Hi Helmut,

I finally got back from a week working in WA wheat belt, and finally had a chance to look more closely at your first saw, and I have to say you have done a beautiful job, the beech looks "right" in my opinion, I know the fashion is for exotic timbers, but beech is traditional and has that classic look.

As Ian has already said, the handle style is something that you will work on and it will evolve over time to suit your own grip and aesthetically pleasing look. My only advice in this area is to look at different handles and when you find one you like, work with that to fine tune it to your own needs. Take care to get the hang angle right for the length. Don't just invent something and hope it will work, we have over 200+ years of history to draw from, use it and learn from it.

Saw plate depth, the fashion nowadays is moving more towards shallower plate for dovetail saws, and thinner plate as well, Looking at yours, I might take 1/2" off the depth and taper it a bit towards to toe.

Saw plate thickness, while the 20thou is a good choice, I also got a small amount of 15thou to play with, I think it will be better for the really small dovetail saws.

Brass Back, chamfering the back a bit can look better if you do it right, and while you don't have to go all the way to elliptical like Klaus does, (an amazing amount of skill required to get it looking as good as him and Pedder do) a little bit of chamfering looks good, maybe you could try tapering the spine slightly as well, I've done that and on the smaller saws looks "right", not sure if it makes any difference in usage (a discussion on weight distribution can happen another day!) but looks good.

As far as filing goes, work towards keeping the teeth uniform and if you don't like the way it cuts, re-joint and do it again, eventually it will click into place, you need a light touch and good eyes, if you can't see it you can't file it! Good lighting and a good magnifier is almost essential. If it's too grabby try relaxing the rake a little, there's a big difference between 5 degrees and 10. Try a little fleam maybe 5 degrees, even on rip teeth.

Setting the teeth, mark the alternate teeth with a texta pen, work slowly and try to apply even pressure each time, After setting, re-joint and re-file, remember "light touch" .. Do a test cut and if the cut curves off to one side, lightly stone that side, I use a hard block with 600 wet and dry, and just one light pass is usually all it takes.

Lot's of variables and fun to be had experimenting. When it all comes together and works it's an amazing feeling of accomplishment.

Congratulations again on what has turned out to be an excellent saw, I can't wait to see the next one..

Regards,
Ray