Adventures in saw sharpening

[Michael Ray Smith]

After reading everything I could find, and buying a saw vice and set of files, I finally tackled my first jointing and sharpening of a handsaw. I started with the easiest thing imaginable -- a stair saw filed for rip. My initial attempt was embarrassing -- the most uneven set of teeth you could imagine. So I rejointed and started again. Much better this time -- almost passable.

The main thing I changed was my way of thinking. I don't know if anyone else ever looks at it this way, but instead of thinking about filing teeth I thought about filing gullets. That helped me get the right amount of pressure (or at least closer to it) on the tooth in front of and behind the file. I don't know if that's a conventional way to think about it, but it seems to work for me so far.

[James Carmichael]

Hang in there Michael, you leaarn best by doing.

I have several old Disston and Atkins saws picked up at garage sales & flea markets and love the ergonomics of the pre-29 D8, so I read up on filing and bought saw files a couple years ago and proceeded to butcher a couple of saws. If I have some time over the holidays, I may take another stab. Maybe I'll put a saw vise on my Christmas list.

[Chris Griggs]

Keep at it - my filing/setting is still hit or miss - sometimes I get amazing results at the first go of it, sometimes I still totally muck it up and need to start over. As far as the thought process, I guess I think about filing both the teeth and the gullets, but generally, my focus is on what will create teeth of even height (e.g. where to file in order to even out/remove the flats from jointing)

[David Weaver]

Think about it however you need to - whatever works.

If you think about getting a little better at some part of it each time, you'll soon have nicely sharpened saws, and then after that, you just get faster - which like anything else sharpening, will encourage you to do it more often.

[Jerome Hanby]

Sort of like sculpting? File away everything that doesn't look like even sharp teeth...

[john brenton]

I've always been the guy who likes to freehand everything...mainly because I'm lazy. I eventually find jigs and wonder how I ever did without them. As far as saw sharpening goes, it really does pay to make a guide block for the file, and a guide block to set on the teeth for reference like Daryl Weir suggests on his site. I was just using a protractor placed in front of the saw vise, but that's not as accurate or easy as the guide block.

For well shaped teeth on a saw, then you'd want to just do as you said and center the file in the gullet and smoothly file, and you wouldn't really need a guide. But on something where you have some not so great shape on the teeth you definitely want a guide and it'll turn out good after a few jointings.

[JohnPeter Lee]

I just took a saw sharpening class with Matt Cianci (thesawblog.com) last weekend and it was very helpful. He's a great instructor. Anyways, big take home message (among many) is that when you are shaping the teeth (no fleam), you first joint to get flats, make sure the lighting is showing those flats off, then you seat the file in the gullet and apply pressure downward on the file while using the hand holding the file handle to exert pressure against the tooth face of the tooth behind (towards the heel) the file. Stop when the flat disappears. Don't overdo it. Move on to the next tooth and repeat. You have pressure in 2 directions (down and towards the heel) while moving the file in a third direction (forward). As mentioned above, only practice will build the muscle memory needed to perform this task with accuracy and repeatability.

This works for me.

My $0.02
JP

[Chris Griggs]

Interesting, so his focus is pretty much on filing one tooth at a time - never heard it described that way. Most things I've read say to bias side pressure to whatever tooth is higher/needs more material removed. What Matt taught you makes a lot of sense though, and his results (from what I've hear) speak for themselves.

Glad you shared your 2 hundredths of a dollar.


I just took a saw sharpening class with Matt Cianci (thesawblog.com) last weekend and it was very helpful. He's a great instructor. Anyways, big take home message (among many) is that when you are shaping the teeth (no fleam), you first joint to get flats, make sure the lighting is showing those flats off, then you seat the file in the gullet and apply pressure downward on the file while using the hand holding the file handle to exert pressure against the tooth face of the tooth behind (towards the heel) the file. Stop when the flat disappears. Don't overdo it. Move on to the next tooth and repeat. You have pressure in 2 directions (down and towards the heel) while moving the file in a third direction (forward). As mentioned above, only practice will build the muscle memory needed to perform this task with accuracy and repeatability.

This works for me.

My $0.02
JP

[David Weaver]

I'd agree with the way matt describes it, too, and it probably agrees with what the OP says about filing the gullets - if you don't focus on keeping the file in contact with both the top next tooth and the face of the current tooth, you'll end up with gullets that aren't 60 degrees like the file, and that's something that will slow down subsequent filings and cause the teeth to get out of whack eventually.

You can just adjust pressure on the face of a tooth or the back of the next tooth depending on where the metal needs to be removed.

Eventually, if you have good gullets, it should be near robotic for maintenance sharpening, which you'll do a fair amount of if you rip by hand and value your energy.

[JohnPeter Lee]

Interesting, so his focus is pretty much on filing one tooth at a time - never heard it described that way. Most things I've read say to bias side pressure to whatever tooth is higher/needs more material removed. What Matt taught you makes a lot of sense though, and his results (from what I've hear) speak for themselves.

Glad you shared your 2 hundredths of a dollar.

That's for shaping the teeth - everything is filed rip at that point. And although you are indeed concentrating on one tooth, you are still removing steel on the back of the forward tooth, due tot he downward pressure you are applying to the file. For sharpening rip, you're done. For sharpening cross, you then have to re-joint to get flats that you can see, as before, then work on removing half of the flat on each side of the file with fleam. So at that point, you are really working 2 teeth per gullet. And it's more complicated - I'm still trying to get this right myself, but I think that the process is sound.

JP

[Michael Ray Smith]

Wow, thanks to everyone for the good ideas -- and, just as importantly, the encouragement!!

Mike