Handsaw coming back to life
- This topic has 6 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 2 years, 5 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
I found this handsaw in a flea market. Handle was almost ruined by worms, it hadn’t two teeth (6 tpi pitch) with the same shape and the nuts had been replaced with the ugliest-of-the-world-ones.
In the period of isolation I began to restore it. It has needed a new handle, a retoothing and new nuts. In fact, the only thing I haven’t done to restore it has been forging the steel, but I am happy with the final result. I’ve made a new handle of solid beech, made new nuts from nuts made originally for attaching shelves and retoothed the blade for 9 tpi rip.
Perhaps the most complicated part of restoration has been making the nuts. I hadn’t nuts long enough for a 15/16″ thick handle, so I made them from those ones made for attaching shelves together. The holes in the plate had been reshaped to 8,4 mm, so I needed something to centre the new nuts on them. I made shells from 6 mm metric nuts, using my drill as an improvised lathe.
For retoothing I’ve used a template from http://www.blackburntools.com.
-
This topic was modified 2 years, 11 months ago by
-
This topic was modified 2 years, 11 months ago by
Very nice, thanks for sharing
I bet you will get more enjoyment from using this saw than you would if you had gone out and bought a ready made new one. Good job done.
Wonderful work, congratulations! How did you slit the handle to fit the saw plate? Do you need a very thin circular saw blade and a milling machine? I can’t figure that part out.
I didn’t have a circular saw. I used brace and bits and a portable jigsaw to cut the rough shape of handle. After that, I simply used a small dovetail saw. I marked the cutting line using a marking gauge, adjusting the tool to get an exactly centred line. I did saw very slowly and very carefully to maintain the saw blade in centered position and equidistance from both sides of the handle. It took me a while, but it did work. I passed very carefully a sheet of 140-grit sandpaper to clean the walls of the kerf, helping the sandpaper with a 0,5 mm-thick metal sheet, to maintain sandpaper flat and straight. After that, saw plate got into the handle with the adequate grade of friction and completely straight. Since the thickness of the saw plate was 1 mm, I used a saw with the more similar size of kerf.
The funny thing is this: I found that dovetail saw in a flea market and paid 0,50 euro for it. I restored and sharpened it for ripcutting (it has 14 tpi). It’s a very old William Hall saw, but it’s one of my best saws now. It never fails.
I leave here a pair of photos of the process.
Beautiful job Julio! I have a similar or related question as Mark. Was the original handle slot for the blade cut straight across? My blade, and many I have seen is not a straight 90° or straight finish. Mine is actually rounded and more so on the top side. So just cutting the handle slot straight thru and deep enough to allow the blade to line up with the holes would require a slot exposure on the top side of nearly two inches!
I wonder f that makes sense, and if so, any ideas how to cut the slot without leaving that kind of gap?
The part of the blade that fits into the handle is cut straight. The steel has a curved shape only in the part that is out of the handle, next to teeth, so I could use a dovetail saw to cut the blade slot.
If I had to make a handle for a curved heel blade I suppose I would have to cut it straight before, and relocate the holes for nuts in a new position, according to the new handle. I don’t know if it is possible to make a slot so thin whith “garage methods”.
-
This topic was modified 2 years, 11 months ago by
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.