A happy little family...

[IanW]

It's been a very long time since I did any serious sawmaking, for a number of reasons, but over the last couple of weeks, I've been working away on a set of saws for someone, and am fairly pleased with the result. The set includes two tenon saws (a 14" 10 tpi & a 12" 12 tpi), plus a dovetailer (9.5" 15 tpi) and a carcase saw (12" 12tpi).

The two tenons & the dovetail (all ripsaws) are handled in Tiger Myrtle: 343839

The carcase saw is a crosscut, and partly to make it easy to see which is which on the bench, its handle is Flame (Hairy) oak: 343838

Each handle is different in its detailing, but also hang-angles have been tailored to suit the main purpose of each saw. For comparison, here are the two 12 inch saws - the tenon saw has a more upright hang to make it suitable for using 200-300mm above bench height; the carcase saw grip angle is lifted, to make it more comfortable when used at bench level: 343837

The Tiger Myrtle has come up rather splendidly, but what a pita it is to get it in a fit state to finish! The wood has a subtle fiddleback figure as well as the 'tiger striping', but that didn't cause much of a problem, it was the sanding scratches! This wood shows every scratch of every grain on a piece of sandpaper, and they are unusually difficult to remove with the following grade. I learned as I went along, & the best way I found was to use a finely-burred small scraper, lightly, after each grade of paper to remove stubborn scratches. That got me to the surface I like to have the quickest. By comparison, the Flame Oak took less than half the time to finish, after initial shaping.

Cheers,

[planemaker]

Very nice work Ian.

The new owner is in for a real treat.

Why do you talk so unkindly about my favorite handle wood, Tiger Myrtle. :;

regards Stewie;

[artme]

Gorgeous work Ian. A credit and a testament to your skills!!

:brava:brava:brava:brava:brava:brava

[rob streeper]

Great saws Ian.

[IanW]

.... Why do you talk so unkindly about my favorite handle wood, Tiger Myrtle. :;

:U Now I did say it was gorgeous stuff, Stewie.

I have no bones to pick about its looks, and it is an easy wood to cut & rough-shape. But you must admit, it's not the easist wood to put a blemish-free surface on! It's not the worst I've met, though, that honour goes to some Tulip oak (Argyrodendron), I got hold of a couple of years ago. The scratches are even harder to eliminate, & what's worse, I can't see most of them until I apply finish. :~ But like the Myrtle, it looks pretty good when you finally beat it into submission.

Some of the woods I like to work with take considerably more effort to cut & shape, but are much easier to sand & polish up, so it's swings & roundabouts, as always..... :shrug:

Cheers,

[planemaker]

Hi Ian. What I can say is that highly figured Tiger Myrtle at a thickness suitable for saw handles has become very expensive to purchase nowadays. :doh:

Stewie;

[szczepan4069]

Ian,
these are fabulous saws. I must say, the photos of these finished saws are terrific. I have to say it was a real pleasure to see these saws in "the flesh" so to speak. The way the handles sit in your hand, the weight and balance of each saw....something i still remember. Beautiful work.

[IanW]

While I was in sawmaking mode, I decided to make myself a new carcase saw. For some time, I've been thinking I could do with a 12" 10tpi saw to supplement the 10" 12tpi saw which is my go-to cross-cutting saw for regular joinery. It's good for cutting small to medium tenon shoulders & so forth, but gets a bit bogged down on stuff wider than 3". I reckoned a slightly longer saw, with larger fangs would be the go, so knocked this one up. The handle is my favourite handle wood, Forest She-oak (Allocasaurina torulosa): 343991

It will take me some time to see how useful it's going to be, but I like its action, from the trial cuts I made. I used 20 thou plate, which is on the thin side for a saw of this size, so I'll be interested to see how that goes, too.

With the saw I made because of a stuff-up (http://www.woodworkforums.com/showthread.php?t=192860&page=2), that's it for sawmaking for me, for a while, I have several other projects that I have to concentrate on over the next few months!

Cheers,

[Simplicity]

Nice work once again Ian .
God I'm jealous of all the time you guys seem to get in the workshop .
I need to try this retirement career it looks like fun .
I really like the lambs tongue your done there
looks like it's all most pushing the saw along .

[tdrumnut]

More stunning stuff from the master, God I love looking at your work Ian.

[IanW]

....I really like the lambs tongue your done there
looks like it's all most pushing the saw along.....

Now you mention it, it does look a bit like that, doesn't it? :U I didn't consciously set out to make it look that way, I shaped the bottom & top where it meets the cheeks, to make it look thinner than it is, & it just flowed like that.....

Yeah, well, you'll get to my age soon enough, & Mr. Hockey et al might let you retire, but don't count on it. :no:
Cheers,

[Sawdust Maker]

Spectacular looking saws!
Well done

[Ron Bontz]

Nice little family you have there, Ian. :)

[Bushmiller]

Ian

Just a wonderful group of saws. As soon as the owner emerges from the depths of his/her shed (not likely to happen in the immediate future) we will know who it is by the fixed grin etched on the face :) .

Regards
Paul

[planemaker]

My guess would be Luke Maddux.

[Pac man]

:whs:

[IanW]

I'd prefer to let the owner decide for him/her self whether or not to claim ownership publicly, so I'll let them speak up. Give them some time to put the saws through their paces & maybe they can give you a few comments on how they perform, at the same time... :U
Cheers,

[Luke Maddux]

Ya got me...

I do remote work and hadn't actually been in town to pick up the saws yet. I got them yesterday.

I made a post a while back which some of you may remember. I wanted a set of handmade saws that would meet 90+% of the joinery-based requirements for my mostly-hand-tools workshop. I wanted them in a matching, uniquely Australian timber.

That's exactly what I got. I'm a bit of a Tasmanian timber enthusiast, so Tiger Myrtle was a great choice, and the saws complement another saw I got from Stewie a while back fantastically. The Hairy Oak handle on the crosscut profile saw was a bit of a last minute change that we arrived at over a workbench session in Ian's shed, but was a great touch.

The saws work just as well as they look. Straight, clean, fast cuts. I haven't had a chance to apply them to a joinery project yet but soon. Very soon.

Fit and finish is essentially flawless.

The price (which was beyond fair) also included two extensive Q&A/brainpicking sessions! All in all I couldn't be happier. Ian is truly a master of his craft!

[planemaker]

Hi Luke. From my own experience, highly featured Tiger Myrtle is very expensive to purchase nowadays.

Stewie;

[Luke Maddux]

Hi Luke. From my own experience, highly featured Tiger Myrtle is very expensive to purchase nowadays.

Stewie;

Very true. This came out of a pack of boards I got from Distinctive Timbers Tasmania. It was three boards, likely enough to get ten handles, a couple of which would have included some non-figured wood. I got it for $145, so about $15 per handle.

Not cheap by anyone's standards, but I've seen worse. Get in touch with them and they can likely help you out.

I've also got a friend in QLD who has some drying. When it's at a useable moisture level I'll assess it for handle quality pieces and let you know if it's worth checking out.