Hand Saws

Paul Sellers said “Saws made by Thomas Flinn are made from good steel, good wood and good brass. The are resharpenable and though they may not arrive ready to go, they can be made into a good saw with 30-minutes of fettling.”
Just to add to Paul’s sound advice by saying people should try and not fall into the trap of not personalising tools to fit their hand. This means potentially re-shaping or making new grips/handles to enhance comfort during use, as well as adjusting grind and honing angles to suit their own preferences. You’ll tend to find many older craftsmen tend to do this and not without good reason, as grips tend to be generic in shape/style and blades sharpened in a generic manner too. Whilst suiting some it’s impossible for them to suit everyone’s preferences.
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Tool box-wise, as apprentices we were taught both styles Paul has pictured (Top loading and front loading) and both are excellent in terms of practicality. Although I’ve made more tool boxes since, I still have the first toolbox I made and – although it’s a little battered around the edges after 40+yrs – it is still going strong and can hold a full toolkit for general site or journeyman work. 🙂

I had some gift vouchers for Classic Hand Tools (UK hand tool dealer – http://www.classichandtools.co.uk/) so used some of them to pick up the Lie Nielsen dovetail saw. I’m all for rehabbing vintage saws (and have done a few) but wanted to experience what a top-notch saw feels like to know what is possible to achieve. It’s absolutely phenomenal! It cuts extremely quickly so was very easy to over-shoot my knife lines until I had a better feel for it. This is the thin plate, tapered version. Tried it in pine, oak and beech so far and performs just as well in all three.

I’m now thinking of changing the teeth in one of the old backsaws I have so give them 15 or 16 PPI (the LN is 15 but 16 is easier to cut) and see how they perform now I have a good reference. Got some new saw files on order so will joint and re-file a 10 or 12 inch saw once the files arrive.

George.

@george: Nice! The LN dovetail saw looks like a real treat 🙂

Enjoy!

I thought I had answered this earlier. Perhaps I do so elsewhere. The main consideration is the size of tooth that lends itself to be sharpened. I think most people have difficulty sharpening teeth smaller than 16 TPI and so the best TPI for a tenon or dovetail saw would be 15-16 TPI. It is handy having a smaller toothed saw and you cannot go wrong with a 24TPI Zona Model saw. This saw keeps sharp for a long time. I have one that OI have used for three years but of course cuts quite small and so will not do what larger tenon saws will do, but you will be amazed at this little saw’s cutting capacity and cleanness of cut. No other saw comes close. It cuts on pull strokes which of course is backwards to me so I jerk it out turn it end for end and put it back. Veritas does make a 20 TPI dovetail saw, which I like and it cuts really well. Nice to have and keep it only for fine work.

Are Wenzloff’s hand saw saw plates taper ground?

Nice result Dewi 🙂

Hi Juryaan,

I can draw one for you on Sketchup if you’d like me to email you a copy, but I think Paul offered a drawing of his preferred saw vise not too long ago in his blog.

A few sample pictures can be found via Paul’s blog

I would love one Gary.

I am new to forums [this is the first one] so i don’t exactly know how this works,do i give you my email here

or does it work in another way.