Can’t saw straight!
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Evening all,
I have a new dovetail saw. Its nice and sharp and I have attempted to put some set on the teeth. My first attempts at sawing came out curved bending towards the left. So, surmising I had more set on one side than the other I pinched all the teeth along the blade. Its better but now I am finding a) its harder to cut (presumably now I have taken too much set off) and b) I have done some cuts dead plum and straight, but some ate straight for 80-90% of the cut and then bend. If it pulls to the left should I adjust the set on the left or the right of the plate? Could the set be fine and it be me twisting the saw while cutting or something? I am tempted to squeeze the teeth again and set it with a punch and hammer as Paul has demonstrated in his videos, might allow me more control.
Thanks J
Your problem could be in the tension of the saw in the saw back and not the set in the teeth.
Have a look at Paul’s video on straightening and tensioning the back.
If that doesn’t do it, Mark Harrell at Bad Axe saws has more involved videos on the process.
hi John,
i would be cautious about pinching more set out of the saw. if anything, i’d suggest using the hammer and punch to add more set and then proceed to use Paul’s double hammer method of removing set using VERY light taps on both sides of the plate, test and repeat.
if you flatten the teeth it will be hard to tell the righties from the lefties and you risk breaking teeth by treating a former left as a right.
since you’re getting occasional straight cuts, it may be technique or funky grain that’s pulling the saw off course, but the saw dragging suggests more set
regards
barry
John,
Larry and Barry (Ha!) offer sage advice but to answer your last question: if you determine it is indeed imbalanced set that’s the culprit, then the saw will pull towards the side with too much set.
Best,
MattThanks all for the replies. I think it is definitely a set issue, the back is straight. I think I can feel a little bit more ‘tooth’ on the side it curves on. It ends up like a slight lover case j when cutting, or a slight banana shape. But at least its square one way. I will fettle it more tomorrow.
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