Back Saw Shapening

[Victor Stearns]

Greetings Creekers,
I recently purchased a used LN Dovetail saw, 15tpi. Was making a little sawdust today and decided to try a couple of dovetails. I am not happy with the way the saw cuts. I think that a sharpening is in order. However, this is not something I particularly look forward to, nor have any experience at. I know that I could send it back to LN but would like to find an alternative. Is there somewhere else that might do a nice job on sharpening? I am interested in your thoughts?
Thanks,
Victor

[David Weaver]

I think you're as good of a candidate as anyone. There are lots of guides online, and there are videos about sharpening if i'm not mistaken.

With a light touch and something to help you keep the rake consistent, you really can't do much to screw the saw up.

[Joe A Faulkner]

You might consider contacting these folks:

http://www.winsorsaw.com/sharpening/sharpening.htm

I think they are close to you.

Another option would be to send it to Bad Axe

http://www.badaxetoolworks.com/

[Bill Haumann]

I haven't (yet) sent any saws to Mark at Bad Axe, but I have some that he made and they are great. I also saw that sharpening services are available at thesawblog now. No affiliation with either other than a very satisfied user if some Bad Axe saws.

- Bill

[Russell Sansom]

Marv Werner has been looking after my saws, both hand and joinery. He does a tremendous job and he really knows his saws. It's been good to have an expert to talk things over with. Right now, Marv is mostly on woodnet.

[John Powers]

I'm sure the folks who made the saw would love to give it a shot. Given that's it's used they may be able to bring it back to factory spec for a reasonable price. The bad axe guy does a great job if you decide on that route.

[Brad Patch]

Daryl Weir, goes by Woodnut on ebay and frequent contributor to this and other forums. He will sharpen your saw so it cuts with a surgeons precision.

[lowell holmes]

Greetings Creekers,
I recently purchased a used LN Dovetail saw, 15tpi. Was making a little sawdust today and decided to try a couple of dovetails. I am not happy with the way the saw cuts. I think that a sharpening is in order. However, this is not something I particularly look forward to, nor have any experience at. I know that I could send it back to LN but would like to find an alternative. Is there somewhere else that might do a nice job on sharpening? I am interested in your thoughts?
Thanks,
Victor

If you check the LN website, you will find a video addressing your question. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orPgaoF31ZQ

[Chris Fournier]

I personally have found the LN saws to have too little set for my taste. After sharpening several other saws in my shop to get my chops up to par I reset the LN saws with about .002" more set and now they follow a line freely in the kerf as I like with far less binding. Out of the box I found the LN saws to be prone to binding.

Handsaw sharpening is actually very easy if you approach it methodically, only use brand new files of the correct size for each saw and learn that the touch required is extremely light; this is not a physical work out! Good light, consistant input on the file and constant inspection of the results will yield a great sharpening.

[Mark Baldwin III]

I just spent a bit of my morning sharpening my dad's old Disston miter box saw. If I can do it, anyone can. You should be able to find a nice saw vice at the antique store, or make one like in the LN saw video. Before sharpening my first saw I thought it was some sort of black magic. Part way into the that first saw, I realized that it was much easier.
The bonus to sharpening your own saws is that all of those $5 antique store saws are suddenly users. I can't afford most of the quality new saws out there!!

[Tony Shea]

I think this saw is a great saw to sharpen for your first time. Usually the bigger tooth ripsaws are reccomended by others but a dovetail saw in the 15tpi range I find are less time consuming and are just as easy. Since its a dovetail saw you will have very few angles to deal with. The rake is the most important angle and you can make a guide to stick on the end of the file for this. Just keep things very consistant and watch your gullet depths. I find keeping an eye on gullet depths to be the best method for keeping consistant teeth heights. You can always run through the saw with a file again and again until you feel you have it right. You also may need to purchase some sort of saw set which you can find inexpensivly.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I think the other thing this saw has going for it as a first sharpening project is that given it's a new-ish saw, it probably isn't all wacked out from years of poor jointing and filing. Much easier to get the basics down on something straightforward like that.

[Terry Beadle]

Great advice above. Be sure to get exactly the right file. I think a double extra slim 5 inch is probably what you will need but you need to follow up with LN.

If you decide to have it sharpened by a pro, I can also highly recommend :
Daryl Weir <weir@grics.net>

I used him on restoration of a 1800's back saw. It needed the old teeth removed, new teeth filed, sharpened and set. It took just about a week from send to return. The saw works wonderfully and is a pleasure to use. I'm not sure what his fee is to just sharpen the saw but I'll bet it's reasonable. He did all my work to the saw for $45 plus return shipping.

I really think you should get the right file and give it a go after watching the youtube LN video. There is also a segment in Frank Klauz's video, Rob Cosman's video ( I think its in the advanced dovetails...but I'm not sure. )

One caution is that it takes very lite strokes and just one or two per tooth to sharpen. Magnifying glasses will help a lot, along with good spot lamp lighting. Use a black felt tip marking pen to darken the teeth to help you spot what teeth you have done. Also another thing that you might have to do is run a flat single cut bastard file length wise across the teeth maybe once or twice but no more. This will make sure the teeth are all the same height. Since you are dealing with a used saw, you may be dealing with more than a simple sharpening. Take your time, hold the file at 90 for a rip... I guess this maybe too much detail.

Remember, this will be a lot of fun when it works right and you'll really love being able to sharpen your saws. Dove tails and tenons will be a pleasure to cut and staying on a line or splitting it will be in your quiver of skills.

Enjoy the sawdust !