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Tenon saw expectations

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Previous Back to: Tools and Tool Maintenance/Restoration6 Replies

Welcome! / Forums / General Woodworking Discussions / Tools and Tool Maintenance/Restoration / Tenon saw expectations

  • This topic has 6 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 3 years, 3 months ago by Alan.
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  • Tomas Lavoll
    19 October 2019 at 4:40 pm #619574

    Hi there, this is my first post and I have enjoyed much of the material for a while
    I’m quite new to finer woodworking and attending a furniture making school here in Norway

    Saws have been on my mind for some time now, and I never owned a tenon saw until recently, I am generally taking to heart the advice of buying as good a quality as I can afford.

    I wanted a rather large tenon saw of 14″, after a lot of online research, trying some saws at school and tiring rounds of ebay bidding, I found a really beautiful saw I wanted to buy, yes, in large part it was due to it’s beautiful looks and nice proportions, I could not find much about it online but figured in that price range and how workshop heaven blogged about it and described the process of having it made it ought to be a well made high quality saw for generations to come

    The saw I ended up ordering was the Pax 14Pax 14″ 13tpi heavy tenon saw

    It arrived, and such a beautiful tool, elegant walnut handle, folded brass back, good proportions and an oveall good feel to hold

    I started testing it, and immidiately it tracked off to the left, I tried it, and I had a more experienced friend try it, we made the cuts in the picture side by side, teeth were good, but the blade had a long bend stretching almost the entire lenght of the blade

    Ok this post is turning more into a story then a simple question 🙂 , anyhow, I contacted workshop heaven, they told me it was almost sure it was a problem with blade tension, and that i should try to hit the back of the folded back against a flat piece of wood to reset the tension of the blade.

    So I watched Paul’s video of the process and tried it the next day
    It turned out the blade had to be banged all the way to the “socket” of the back in the toe of the saw, in order for it to start cutting straight, this also resulted in the back being elevated at the heel, giving the saw a rather skewed look.

    Upon closer inspection it was also revealed that a crack had formed in the handle due to the stress of banging, and to top it off the lambs-tongue (unsure about the name) of the handle, which was protruding below the much more solid nose of the handle broke of when I tried deep cuts (it hit against the top of the workpiece) this last part being my own responsability of course, but still i would argument that it could have been designed in a better way, not letting it protude

    So now I think this post is more turning into a frustration outlet over what has been months of trying to accuire a good tenon saw :0 😮 but bare with me, here’s the whole point:

    Is this to be expected when buying a brand new tenon saw or have I gotten the odd bad saw?
    The whole thing has costed me more then buying for instance a new LN but i was able to try one out and to me it felt far to aggressive and big

    I am sending the pictures and a description of the problem to worksop heaven also, to hear what they have to say, but I am feeling more and more I should just send it back and start looking again

    Thanks for reading and any comments would be appreciated 🙂
    Best Regards, Tomas

    • This topic was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by Tomas Lavoll.
    • This topic was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by Tomas Lavoll. Reason: Pictures appear as text in post, not pics
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    Tomas Lavoll
    19 October 2019 at 4:45 pm #619583

    Here is a picture of how it cuts now and a picture of the overall appearence of the saw with the banged skewed back

    Settings
    entitydigital
    19 October 2019 at 7:26 pm #619631

    I would expect a relatively premium new saw to be straight.

    Regarding the handle, walnut is quite a brittle wood and, while it makes nice looking handles, I think it’s an example of form over function.

    However it probably would’ve been absolutely fine had you not had to bang the back so much. I’d contact Workshop Heaven again and explain – they’re usually very good and may just replace it. I had a chisel from them for over a year when the ferrule split and they just replaced it no questions.

    Settings
    entitydigital
    19 October 2019 at 7:32 pm #619633

    Regarding your comment about the LN saw being too aggressive, you could probably easily fix that in a few minutes with a couple of strokes from a saw file. I haven’t used the LN saw so I’m guessing at what you mean but I bought a couple of the Veritas saws and I had to do that to both, they both cut beautifully now.

    You’re going to have to take a file to it eventually anyway 😉

    Settings
    Sven-Olof Jansson
    19 October 2019 at 9:29 pm #619677

    First, the manufacturer of Pax saws (Thomas Flinn-Garlick) is truly very customer friendly and service minded, including making bespoke saws and blades.

    Second, I too have had this experience of deviating left with Pax saws: one cross-cut panel saw, and one bespoke rip-cut panel saw. As I’m nearly always the culprit when my woodworking does not come out as expected, I compared the outcomes from using the Pax cross-cut panel saw (£85), a cheap No Brand (£7) cross-cut panel saw, and a Lie-Nielsen cross-cut panel saw ($225). All three were 8 around ppi. Somewhat disappointing, the Pax saw constantly resulted in saw lines taking off to the left, while the other two kept themselves parallel to the line. The only noticeable difference between those two was a somewhat broader and rougher kerf by the cheap one. I can live with that, but don’t like that its teeth have been induction hardened.

    The attached photos show one result of cutting, the teeth of the Pax and the No Brand. Can’t help to think that at 10 times the price, a bit more attention should have been given to filing and setting the Pax.

    The Veritas rip- and cross-cut tenon saws are both very pleasing, I think (which has not stopped me from wishing for one from Badaxe Tool Works – Christmas is after all drawing near)

    Sven-Olof Jansson
    London, UK; Boston, MA

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    Tomas Lavoll
    28 October 2019 at 10:22 pm #622418

    Hi, thanks for the feedback
    I contacted WH againg and told them I wanted to return the saw for a refund
    They told me to just send it back and that they would refund me
    So it turned out better then I had hoped for

    Still I dont have a tenon saw
    Does anyone have experiences with saws from Raub Sawworks?
    They seem to get good reviews on his own shop on ebay and etsy, but I havent found any info on forums or elsewhere online

    Best regards, Tomas

    Settings
    Alan
    1 November 2019 at 2:11 pm #623397

    I would have asked for a replacement PAX.
    Ask Thomas Flinn-Garlick to try it out before posting it to you.
    They should do the ‘banging of the back’. You just use it, and eventually sharpen it.

    Paul has a lot of experience straightening saws and plane irons. He makes it look straightforward. I wouldn’t be confident doing it. I’d only attempt it on old restorations, not on a new, expensive, quality saw.

    Or buy the LN you’d previously considered.
    Again, ask them to test it. It should have been checked.

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