Reply To: Refining Spear & Jackson Saws

The S&J handsaws are pretty darned sharp when new, in my view, and speaking for the specimen I received 18m ago. This is a great benefit of a new saw: gives you a benchmark for your own sharpenings (prioir to this I had 3 vintage disstons and the S&J opened my eyes to how sharp feels).

My S&Js were overset. This was a massive issue with sawing to a line: because the kerf (i.e. gap left in the wood) is wider than the plate of the saw, the saw has “play” in the groove and tends to wander. Paul’s hammer-in-the-vice anvil trick sorted this for me with one pass of light tapping in each side. It took me a couple of months to do this, cos I didnt want to damage my new saw, but I would do it immediately now.

Previous to reducing set this saw was for rough cutting to general dimensions only; now it’s an awesome crosscut panel saws – after a couple of light passes with a newly sharpened #4 on the end grain, my panels are ready for joinery!