Mike Allen1010
07-14-2011, 7:04 PM
Below are pictures of two large, cocobolo handled tenon and saws I recently finished building. I wanted a pair of backsaws I could use for cutting larger pieces at the bench, where the weight and stiffness of the spline would help me get fast and accurate cuts, when I didn't want to take the time to move to the saw bench and use a full-size handsaw.
They both have .025 saw plates. The larger saw (in the background) is 18 long and is the only surviving member of the first generation of backsaws I built. I laminated the saw back using Ύ wide strips of 260 brass alloy and peening brass rod through the laminated assembly to fix the back/saw plate in-place (you can see where I was unable to file the brass rods into invisibility). I hand filed the teeth from raw plate into 9 PPI rip configuration.
Lessons learned:
1) 1) The laminated saw back technique was difficult for me to execute well. The other three saws in this generation had thinner saw plates and in the process of peening the brass rods I created a bunch of waves in the saw plate that made them all pretty useless -- ugh!
2) 2) Cutting the teeth with a file from raw saw plate was a handful- even in a simple rip configuration! As you can see, the profile and spacing of the teeth isn't very uniform. After a couple rounds of resetting, jointing, sharpening the height of the teeth are fairly uniform and the saw cuts well -- but it certainly doesn't look very pretty. At a certain point I ran out of patience -- I hope to the biggest errors in subsequent sharpening.
3) 3) Cocobolo is super hard! I drilled the saw holes free hard and even the Forstner bits wandered in the dense wood and consequently the saw nuts dont fit very well. I also finished the cocobolo with Watco oil followed by a couple coats of shellac and paste wax. I think the oil darkens the color and makes the figure appeared muddy. The other saw here is finish was shellac only and I think it looks much better.
The second saw in the foreground is made with a slotted brass back and a saw plate I got from Dominic Greco (whom I met here in the Cave-thanks Dominic!) that was punched to 13 ppi crosscut.
For me, the slotted saw was a lot less labor-intensive and I think came out looking a lot cleaner. Also used a drill press to drill the holes, and although not perfect, they are a lot better than my earlier freehand attempt.
As I mentioned, shellac and paste wax I think worked better for me in this dense and oily wood.
Bottom line, although building the saws was a lot of work and they're not nearly as well executed as others I've seen here in the Cave, I'm surprised how well they work and I find myself reaching for them a lot more than I anticipated.
I definitely do get satisfaction from using tools I built myself -- but only if they work well- which I have to confess isn't always the case!
Thanks to all the Neaders here in the cave for your inspiration and advice!
Best regards, Mike
They both have .025 saw plates. The larger saw (in the background) is 18 long and is the only surviving member of the first generation of backsaws I built. I laminated the saw back using Ύ wide strips of 260 brass alloy and peening brass rod through the laminated assembly to fix the back/saw plate in-place (you can see where I was unable to file the brass rods into invisibility). I hand filed the teeth from raw plate into 9 PPI rip configuration.
Lessons learned:
1) 1) The laminated saw back technique was difficult for me to execute well. The other three saws in this generation had thinner saw plates and in the process of peening the brass rods I created a bunch of waves in the saw plate that made them all pretty useless -- ugh!
2) 2) Cutting the teeth with a file from raw saw plate was a handful- even in a simple rip configuration! As you can see, the profile and spacing of the teeth isn't very uniform. After a couple rounds of resetting, jointing, sharpening the height of the teeth are fairly uniform and the saw cuts well -- but it certainly doesn't look very pretty. At a certain point I ran out of patience -- I hope to the biggest errors in subsequent sharpening.
3) 3) Cocobolo is super hard! I drilled the saw holes free hard and even the Forstner bits wandered in the dense wood and consequently the saw nuts dont fit very well. I also finished the cocobolo with Watco oil followed by a couple coats of shellac and paste wax. I think the oil darkens the color and makes the figure appeared muddy. The other saw here is finish was shellac only and I think it looks much better.
The second saw in the foreground is made with a slotted brass back and a saw plate I got from Dominic Greco (whom I met here in the Cave-thanks Dominic!) that was punched to 13 ppi crosscut.
For me, the slotted saw was a lot less labor-intensive and I think came out looking a lot cleaner. Also used a drill press to drill the holes, and although not perfect, they are a lot better than my earlier freehand attempt.
As I mentioned, shellac and paste wax I think worked better for me in this dense and oily wood.
Bottom line, although building the saws was a lot of work and they're not nearly as well executed as others I've seen here in the Cave, I'm surprised how well they work and I find myself reaching for them a lot more than I anticipated.
I definitely do get satisfaction from using tools I built myself -- but only if they work well- which I have to confess isn't always the case!
Thanks to all the Neaders here in the cave for your inspiration and advice!
Best regards, Mike