Rake and fleam for a miter saw

[Gary Daniel]

I've been a member of the creek for a couple of years now and have learned quite a bit from the postings of others. I'm retired now, but while I was working I attended quite a few auctions and just stored what I bought (mostly hand tools) in upstairs part of my barn. I've started to go through all the boxes over the last few years. It's amazing how much stuff you can accumulate ! Last count, I had acquired over 70 hand saws of different types and makes. So I read a few websites and learned how to hand sharpen saws and last year I attended a seminar by Ron Herman to increase my knowledge on the subject. I now have about 50 of the saws complete with various combinations of rakes and fleams.

My question is, I have an older 10 PPI Langdon Miller Falls miter saw (back saw) that was made by Henry Disston and Sons, what is the "optimum" rake and fleam that it should be filed at for sawing hardwoods? (how were they filed when they came from the factory?)

Thanks.

[Mike Holbrook]

I have a 74C Langdon Mitre Box that came with a Disston 26", 10 ppi saw. I just checked it out but do not know how to calculate the rake & fleam on it. I believe it came sharpened. I know it is a cutting beast. I was comparing it to my Gramercy Sash saw, 5 degrees negative rake & 7 degrees fleam. The mitre saw is not as different as I thought it might be. The fleam appears to be more pronounced but not as much as I thought it would be. I think a more standard crosscut filling would be more like 12 degrees rake, 20 degrees fleam. I like my Gramercy combo filled saw and I think my mitre saw may be filled a little closer to it than the standard, which may be why it seems to cut so fast.

[David Weaver]

I couldn't answer the "optimum" question, but I have been filing mine somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 degrees of fleam and 15 degrees of rake.

It does a decent job of a clean cut, but the tooth edges are still durable.

It's not a saw that you want to be filing all the time if you have a big long one, because you probably only use a short section of the teeth on it, but still have to file 26-28 inches of 10 ppi crosscut teeth. Because of that, I'd err on the side of tooth durability vs. a very slick slicing cut.

With teeth in the 10/11 range and a saw in a guide, it becomes not so critical to have the perfect level of rake or fleam.

[Chris Griggs]

I agree. 15 rake and 20 fleam is a good filing for an xcut. IIRC, ut is what I believe is recommended as the starting point for xcut filing in Pete Taren's saw filing treatese. In my limited experience I have found it to work well for both panel saws and backsaws. A more agressive rake of 12 degrees should give you a faster cut at the sacrifice of a little smoothness. More fleam, say 25 degrees, does make for a noticbly smoother cutting saw, and while I prefer 25 degrees of fleam in some cases (e.g. my 20" 9ppi panel saw), I agree with Dave that for a miter saw with a whole bunch of teeth I'd stick with 20 degrees, and would even consider seeing how well it will work with a little less.

[Gary Daniel]

Thanks for the advice. I know what you mean David about the time spent filing, this saw had 4 teeth broke off right in the middle of the saw plate. I've already made 4 passes just shaping the teeth to get to the point where the new teeth have emerged, that took a couple of hours already.........