cutting new teeth?

[David Gendron]

I'm sure there is something on it some where but can't find it!
So I'm asking the saw gurus here what they can offer me to help me with that. I have two back saws that had such terrible teeth that I removed them and now I want to file new one in and don,t realy know how to proceed so instead of improvising, I would like to get some advice!
Thank you

[harry strasil]

How many PPI do you want? One way is to use an old tape measure and tape it to the blade with masking tape and then clamp the blade and the taped on tape in your saw vise and using a small file you can mark the saw blade every 16th of an inch of every 8th of an inch with small notch in the squared edge of the saw blade then using the small notches start filing the teeth in. or if you have an old saw blade with the desired PPI, you can lay the old blade up to the new blade and mark the teeth the same way. FWIW

[David Gendron]

I think I want one of them to be 16 ppi and the other one 13 ppi. I will look into the tape mesure trick, for the 16ppi it should be easy!
Thank you JR.

[Dave Matson]

Here is a saw tooth guide you can print out and glue to your blade with contact cement, to give you the proper spacing. I forget where I got this file online, perhaps someone else can illuminate its source.

[David Gendron]

Thank you Dave. I guess you just print it at 100%?

[Jonathan McCullough]

You can also use threaded rod, or a nut on threaded rod. You can get any number of TPI if you calculate the number of turns (or fraction thereof) for the nut. Then lay the file on or near the nut to mark where a tooth should be (really, the area between the teeth), and turn the nut for the next one. Once you have the initial grooves, you can start toothing in earnest. I'd recommend a somewhat larger file for putting the teeth in initially. Count the number of strokes, and use that number for each and every tooth. It's okay if you do, say, four strokes for each tooth, discover you don't have a sharp tip on each tooth, then have to go back and do two strokes the length of the saw again in order to get a sharp point. As long as you're consistent. After you've set the saw, THEN use the finicky X slim or XX slim file to sharpen. Just my 2 cents.

[george wilson]

Mant years ago when I made a saw,I sometimes would lay a coarse rotary file on the blank saw blade I had just made. I'd roll it one tooth at a time,tapping it with a brass hammer when each tooth contacted the saw's edge. The rotary file left a perfect series of little cuts which were 1/16" apart. I used them as a guide to rough my teeth in.

Not too sophisticated,but it worked fine for dovetail saws.

[Peter Evans]

A power hacksaw blade of the right ppi can be clamped to the blade at the height to get a good start (not the whole tooth); this provides a controlling guide for the initial file cuts to set the teeth pattern. You then file the blade as per normal.

The hacksaw blade is pretty hard so will wear the file if you cut into it; use an old file of reasonable size - this is not establishing the gullets, just the pattern.

[Brian Kent]

I love it. All this experience. Amazing place!

[Tri Hoang]

In the saw sharpening video, Tom Law suggests that the easiest way is to use an existing saw as the template.

[David Gendron]

Thank you every one, like Brian said , it is amazing to find all that info and so quick!
I will give it a try this week end!
But don't be shy, keep the ideas comming!

[Jim Koepke]

I think the Norse Woodsmith is where the filing patterns came from. Oops, just looked at the .pdf and they are different than the ones at Norse Woodsmith.

http://norsewoodsmith.com/content/backsaw-project

At the bottom of the page are links to making teeth and other things.

This will keep you busy to the weekend just reading about saws, saw sharpening and saw making.

It is all good.

jim

[Eric Brown]

Here is another guide. 141753

Eric

[phil harold]

You can use threaded rod.

+1 on the threaded rod

[Bob Smalser]

13-16 ppi is pretty fine work for someone just starting out at this, and will wear out a couple files or more starting from scratch.

If you are paying 6 bucks each for files, it's generally cheaper to send or take the saw to a sharpening service and have them stamp in new teeth.....although postage may be stronger factor in the Yukon. Then you can sharpen and set the saw yourself.

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL12/1104763/17430481/270960405.jpg

[David Gendron]

Jim, that is exacly what I was looking for, I knew I saw that before!
Thank you!
Let's do some filing!!