Thread: Saw Tooth Cutting Service

Seems like a fabrication shop might do it for the right price and if you were super specific about angles, etc., but I'd be reluctant to go that route since it's not really a normal operation for them. Also, I think you'd probably spend more money doing it than the price of the files.

How many teeth are you missing? And how long is the saw?

Cheers,
Luke

RayG has a Foley 385 if I recall correctly. Look in the home made saws thread.

If you cannot find anyone local, Northern Sharpening in Trade Place, Nth Coburg, Vic, can do it. I had a piece of saw plate cut when making a saw. They should be able to cut to your needs, TPI, rip or crosscut, etc
Phone 03 9350 4262. Fax. 03 9350 4127
Hope that helps

Morbius, any reasonable saw-sharpening place should be able to re-cut a set of teeth for you - they can't do finer than about 14tpi, as a rule, but handsaws are usually no problem. Back when I started saw-making I took some blank blades to the place where I get my circular saws done & they cut teeth in them for a pretty reasonable charge. Eventually, I discovered that cutting a set of teeth isn't anywhere near as difficult as I first imagined, but you are right that it can eat up a file or two, depending on the quality of your files. Cutting teeth in a fresh blank is the toughest test of a file, there is a huge amount of strain right on the corner for those first couple of strokes. Most files I get now seem to be too brittle and the corners collapse very quickly under that sort of use. Once the teeth are partly cut & the strain is distributed over more surface area of the files they cope a bit better, & it doesn't destroy the file as quickly when I'm re-forming 'bad' teeth.

If only the upper half of the teeth are broken off, it doesn't take as much effort as you might expect to bring them all back to level. If a saw has broken teeth, it may be due to abuse, over-setting, or it might be because the metal is extra hard & not meant to be set. Try filing a few teeth to gauge how hard it is, and maybe test a couple of teeth at the heel end to see if they will tolerate setting. If you've got any model/type identification evident, you may be able to ascertain if it's a 'no set' type before you discover that by destroying more teeth...

Cheers,

I have a retoother but it would cost more in postage than go drop into these guys in Fyshwick.
Fitch Sharpening | Pricing | Canberra

This is a skill I would like to learn..

Me too!

Paul Sellers has an excellent video on a simple method to retooth a saw blade using a jig and a hacksaw (and then a saw file obviously)
https://youtu.be/mTqZTGPPRj0

Originally Posted by dubrosa22

Me too!

Paul Sellers has an excellent video on a simple method to retooth a saw blade using a jig and a hacksaw (and then a saw file obviously)......

Well folks, there's only one way I know of to acquire a skill.......

I like Sellers' idea of marking out the teeth with a hacksaw - haven't seen that one before. He's dead right that toothing-in with a file alone destroys the corners of the file in jig time, so anything you can do to ease the job the corners have to do would be a big help. I wish I knew where he gets his Junior hacksaw blades from, though, the ones I can buy around here can barely manage mild steel, so I doubt they'd handle saw plate, but I'm going to give it a try, sometime!

One thing I would take issue with is the number of steps he goes through to prepare his tooth guide/template. The more steps involved, the more variation you'll introduce, so it's best to keep it to a minimum if you can. The quickest & easiest way I know to lay out teeth is to simply clamp another saw of the required tpi to your blank and use the gullets as a guide to lay out the teeth positions. If you are careful you won't even mark the template teeth. Have the top of the blank peeking up a mm or so above the bottoms of the gullets on your template, line the tip of the file up against one edge of a tooth, then lean it away ever so slightly as you make a firm stroke. A single stroke should be enough to get a clear notch. When the full length is marked out, remove the template and finish the teeth. I always advise doing it in steps of two strokes per tooth. Watch the flats on the tops of the teeth as you take each pass along the saw, and if some are a bit wide or narrow, put pressure on the side of the file in the direction needed to correct it & keep the flats even. It takes surprisingly few strokes of a decent file to form a tooth - about 5 or 6 for 12tpi, for example. Practice on a bit of scrap (an old card scraper is ideal) & try to make each stroke the same length at the same pressure and you'll have the satisfaction of seeing the teeth 'grow' quickly & evenly.

And whereas Mr, Sellers is sufficiently skilled & practiced to judge rake angles by eye (& keep them constant!) most beginners will find they need help for this operation. A simple, very effective guide can be made by drilling a hole in a stick about 5 or 6mm square by 50-60mm long. Scribe a line across the edge of the hole at the desired rake angle, then jam the tip of the file into the hole so that what will be the trailing edge of the file lines up with your scribe line. Hold the stick horizontal as you file & you should get consistent rake angles on all your teeth. This pic should be self-explanatory - in this case I'm filing rip teeth with 5* of negative rake, which is moderately aggressive, someone new to hand sawing might find 7-10 degrees more suuitable: Rake angle guide.jpg

For just one or two saws, it's probably more convenient, and at least as accurate to use a paper template and file or cut the starter notch directly from that. There are several sources of printable templates on the web (here) and (here), for example.

Make sure when you print the template that it comes out to approximately the tpi you wanted - a fraction out either way is immaterial for hand-filed teeth, so it doesn't have to be exact - you won't notice 1tpi difference either way in use. I stick a strip of template to the side of the saw, some people fold it over he top, whatever seems the best way to you. If you use a water-based glue like PVA to stick your template on a shiny new plate, make sure you clean it off asap, or you may have some nasty rust patches from the glue (damhik!). I use some old shellac if I have to glue a template on now - it doesn't have to be a super bond, it just has to hold the paper steady while you get your notches done.....

Cutting teeth from scratch is really no harder than sharpening a saw & it's not as dark an art as you may think. It does require patience & practice to get reasonably good at it, but as I always point out, even a not-so-well-sharpened saw usually cuts better than a dull one....

Cheers,