Thread: Can a tenon saw be a cross cut saw?

Total stab in the dark here, but... After you rip the tenon, you have to crosscut the shoulders?

And while it might be a "tenon" saw thats not the limit of it uses, cross cut tenon is great for miters, general trimming and a lot of those small jobs. I have both and both get used.

Chook, in my view, names like "tenon saw" have become meaningless (& it's debatable if they ever had any standard meaning!). To rip the cheeks of a tenon, I suppose most people would want teeth optimised for ripping. At some stage you will want to cut the shoulders, & as elanjacobs points out, you will probably prefer a crosscut saw for that job.

When choosing a saw, choose on the basis of tpi & tooth profile in a size & weight that suits your personal style. Forget about the names. Larger crosscut teeth don't rip very well, so it's nice to have both for backsaws in the 10-12 tpi range, but once you get to around 15 tpi, you'll find rip profile works almost as well in both ripping & crosscutting mode. I've got a few more saws than average, but if I were forced to reduce my collection, I reckon I could cover a pretty wide range of potential jobs with 4 or 5 backsaws. I do have a few more than that, & I'd hate to part with most of them, but if I had to pack for that proverbial desert island, I could probably do it....

Cheers,

You could always have the teeth filed as a sash saw which I believe is a hybrid between rip & cross cut

Originally Posted by IanW

Chook, in my view, names like "tenon saw" have become meaningless (& it's debatable if they ever had any standard meaning!).

Good Morning Chook & Ian

Seems that 'tenon saw' is increasingly evolving as a generic name for any backsaw ?

While firmly in the "would like to be better skilled" sector of this forum, I usually sharpen my back saws to a rip saw filing. Last sharpening, mind in neutral, I erroneously put a cross cut filing onto a 12 ppi backsaw. Basically, I could not tell the difference from the cross cut shapening.

Tage Frid, Danish/American guru passionately argues for a rip saw or chisel tooth sharpening for all saws, irrespective of whether to be used for cross cut or ripping. He jsu says they cut faster in all circumstances.
Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking - Tage Frid - Google Books , page 14.
NB: Tage almost always uses continental style bow saws which cut to a thinner kerf than anglo-american style saws.




Fair Winds

Graeme

As soon as Veritas releases these saws and purely out of the kindness of my gentle heart I will get both and find out what the difference is. I am prepared to suffer in the name of science.

PS
I have the rip carcass saw and the cross cut carcass saw and there is a difference in the feel of the saws. The cross cut saw leaves a slightly better surface I think.

Get a copy of 'Handsaw Essentials' from Popular Woodworking (still on the first reading of my copy - its heavy ) - then you can be as confused as everyone else . It looks like the debate has been going on in print for several years at least with little resolution.