Saw options.
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Franco, large crosscuts and large rip cut saws are pretty much designed to deal with very thick timbers. Unless you are going to be buying your material as rough lumber in thicknesses of 2 inches or greater, very large rip or crosscuts (4-6 teeth per inch tpi) are not needed.
For daily use in the shop in materials of 1/2 inch to 1 1/4 inch thick a panel saw (20-22 inch long) filed rip in 10-12 tpi is going to satisfy most of your needs for ripping boards to width and crosscutting boards to length.
As far as joinery saws go for cutting dovetails, tenons, final dimensional cuts etc a backsaw in the 12 inch to 14 inch length with 12-15 tpi filed rip will do most of the jobs you need it to do.
I am not saying you will not eventually want or need other kinds of saws, I have several I admit but those types listed above serve my needs 90 % of the time.
Crosscuts are nice saws to have for joinery and I really like my little 12 inch crosscut carcass saw but it is definitely not a necessity by any means.
Thanks for the detailed response Dave. I probably won’t be preparing rough lumber just yet, so perhaps the other saws you mention will fit my needs. I wanted to be sure of the options, as in my haste to buy some tools when I began woodworking, I purchased a couple of smaller saws that I never use and weren’t really what I wanted or needed. Your explaination neatly highlights the options (and will save me money as well!)
Is your Irwin one of those induction hardened saws? You can actually sharpen them with diamond stones thin enough to fit in between the teeth such as the EZE Lap diamond hones that Paul uses. Here are the one’s I mean: http://www.amazon.com/EZE-LAP-PAK-Color-Coded-Diamond/dp/B000UVS62S
I realized I didn’t have a decent panel saw, but I did have one of those induction hardened ones that was dull so I gave it a shot and it worked well. Just follow the tooth bevel angles the best you can. It won’t make the saw last forever since only the first 3/16″ or something of the plate is induction hardened and eventually you’ll hone that away, but you can get several more uses out of it.
Franco, I’ve picked up some really nice Disston saws at antique stores for around $8 to $10. Give them a little clean up, sharpen and they work better then some of the high dollar saws you can get online. 10 to 12 TPI is pretty versatile and if you use Paul’s “Knife wall” method when cross cutting you shouldn’t need anything else. Disston saws are plentiful just about everywhere. I buy them every time I run up on one. My wife says I am obsessed with saws. My favorite is the D8. Its short and you can find them in varying TPI.
Franco, I’ve found that most of the older tools are better than new specially saws. They don’t make them like they used too. It’s hard to imagine that a 100 year old saw will out perform a new one. Even the later versions of the Disston saws were not as good. I read somewhere that Henry Disston let another company build saws under his brand in the later years but would not let them put his name on them.
I have a Philadelphia Disston panel saw and 12″ back saw. I had to vinegar strip the rust of the panel saw, stain the handle, sharpen the teeth and polish the nuts but it is my favourite saw and looks fantastic. The back saw was in good shape complete s light sanding to the plate with WD-40 and buffed the handle with 0000 steel wool. Both saws were less than $5. I did pay 15 for a atkins panel saw and about 20 for a Toronto Canada Disston back saw before I found these two saws but they were no comparison to the Philadelphia Disston saws I got. both filled rip, panel saw is 10tpi and the back saw is 12tpi (if I remember correctly). Knife wall makes it possible to not have a crosscut saw.
Buy the old ones cheap and straight.
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