Approriate Saw File Size
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- This topic has 7 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 1 month ago by Michael Moon.
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I am hoping to start my hand-cut dovetail adventure soon. I am looking at picking up a 8 inch gents saw by Crown as an economical way to get started. I would also like to buy an appropriately sized sharpening file to accompany it. Would a double x-slim taper be suitable for this 17 TPI saw? I have previously sharpened a larger rip saw with good results, but choosing the right size file for a particular saw is still a bit of an intimidating mystery to me, especially when ordering online without being able to lay eyes on the various sizes.
You have all always been very helpful with my beginner questions. Thanks in advance for tolerating yet another one!
T.Bird
At 17tpi, you probably are really looking at a needle file like this one :http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=69854&cat=1,320,43072,43089,69854 bottom of the page. I find the sizing on the page also to be pretty good a as general guide.
“choosing the right size file for a particular saw is still a bit of an intimidating mystery” I’m still awful at sharpening, but can say that the way you choose the right size is to pick one that, when you put it in the gullets, the teeth come a little less than half way up the sides of the file. That way, when you rotate the file to a new corner, you get two fresh surfaces. If the file is smaller than that, the wear overlaps in the middle of the file face and you don’t get uniform wear. If the file is bigger than that, you’re wasting some of the file (unused) and the rounded portion of the gullet may be a bit big. The difference between a saw file and a regular triangle file / engineer’s file / needle file is that the saw file has rounded corners rather than pointy corners. This rounds the bottom of the gullet, which helps with clearing the dust.
I think sharpening a 17 tpi saw is going to be challenging. You’d be better off learning to sharpen more like a 12 tpi, which is still fine enough for doing just about everything, or even starting on a coarse rip saw. I’d keep the fine toothed gent saw for occasional very fine work so that I didn’t have to sharpen it. There’s nothing wrong with the gents saw to start dovetailing, but if you found a 12 tpi-ish tenon saw, you could use it for a lot more, including tenon work, and also have an easier time learning to sharpen.
I assume that you mean fewer (i.e. larger) teeth. The mere thought of filing a 17 TPI saw makes my eyes burn!
FWIW Nicholson recommends a 4″ xx slim file for 15 and 16 PPI saws. (16 PPI=17 TPI)
Dave
- This reply was modified 6 years, 1 month ago by Dave Ring.
22 March 2018 at 2:26 pm #505514I have that crown saw. It’s a good quality cheap saw to start with and Paul has videos on straightening and tuning them up. I believe I used a 6 inch double extra slim taper file with one or two passes on each tooth and it works great. Not a bad saw to do get practice filing on either.
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