Thread: One more in Tiger-myrtle

After making Luke's saws in Tiger myrtle, I swore it would be a cold night in hell before I tackled another saw handle in that wood! It's great stuff when you finally get there, but it takes so much scraping & sanding to get a flawless surface on the wretched stuff! I must be suffering short-term memory loss, because I finally got around to making a new saw for myself, this weekend, and what do you think I chose for a handle? :doh

I wanted a small-ish tenon saw for those in-between jobs that are a bit big for my much-loved dovetail saw. The next choice up has been the 14" 10tpi beast that is perfect for things like bench legs, but a bit clumsy on finer stuff, so I thought something about 10 inches and toothed at 12 tpi would fit the bill nicely. I was casting about for something a bit special for the handle & my eye lighted on the small scrap of Tiger Myrtle left over from Luke's set, so I placed my handle template on it, & in the excitement of seeing that it just fitted, I completely forgot my vow to avoid it for a while.

Well, it hadn't gotten any easier than the last time. It's not a terribly hard wood, & not at all difficult to shape with rasps, etc, but it's got to be one of the worst woods for retaining scratches from rasps, files or sandpaper that I've ever struck. It took me the usual 30-40 minutes to rough-shape it, then practically all afternoon to get a finish on it. But eventually I got there, and it does look spectacular - I'm quite pleased with the result: Tenon 250mm 12tpi.jpg

Its vital statistics: 250mm x 75mm, 0.45mm (0.02") plate, 12tpi with 7 degrees negative rake and very slight (<5 degrres) fleam angle. Ony had a chance for a few test cuts, but it's performing nicely, so I think it's a keeper....

Cheers,