Thread: And now for something completely different... A Japanese Push Saw...

Ray - judging from the marks that seem to be indicating the start of each stroke, it looks like you went about 6mm with each push?

It should be a very useful blade for ripping into softer woods. Are the teeth hardened, & if not, what are your chances of sharpening them by hand??

Cheers,

Hi Ian,

The blades are generally non sharpenable, I'm thinking I'll be making up some blades, ( conventional filing )

If I push it a bit I can easily cut 25mm per stroke in softish pine... my limited experience with japanese filing has been better on soft woods rather than harder woods...

Regards
Ray

Originally Posted by RayG

Hi Ian,

The blades are generally non sharpenable, I'm thinking I'll be making up some blades, ( conventional filing )

If I push it a bit I can easily cut 25mm per stroke in softish pine... my limited experience with japanese filing has been better on soft woods rather than harder woods...

Regards
Ray

Hi Ray - not hard to make blades in that size. Old bandsaw blade would make suitable stock - I recently used some 0.5mm thick stuff and it went well once the narrow bit of extra-hard metal was removed. For my small bowsaws (10 inch blades) I have been using scraps of the 0.4mm shim stock I got from you a while back. The blades I made are about 4 to 4.5 mm wide. It was easier than I anticipated, and at 15-16 tpi they cut very nicely indeed in stock up to 30mm thick. They also fit perfectly in the kerf of my nice little dovetail saw, made from the same material, and will turn enough to chop most of the waste from all but the smallest dovetail space, so I am very pleased with them!

I think your experience reflects the general consensus. Those long, pointy teeth will tear through softer woods like steam, but just don't like being pushed through our hard, silicous woods. One of these days I must try and make some of those complex fangs on a (small!) saw, just for the challenge.

Cheers,

for the type of saw Ray appears to have there, bandsaw blades are generally too narrow i would think, doesnt mean you couldn't use them but you would be changing it to suit another purpose, at the moment it looks like a continental frame saw and about an inch is as narrow as you would go for that saw (dont see em much now but up to 3 inch is also ok). using a bandsaws' blade under an inch , and some are down to say 1/4 is changing it to more toward a turning saw and more difficult to cut straight when you want to



cheers
chippy

Nobex mitre saw blades might be the perfect thing for reworking. The teeth are hardened but the blades must be 30 - 40 mm wide and I think they come in 600mm. I'm sure there would be framers with blunt ones they'd be happy to give up.

Cheers
Matt