Wenzloff & Sons

There is a lot going on in the simple design of a hand saw.

David Linnabary in one of the previous comments suggested we discuss breasting on saws.

Breasting, simply put, is a convex toothline. Breasting is used on more than just hand and panel saws, for instance, flooring, whip and pit saws. Here I am only concerned with hand and panel saws.

Breasting ranges from a fairly light to a heavy convexity depending on the saw’s length and PPI. It works in conjunction with the natural oval motion of one’s arm when sawing and has two main effects as concerns the tooth geometry.
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Chris Schwarz of Woodworking Magazine (both on his blog and in the upcoming autumn issue) suggests it was in the late 19th century that fleam (the bevel on the face of a saw’s tooth that changes the profile from efficiently ripping to cleanly cross cutting) was added. Schwarz also makes the point that hand-filed saws inherently have some fleam, and that machine filing brought on the factory-sharpened cross cut saws. Both these last points I agree on.
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