Thread: Saw Fettling

For a Sawgrip or Saw vice, try this old article repoduced on Cornish Workshop website

Morning Basilg.

Gramercy are selling a new saw vice: The Gramercy Tools 14 Saw Vise at Tools for Working Wood

You probably could file down an eclipse 77 but for setting fine teeth try getting a blue Somax Somax Saw Set for setting the teeth of hand saws

Keep checking ebay too.

If you're in or around Sydney make some time to attend a saw sharpening workshop run by The Traditional Tools Group.The Traditional Tools Group (Inc.)

Good luck!

Cheers,
Virg.

Basilg,
A saw vice is on my list also. I will build a timber one if I cant find an old one at a good price.
You can get by without one however. I use 2 wood boards in the vice to hold the saw. the front one has a bevel to allow the file to be presented at an angle. It is a bit of a fiddle to set up but how often do you sharpen saws. I sit on a stool to sharpen as you are limited by vice height. The good bit is it costs bu&&er all.
Regards
John

Jeremy, Virgil, John

Thanks very much for the feedback.

Yes I have been looking ( more like drooling ) at the Gramercy saw vice it looks like a very well made unit & I would happily pay the price, but the postage is the killer. So I may have to settle for a few bits of wood until I get the hang of the sharpening side of things, then when I have the confidence I can think of an upgrade.

I think the Eclipse 77 saw set I have will be OK for the blades with larger teeth, & I am shopping around for something to do finer teeth.

Anyone know about setting fine teeth with a hammer, punch & anvil ? I would imagine this would stretch the eyesight & be very fiddly, ( 8" @ 20 tpi = 160 teeth ) but I guess the same could be said for a saw set at 20 tpi.

With a solid piece of angle iron in a vice with a small angle filed along one side then give each tooth a tap to set it. I would imagine it would be time consuming, but how often is it necessary to set the teeth on a 20 tpi saw ? I would be very interested to hear from anyone who has tried this, or has information, on the angles that would be required on the anvil.

Regards

The Norse Woodsmith has a few bits on the subject,

check it out here- Jasper's Wooden Saw Vise | Norse Woodsmith

Have a search around the site for various articles on sharpening as well.

doing fine teeth can be tricky although if you get a spare eclipse #77 take it apart and grind the hammer part narrow. This should let you set much smaller teeth than with the saw set unmodified.

My first requirement with 20tpi is a magnifier.
I'm not too keen on the somax blue - the anvil doesn't seen as hard as the older sawsets and you'd think they'd have the decency to to change the numbers on the rim.
the Eclipse goes up to 12 but there are plenty of older sets that go up to 16 or so. I've yet to have the nerve to take an eclipse apart. I'm still searching for small parts lost on the shop floor from other things!
With 20tpi you hardly need any set - after all you will be using it on dry wood.
Cheers,
Jim

Originally Posted by Ironwood

The Norse Woodsmith has a few bits on the subject,

check it out here- Jasper's Wooden Saw Vise | Norse Woodsmith

Have a search around the site for various articles on sharpening as well.

That's the one I made. It's very good.

Cheers,
Virg.

Originally Posted by Basilg

Does anyone have designs, or links to designs for saw vices they could provide as I will need a vice for sharpening.

hi Basil, here are some photos of my old saw vice which I picked up at a local junque shoppe.
Galoot Central - Galoot Image Central - Saw Vise

There was also a recent thread on the oldtools list and there were a couple of others, the one made by John Manners was particularly interesting, using a wedging action as the two bars are gently struck downward with a mallet:
OldTools Archive -- thread with message 205269

There was also home-made one found in a 2nd hand shop:
Picasa Web Albums - James - Saw filing vi...

just back from a week away and with so much mail and forum stuff to catch up on....

I use one rather like the first on the list except that the clamping action on the blade is just by the cheek pieces wedging in to the body of the vice.
Cheers,
Jim

Originally Posted by pjr

There was also a recent thread on the oldtools list ...

oh, oops, rather than the whole thread, that second link was meant to be this one which is the saw vice made by John manners:
Picasa Web Albums - philip.yarra - jmanners

pjr

Many thanks Guys

Peter - I think I will make up the first one on your earlier post it looks simple to build & can be moved around someplace so that metal filings don't contaminate the woodworking bench.

That looks like a nice saw in your vice, have you managed to fettle it yet?

I am in the midst of extending my workshop, and this will make a nice little project when the weather interferes with outside work.

regards

Originally Posted by Basilg

That looks like a nice saw in your vice, have you managed to fettle it yet?

Not yet Basil, I have removed the handle and gently cleaned up both the handle and the blade. I am now about to try my first ever sharpening. I just need to work out what size files I need and then find where to get some.

Originally Posted by pjr

Not yet Basil, I have removed the handle and gently cleaned up both the handle and the blade. I am now about to try my first ever sharpening. I just need to work out what size files I need and then find where to get some.

Peter - Lie Nielsen Australia is a good source for files, & the price is quite reasonable. They have a table in their on-line catalogue which tells you which sizes you need for the number of teeth of your saws - there's a fair bit of overlap, but the longer, larger files have more rounded edges, so they give you a big gullet & very fine, flimsy teeth.

I have made a couple of saw vises, and they are not that difficult a project. You don't need much slope on the jaw, as there are few situations in saw sharpening where you need to hold the file very far off level. I file my crosscuts with the file just barely sloping & about 15-20 degrees of fleam - it makes pointy enough teeth, particularly for our hard woods.

This is my small vise - don't have a pic of the larger one, but it's the standard design that chippies have used since time immemorial. Ony mod is to chop the legs short so I can plonk it in the very wide front vise of my bench.