Japanese saw, an other thread...

[David Gendron]

There is allready two thread on Japanese saws but no one is talking about sharpening them.

Can you resharpen them? Is it more complicated than Western saws?

It would be fun to have some one answer this who actualy resharpen is Japanese saws, and maybe a little how to would be great!

[Dale Osowski]

Yes, they can be sharpened however most budget saws cannot be sharpened and this is why there are replacement blades. I send my saws out for sharpening and metate. This article may interest you. http://www.daikudojo.org/ShopTalk/metate_article.htm

[Graham Hughes (CA)]

It is possible to resharpen a Japanese saw, even the impulse hardened ones. The latter require diamond files; even if they're just spring steel you need a specialized file for the purpose. The teeth on the crosscuts are so close together and require so much difficult, fiddly work that it is usually considered not to be worth the effort, even by people like Leonard Lee. I can't remember if he wrote this or if it was a summary somebody else did, but I seem to recall him saying something like "It is relatively easy for an amateur to make a Western saw better than it was when it was new; it is very difficult to do the same for a Japanese saw."

In general, if the saw has replacement blades available that is usually the way to go, and if it doesn't talking to a professional is usually considered to be a better way to go.

[Christian Castillo]

There are man made saws and disposable saws. The latter typically being considered unsharpenable.

Man made Japanese saws are far more difficult to sharpen than western saws and this job usually falls into the realm of professional saw sharpeners. The complicated tooth geometry and the high level of hardness of the saw plate mean that you have to really know what your doing with your saw file and hammer and anvil for setting the teeth. There are no saw set devices for this type of job as the type of pressure exerted from one would cause the teeth to break off instead of bending a bit. In Japan, learning to sharpen these saws requires an apprenticeship of years.

As far as disposable saws go, they are hardened even higher than man made saws because the intention is to have the longest lasting edge possible, and when it goes dull, to just replace it.