Thread: Frame saw to complete a kerfing plane cut

Some time ago I made a kerfing blade for a Record 405 (cut down from an old tenon saw blade) to use the 405 as a kerfing plane.
kerfing plane.jpg

To complement this I wanted to make a frame saw to complete the re-saw process. I know that suitable blades are available online but I didn’t want to spend much, also I know a lot of folks repurpose old band-saw blades but the blades from my small band-saw aren’t wide enough.


I had an old blade from a hand mitre saw. They’re hardpoint but I thought the steel behind the points might be useable. I was wrong. I clamped a drilling guide, an old rule I’ve centre punched and drilled at 5mm intervals, to the saw blade and tried to drill it to start off approx 5tpi spacing. I gave up on the idea after breaking multiple drill bits and drilling about 4 holes. The material behind the hard points was too tough to drill or file without some sort of heat treatment to soften it for working and then harden it again, way beyond my skill level.
blade drill attempt.jpg



I put the re-saw frame-saw idea to one side but decided to build a frame saw anyway for garden use. The garden blades are cheap and hardpoint but as I looked at it I couldn’t help but notice that with a low tpi count and deep gullets it matched the requirements for fast re-saw.
tooth pitch.jpg

Of course since it’s designed for wet wood the set is enormous, as bought the saw blade cut with a kerf at least three times as wide as my kerfing plane blade. However the gullets are so deep that the visible hardpoint treatment is only at the top of the tooth, the tooth base doesn’t show any discolouring. I ran the blade over a hammer held in the vice as an anvil, tapping with another hammer to try to reduce the set, a technique I saw in one of the Paul Sellers* videos. I figured the teeth would either bend to a smaller kerf or I’d break a few and still be able to use the blade in the garden.
The teeth bent in without any breakages, I made a couple of passes tapping the teeth, one on each side of the blade. Then running it through a slot cut with the plane blade identified wide spots, a bit of trial and error quickly reduced the garden blade to the same kerf size as my plane blade.


I wanted to be able to swivel the blade so I needed rotating blade holders. I also wanted a handle below the blade to use when the blade is rotated and the saw held horizontal. Apart from that the design is taken from the Paul Sellers ‘Build a frame saw’ video with rounded M&T joints for the cross bar.
I had a couple of M10 bolts in my parts bin, cutting off the threaded end and slotting the barrel to use as blade holders was easy enough. I embedded the heads in some beech drawer knobs to make them easy to turn.

blade holder bolts.jpg blade slot cut.jpg holder sizing.jpg completed holders.jpg

My completed prototype. The deep teeth on the blade make it difficult to start and use like a normal saw for any other purpose. But it works well to complete a cut, slotted in the kerf from the plane blade the repurposed garden blade tracks accurately and cuts quickly.
parts.jpg test1.jpg tension.jpg teammates.jpg


I still have to properly shape the handle and cord holding areas and perhaps thin it down in places to shed weight but the concept of using a cheap garden saw blade for re-saw definitely works.


*I have mentioned a couple of Paul Sellers videos above. Just to be clear I have no connection with Paul other than as a viewer of his free online stuff.