sutton046

At the Perth Wood Show last weekend, I picked up a lovely Canadian-made Disston tenon saw from the second hand tool stand run by the Hand Tool Preservation Society of Western Australia. It's a beauty! However it just needed sharpening... Yep, a very nice Disston tenon saw, with the handle in very good condition. I have a few odd Disstons made in Canada. This is a new addition to my Canadian bunch.  With a three day gig this week at a primary school doing woodwork with the K - 2 students, I needed another sharp saw on hand. I also had another tenon saw needing sharpening for the event -an older Disston saw. So it seemed a golden opportunity to get them both done during a window of opportunity I had on the day before the school program commenced. The older Disston tenon saw, made in Philadelphia USA. About the variables in saw filing - rake, fleam, and set. In a nutshell, RAKE is the vertical angle of the face of the tooth, which also determines the aggressiveness of the cut. If the ...

In line with my New Year's Resolution - for 2013 to be the year I become proficient in saw sharpening - I have been at it again. Filing and setting lots of saws, that is. Using a saw set takes some concentration! You've gotta be careful to set every second tooth. Putting set on the teeth means bending each alternate tooth outwards. When this is done from each side of the saw, each tooth points the opposite direction to it's neighbours. A Saw Set is a special tool like a form of pliers designed for applying set to the teeth, pictured above. Squeezing the handle pushes a pin which bends the tooth against an anvil. The angle of the bend is determined by the adjustable anvil. You dial in the tooth spacing (in Points Per Inch) on the anvil's dial and set every second tooth. You then turn the saw around and come down the other side to set the remaining alternate teeth. The reason for giving the teeth set is to increase the size of the kerf - the width of the wood material rem...