Wenzloff & Sons

Hello Everyone,

I had intended to post this a few weeks ago. That was when we arrived to find a 1″ high-pressure overhead water line had burst in the shop sometime in the night. It’s been fun & games ever since.

I will be at the WIA in Valley Forge that starts this Friday–where does the time go? We made the decision to forego a booth this time around. I will have three talks about saw sharpening and be spending time at the hands-on area for anyone wanting to practice saw sharpening.

But I will be at a booth. Lee Richmond from The Best Things is going to have a booth. I will be demonstrating tools there when I am not speaking or in the hands-on area (well, I will also be slipping out for some other talks a couple times). So whether you would like to try out the W&S Kenyon saws TBT carries, or chisels, marking gauges, the recently added French rasps we have begun using, Japanese saws–whatever Lee is bringing–drop on by and give ‘em a whirl.

There might even be a new model of the Kenyon saws or two there.

Hope to meet you there.

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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Design. When I began making furniture for more than side money, I had zero aspirations of designing furniture. I copied dead guys, I reasoned, and I used plans.

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Welcome to the Wenzloff & Sons blog.

A necessary change in web site hosts has afforded us the opportunity to begin a long overdue project–adding a blog.

From time to time, we will examine hand tool use, history and, well, simply update the world at large as to the doings around here.

We will be adding articles of interest, in particular sawing and sawing exercises that we think will be of interest.

Take care, Mike