Thread: Cleaning new to me saws

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

.. We have to be a little bit careful here not to get caught up in our own confusion .

I think we already have, Paul. My understanding is that the OP is saying the handle of the SAW is to his left, in which case, I think all should be fine. The left face of the file should be leaning ~5 deg to the left, which is what you want if the handle is to your left, so I think you have the jig set correcly.

There is a time-honoured convention to file starting with the handle to the right. As far as I can work out, there is no good reason for this other than convention/habit. I think it IS good to develop a habit of always doing things the same way, it helps consistency, so if you've begun with the handle to the left there is no reason to change.

You can file all the teeth of a rip saw from one side, as long as you keep the file level & perpendicular to the saw blade. Most books will tell you to file alternate teeth from opposite sides. There is some merit in doing it like that but it's very difficult at first to keep the gullets exactly matching when you file from opposite sides, we just can't help ourselves biasing the file a little one way or the other. It will take you a few saws to become consistent however you do it, but if my experience is anything to go by, it takes quite a bit longer to file exactly the same profiles from each side. You'll know what I'm talking aabout when you do yur firt crosscut saw!

For larger teeth & crosscut teeth, I do file from both sides, as per convention, but for small teeth I always file them all from one side (the Great Guru Tage Frid did so, so I reckon I'm pretty safe following his example). I find it much easier to keep small teeth consistent filing all from one side rather than switching around.

Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

I think we already have, Paul. My understanding is that the OP is saying the handle of the SAW is to his left, in which case, I think all should be fine. The left face of the file should be leaning ~5 deg to the left, which is what you want if the handle is to your left, so I think you have the jig set correcly.



Cheers,

Yep! As the previous two post related to the file jig, I followed on , logically to my mind with continued discussion on the file. However I did think the question was a little strange. I should have thought a little more deeply.

On the question of which side of the saw to start or filing teeth from one side only in the case of rip saws I think it may be easier for a right handed person to have the saw handle on their right and conversely a left handed person to have the handle to the left. In both cases it wil. give just a little more visibility when filing. Of course with cross cutting you really have to cope with both styles at some time.

Regards
Paul

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

......On the question of which side of the saw to start or filing teeth from one side only in the case of rip saws I think it may be easier for a right handed person to have the saw handle on their right and conversely a left handed person to have the handle to the left. In both cases it wil. give just a little more visibility when filing. Of course with cross cutting you really have to cope with both styles at some time....

Dunno, Paul, over many years & many saws I've tried various approaches, and each has it's pros & cons. Whether you have the handle on your right or left doesn't matter, as long as you set the rake angles appropriately. Which direction you choose to work in does make a difference to me. Filing from right to left is less intuitive for a very dominant right-hander like myself, but it has the advantage that you can clearly see the tooth you've just done as you shift to the next. When sharpening a saw that has not been sharpened for a while, the gullets are darkened by slight oxidation or whatever & the difference between a 'done' gullet & an untouched one is very clear. If you work from left to right, your hands & the file cover up the last gullet you filed as you move to the next & it's all too easy to skip a tooth (or even two on a fine-pitched saw!). If you're a southpaw, it's the opposite way round.

As you say, a xcut has to be done from each side (although I have seen a video of a bloke doing it from one side & making what looked like an amazingly neat job of it, so there are no absolutes!). But it's simpler to habituate your arms & eyes to file mirror-images, at some point. Crosscuts also introduce at least one extra angle (for fleam) or two if you also like sloped gullets, so there is more for your hands, eyes & brain to cope with.
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Then there is the endless argument over which way to file so the burrs end up in the "right" place. My experimentation has convinced me this is the least important consideration of all. Unless you are using an entirely inappropriate file, what little burr that does form is shed on the first few strokes and has no lasting effect on performance that I can detect.

So that's why I say, just choose a method that seems logical to you & stick at it 'til your hands, eyes & cerebellum get themselves sorted & you achieve sufficient consistency to do a satisfactory job. Few of us will ever be as slick & as perfect as someone who files saws every day, but most of us can do a good enough job to get a saw cutting very well (& about 10 times better than any hard-point saw I've used). Being able to grab any of your saws & reliably cut quickly & bang on a line is one of the joys of woodworking, imo.

There was a time when none of my saws would do that for me.....

Cheers,

Well, I liked being able to see the tooth and gullet I just did by moving forward and I found it easier to see the last slanted tooth.

First I jointed the saw.

Then reshaped the teeth, tried to remove about half the flat on each side. What was great was the rust on the old teeth, I could clearly see when I finished each gullet.

I then did a light joint.

Then a final sharpen, only a couple fairly light swipes to bring each tooth back to a point.

It looks awesome, and cut at finger skin as I lightly ran my finger over teeth.


I didn't set the teeth. They were still good. Just under teeth .037 inches. Set of teeth .044 inches.