Dennis McDonaugh
04-06-2005, 10:29 AM
I have been hand cutting dovetailed drawers for a couple years and have actually been pretty successful in making the dovetails tight with one exception--the shoulders of the pins. The rip teeth of the dovetail saw provided a rougher cut than I would like and thin as the blade is, I thought I could do better with an even thinner one. I didn't want to get into the Japanese saw thing so I looked around and the LN straight handled crosscut saw had the thinnest blade I could find in a western saw.
I ordered one and got to try it out this weekend. Its a nice looking tool just like everything else from LN. I was surprised how light it feels and wondered how much effort it would take to use. First the good news. It makes a really fine cut--its easy to just nip the layout line, the edges are extremely smooth and the kerf is very fine. The saw doesn't track as straight as the LN dovetail saw so you really have to pay attention to what you are doing. Some of that can probably be traced to the handle. Orienting the saw perpendicular to the work is not as easy with the straight handle if you are used to the pistol grip hande of most western saws. It also seems much harder to start the kerf with this saw, which is probably caused by a combination of light weight and coarser crosscut tooth pattern. The weight didn't seem to be a handicap as it took no extra effort to push the saw into the kerf and in reality you wouldn't want to crosscut a 1X4" board with this saw on a regular basis anyway.
This is not a general purpose saw by ay means, but for the specific tasks of crosscutting small pieces and precise fitting of joints its a very nice tool. I'm going to make a small wooden miterbox to use with the saw for cutting detailed trim.
I ordered one and got to try it out this weekend. Its a nice looking tool just like everything else from LN. I was surprised how light it feels and wondered how much effort it would take to use. First the good news. It makes a really fine cut--its easy to just nip the layout line, the edges are extremely smooth and the kerf is very fine. The saw doesn't track as straight as the LN dovetail saw so you really have to pay attention to what you are doing. Some of that can probably be traced to the handle. Orienting the saw perpendicular to the work is not as easy with the straight handle if you are used to the pistol grip hande of most western saws. It also seems much harder to start the kerf with this saw, which is probably caused by a combination of light weight and coarser crosscut tooth pattern. The weight didn't seem to be a handicap as it took no extra effort to push the saw into the kerf and in reality you wouldn't want to crosscut a 1X4" board with this saw on a regular basis anyway.
This is not a general purpose saw by ay means, but for the specific tasks of crosscutting small pieces and precise fitting of joints its a very nice tool. I'm going to make a small wooden miterbox to use with the saw for cutting detailed trim.