Rehabbing crosscut saw . . .

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I've got an old Disston crosscut that I've been meaning to rehab for a while now - the toothline is a bit wavy, (up and down, I mean - the plate is straight) and the teeth are a bit out of sorts - random sizes and rake angles. Could obviously use some jointing and resharpening. Given that it looks like it's going to take a bit of work to get it sorted out, I was thinking it might be easier to sharpen it without fleam, like a rip saw with a relaxed rake, just to get the teeth sorted out proper, and then go back and add the fleam. I'm not the most adept saw sharpener, so I was wondering if anyone had any input on whether this was a bad idea or not - perhaps I'm not thinking of something. Given the condition, it reminds me of the last rip saw I reconditioned, where I found it easier to joint and refile a couple of times to get it dialed in perfect, as opposed to trying to do it all in one go.

[Paul Incognito]

Joshua,
That's exactly how to go about it. http://www.vintagesaws.com/cgi-bin/frameset.cgi?left=main&right=/library/library.html
As outlined in the link: Joint, shape, set, sharpen. The shaping is filing the correct rake and getting the teeth all the same size with no fleam.
That's how I learned it and it's been working for me.
Paul

[Jonathan McCullough]

If the teeth are too far gone, and there's enough depth to the plate, it may be easier to have someone punch new teeth in with a Foley. If only a few teeth are Cletus, it won't affect things too much to reshape, set, and sharpen.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I don't think the teeth are bad enough to warrant repunching; and I was hoping to get the saw working quicker than the turnaround from sending to someone else. Thanks for the input guys; I don't know why it didn't occur to me to scan the available literature online first.

[David Weaver]

If the teeth are evenly spaced, just joint the saw and cut them at whatever your final rake is going to be - straight across rip like you say, and add the fleam at the end. don't joint any teeth completely off (of there's enough wave to do that) or you'll have a headache cutting the teeth in on fresh plate. Just joint about half the height of the teeth off or a little more.

If it's a backsaw with small teeth, it won't need much fleam to work well and cut cleanly, anyway.

You might want to try it with no fleam and the relaxed crosscut rake and see how it works at that just for curiosity (not sure what tooth count you're looking at). And then add fleam as needed.

I think as you cut teeth down, it'll be helpful if you put a guide block on the end of the file to keep the rake consistent. You may do that already, but if you don't, this is a situation where it'll pay off later.

[Chris Griggs]

I don't think I'm adding much that hasn't already been said, but as a novice saw sharpener I can relate. What has worked best for me is what others have said.

1) Heavy jointing and reshape with 0 fleam (repeat if necessary)
2) Set the teeth and then give it a light jointing - just enough so I can see that there are flats
3) Add the fleam

One thing to add that has been helpful to me as a novice filer. When I add fleam I like to mark every other tooth with a marker or with two different colors. Given that I have the attention span of a squirrel, if I don't do this I inevitably skip 2 teeth (as opposed to every other) or don't skip a tooth and add fleam the wrong way. This really sucks when you get exactly one tooth off and get to the end of the saw only to realize that you have filed the fleam wrong on half the teeth (@%^#&@$#!!!!!).