As part of the gradual rationalising of my tools - the last episode being the building of an underbench cabinet - it was the turn of my saw till and backsaws. Actually, Lynndy is more astute - she just calls it as it is ... I promised to build a new outdoor table, and I am avoiding it ...

If you get down to it, joinery is what it is all about for me. Chiselling and sawing. The saw till is pretty much dedicated to joinery backsaws: rip dovetail, small and large crosscut, small and large tenon saws, and a mitrebox saw. I have a few dovetail saws. Some I made and some have sentimental attachments: a birthday present dovetail saw from Mike Wenzloff, another from Rob Lee and Lee Valley, my first new dovetail saw from Lie Nielsen, the forerunner from Independence Tools, another a gift made by my mate, Ian Wilkie. I use them all as they have different configurations and suit different woods. And then there are Japanese saws. A Nakaya dovetail dozuki is sublime. The whole Nakaya range is sublime.

This is my old saw till, taken probably about 10 years ago ...



Here is the new saw till, stripped and rebuilt ...



The triangular rests at the front pivot away ...



The rear of the till is home to Knew Concepts saws: 5" and 8" fretsaws and 5" coping saw. (The 8" fretsaw was the one that Lee Marshall sent to me, and we worked on together to eventually come up with the fretsaw line for woodworkers). Plus the Japanese saws: flush cutting, dozuki, ryoba, kataba and azebiki.



Here is the completed till ...



The Western saws sit in mortices ...





These were made this way ...



Lastly, there are drawers for all the saw stuff: files for sharpening, Stanley 42X and Eclipse 77 saw sets, and so on. Of course, the dovetailing was a fun part of this build.



Hopefully some ideas for you.

Regards from Perth

Derek