Thread: Re-habbed Lie Nielsen backsaw

Chief, I think that is a remarkably good effort for someone who hasn't done a lot of saw filing. I once had a 15tpi saw sharpened 'professionally' & it came back looking pretty horrible, but your saw takes the prize for the worst result I've ever laid eyes on!

When the teeth are as higgily-piggily as yours were, I would typically need to joint twice to get the teeth back in proper shape, so you done well, I reckon. I find it far easier to concentrate on one angle at a time when re-forming crosscut teeth, so if extensive dental work is necessary, rather than try to preserve any fleam, I file straight across from one side which makes it easier to watch & compare the teeth - trying to judge sizes of adjacent teeth quickly with the fleam causing optical delusions is too much for my simple brain. Once I have the teeth back in shape, it's a lot easier to apply the fleam without messing things up. If all is well, I then set the teeth and follow with a light 'sharpen' pass.

With such a shocker, it's almost inevitable you'll still have the odd fat or skinny tooth, but as long as the majority are even & in-line, the saw should cut well. A 'trick' one of my uncles used after sharpening was to make a couple of cuts in a really hard wood like blue-gum or ironbark, as he claimed it would "wear down the high ones". I'm not sure if it's all that effective in a couple of cuts (though high teeth certainly do wear down in time & show up as shiny flats), but maybe it cleans off the burrs from the file quicker & gives an impression of more smoothness. However, I find that making test cuts in harder woods very quickly shows how sharp the saw is & how well it's tracking, so I always look for the toughest bit of scrap to test a freshly-sharpened saw.

And please don't use me as a gold standard! I haven't been toothing/sharpening saws that much over the last couple of years & trust me, I have my off days. Especially when I try to do a quick touch-up on a crosscut and don't concentrate enough, I can easily end up with a couple of slightly over-fed cows or under-fed calves in the mob. But take heart, all you hesitant saw filers, a saw can be a little imperfect and still cut very well....

Ian

Chief

I will echo Ian's comments.

1.A set of badly mis-shapened teeth will often require more than a single jointing, but this can be done before you have reached the final shape as it is quite obvious that the profile is not quite right.
2. When a compete re-tooth or close to re-tooth is required, as in your case, it is ultimately easier to shape first and then apply the fleam, although you will frequently be tempted to do this at one go.
3. After setting the teeth, the geometry has been ever so slightly altered so the finishing, light filing is the final touch.

Overall a good restoration of a saw from one of the best, commercial, modern makers.

Regards
Paul

Hi CT and Ian. I feel a lot better about my saw sharpening now