphite in the brew or by just polishing it to remove the excess and see how that goes. Needless to say, still haven't been up the ladder yet.
I think we all have an internal way of determining how important things are to us regardless what priority things appear ought to be. In this instance, mucking around is far more important than getting the place ready for the raining season. Eventually the pendulum will swing around no doubt like when there is a flood resulted by blocked gutters.

Originally Posted by justonething

.....mucking around is far more important than getting the place ready for the raining season. Eventually the pendulum will swing around no doubt like when there is a flood resulted by blocked gutters.

True, but there's nothing like the approach of a deluge to focus the mind & get me out of the shed!

We had no wet season to speak of this year - it rained just about everywhere else in Qld, but Brisbane always seemed to miss out, so I got a little slack about cleaning gutters etc. Luckily, we had lots of warning that ex-Debbie was heading our way as a big fat rain depression, so I had plenty of time to clean gutters & get those couple of fittings I'd been meaning to get for close on a year to fix one of my down-pipes. My neighbor didn't bother, and got water in the house from a leaf-clogged valley......

Cheers,

On a note about silicon(horrible stuff).
DO NOT USE SILCON ANYWHERE IN YOUR Workshop if you plan on doing finishing there.
I've seen a five million dollar vehicle repair shop close for a week in England because a off apprentice sprayed some in the body shop.
It took us a week ,ten guys ,wiping every surface down with spray gun thinners.
That ain't fun.
Basically ,a very hard thinners before we started working on cars again.
It hangs in the air for ages ,then appears as little pimples in your beautiful finished piece of work.

Rant and warning over..

Cheers Matt

Yeah I still have a can of that silicon stuff I bought twenty year ago. Haven't had any chance of using it. Teflon has largely taken its place now and may be my home brew will too