Sharpenning an old Dovetail Saw
- This topic has 2 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 2 months ago by .
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
Welcome! / Forums / General Woodworking Discussions / Woodworking Methods and Techniques / Sharpenning an old Dovetail Saw
This old dovetail saw was part of an old set of tools I picked up last year. I’d like to return it to useful condition. I de-rusted it this past week and was now looking to see what I should do about sharpening it. I notice the teeth have an irregular pattern to them. Is this due to rust and corrosion? It looks very deliberate. I don’t have much sharpening experience and want to avoid doing more harm than good.
It looks to me like it will need a new set of teeth. I’ve retoothed three of my saws now, a dovetail saw, a tenon saw and a handsaw and it isn’t hard at all. The bit you have to be careful on is getting an even spacing as possible for the new teeth.
Paul has a video about how to cut new teeth. For the two smaller saws I followed that method but for the big saw I used a slight variation. I found a PDF saw tooth spacing guide (Google Norse Woodsmith Saw Filing Guide) and just taped it to the side of the saw, then I put the whole thing in a homemade saw vice and just used that as my guide to the hacksaw cuts. I think that way may be quicker and more accurate, for me it is anyway.
Saw sharpening is indeed daunting at first but once you do it a few times you’ll try to find any excuse to get out your saw files.
Thanks Raze – I just found that video on recutting teeth. It looked familiar, I think I watched it a while ago and then forgot about it :).
It’s hard to decide how to budget time between restoring tools and building stuff. I’m so slow at both.