Getting Down On The Old Lakeside

[Jim Koepke]

Among the saws inherited from an old friend was this Lakeside L8.

198029

It sure looks a lot like a Disston D8. The medallion was from the Brothers Warren & Ted Superior.

My only way of knowing anything about this saw is the etch is still visible.

198027

It looks like it hasn't been touched in a long while since some of the teeth were broken.

198026

My plan was to see if a 4 ppi saw would rip faster than my 6 ppi saw. My 6 ppi saw is a Disston D8 with a rake of 8°. To be even a bit more aggressive, this saw was filed with a 5° rake.

The first order of business was to joint the teeth down smooth. The file in my jointer has had a lot of work and is getting pretty worn. It was going slow. It is funny how things are learned. My learning was that this file holder/jointer will not accept a thicker file. That is when I recalled another saw tool in my accumulation. It is for large crosscut tree saws and filing raker teeth. But it will hold a file for jointing.

198028

A word to the wise, when using this kind of jointer you should wear a heavy glove just in case your hand gets enthusiastic and slips. Believe me, it will slip. DAMHIKT… It can be a little scary, and even though the teeth are flattened, they still have edges that can eat meat. BTW, you are made of meat.

198023

After the jointing was done the plate was checked and corrected using a straight edge. Then came the fun part. While making a guide to start the gullets it came to me that saw teeth at 4 ppi are more than 1/4" apart, DOH!

So with a little manipulation and the help of my computer a guide was made to mark off the gullets

198025

A small file was used to mark the starting points. This was followed by a bigger file to start the shaping of the teeth.

198024

Silly me, thinking all that was needed in my shop was a couple of big files for sharpening saws. It hadn't occurred to me that a saw may need a whole new set of choppers. It hadn't occurred to me that cutting new teeth on an old saw could dull three new files.

Lucky for me there are a couple of machine supply houses in town. We had to go in to town yesterday so a stop was made to buy a couple more files.

to be continued…

jtk

[Jim Koepke]

There are a few things to be learned while pushing a file across a thin piece of steel. It can be very noisy. A piece of cardboard taped to one face of the saw vise did help a bit with this. Also, it takes a lot of concentration to make each stroke of the file equal to the next stroke of the file. This will likely come with experience. I kept an eye on the flats and worked to keep them diminishing at the same rate. I also counted my strokes to keep me from getting distracted while cutting a single tooth.

198031

Towards the end of the filing the gullets were inspected and I tried to make them as even as possible. When a flat was gone, its tooth was done. After the whole saw was complete a careful inspection revealed a few teeth with just a smidgen of flat left. These were corrected and the handle was put back on the plate. A straight edge was used to make sure all the teeth were in line.

Interesting thought about "being out of joint" possibly being related to saw filing. I wonder if "snaggle tooth" may be related to saws. If one tooth is taller than the others, it can cause a snag.

When the handle was removed it was treated to a generous coating of a 50/50 mixture of BLO and turpentine. The handle was hung to dry while the teeth were being cut.

198032

After the teeth were set, the handle was put back on the saw. Actually a nice looking saw

198034

A piece of scrap was used to see if it cut straight.

198033

It cut fine so the saw was used to cut through a 10' piece of 4/4 ash. It was a little faster than the 6 ppi rip saw, but it seemed like a bit more work to make that saw do its work. It may have been that this piece had a bit tighter grain and had a few more swirls, but this saw did do a good job.

198030

I may try my band saw, but it may be hard to set up for such a long cut. My circular saw seems to want to burn the wood and binds a bit. I was thinking of getting a different blade, but maybe burning some calories would be better for me.

jtk

[David Weaver]

wearing out files is right. Cutting full depth teeth in a panel saw is an expensive proposition. Hopefully that saw is new enough that it doesn't have any hard spots in it.

Been there before. Each time, swear not to do it again. then time passes by and you end up doing it again.

[Jim Koepke]

Hopefully that saw is new enough that it doesn't have any hard spots in it.

It seemed to go pretty even through the whole length.

jtk

[David Weaver]

I think you'll find that the 4 tooth saw is borderline on 4/4 ash. More teeth is a little nicer to rip thin hardwood boards, 5 1/2-6 is a good number.

But the 4 tooth saw will be nice to have for thicker stuff, especially if you start resawing some short boards.

[Jim Koepke]

I think you'll find that the 4 tooth saw is borderline on 4/4 ash. More teeth is a little nicer to rip thin hardwood boards, 5 1/2-6 is a good number.

But the 4 tooth saw will be nice to have for thicker stuff, especially if you start resawing some short boards.

I think it all falls into the field of diminishing returns. My 6 ppi rip saw was a bit easier to push so I didn't tire as fast. The 4 ppi rip saw could claw out more wood on each stroke, but the effort wore me out so it was hard to make a full stroke.

Maybe after a few more planks sawn my ability will improve.

jtk

[Chris Vandiver]

No pain, no gain! :)

[Dave Anderson NH]

Hey Jim, Never again worry about finding a saw jointer to hold your file. I have never bothered. A nice scrap piece of wood about 8" long slotted to hold the file at a right angle to the wod surface and you have your jointer. Quieter than the metal ones and easily replaced in about 10 minutes as long as you don't burn all your scraps in the fireplace or woodstove.

[Jim Koepke]

Hey Jim, Never again worry about finding a saw jointer to hold your file. I have never bothered. A nice scrap piece of wood about 8" long slotted to hold the file at a right angle to the wod surface and you have your jointer. Quieter than the metal ones and easily replaced in about 10 minutes as long as you don't burn all your scraps in the fireplace or woodstove.

Almost went that way until the old log saw jointer was remembered.

Why make one if you got one?

jtk

[James Owen]

Jim,

Informative narrative and pics. Really enjoyed reading it. Thanks for posting.

About four years ago, I found an old 5.5 TPI Lakeside rip at a second-hand tool shop here in town (finding decent vintage saws in Albuquerque is, shall we say, a bit of a challenge....), and re-habbed it. It needed a fair amount of TLC, but nothing like a complete recutting of teeth, so a bit easier and faster to get it back into working trim. After sharpening and tuning it up, it turned out to be a really nice saw, and one of my favorites.