Wenzloff & Sons

There is a current trend concerning thinner and thinner saw plates. Why? Well, the first answer is there is a quest for speed of cut. It is an interesting exercise that yields demonstrable results: Everything else being equal about saws, a thin plate does saw faster than one with a thicker saw plate. Read the rest of this entry »

We have offered kits from the beginning of Wenzloff & Sons, from individual saw parts to what we call a full kit. And of late, we are supplying the SN-701 kit for the recent article in ShopNotes on building one’s own back saw (they have a real nifty jig for cutting in the teeth in that article).

What I never have taken the time to illustrate, though, is the shaping of a back saw. Because of the upcoming classes on building kits at the Port Townsend School of Woodworking, we have finally taken the time. The following link provides a 40 photo look at the shaping of a Black Walnut Harvey Peace open handle saw, with a couple photos of setting and filing the teeth.

http://www.wenzloffandsons.com/saws/kits/backsaw/index.html

The only difference between a Full Kit and the slide show is that kits do not receive a medallion.

We hope you enjoy this peek into building a back saw.

Take care, Mike

Sawing mechanics can be a hurdle to overcome whether one is new to hand sawing or have been sawing for some time. Why? Because proper body mechanics are important to the quality of the resulting cut.

Bob Rozaieski has added an episode to his podcast which addresses body mechanics and overcoming miscuts while using a hand saw.

I highly recommend watching this video. The video, episode #4, can be found here:

http://logancabinetshoppe.weebly.com/podcast.html

Way to go, Bob!

Take care, Mike

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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