saw sharpening 101

[phil harold]

I tried but failed
all the teeth on one side are smaller than the other...

what did I do wrong?237006
but it is sharper than it was..

[Jeff L Miller]

What steps did you take to begin the process? Did you joint the teeth to make them all the same height? What follows helped me but I learn things in funny ways sometimes, I feel like I should throw out a disclaimer.

I've had similar results in the past but usually found a way to fix the damage (try try again approach). I remember reading Pete's saw sharpening primer here http://www.vintagesaws.com/cgi-bin/frameset.cgi?left=sawcare&right=/library/primer/sharp.html What I took from this and other info I read was to go slowly, count your strokes. When you joint the teeth, you make little flats on the tops of each tooth. During your filing process, start with the handle on the right and start on the first tooth facing away from you. Only file until the flat part is reduced by half (this may differ from tooth to tooth depending on wear). When you do the other side, you will remove the other half of the flat....in a perfect world.

I also use those little home made jigs to get the fleam and rake angle right. Training wheels for some but it makes it easier for me and my sharpening has improved as a result.

Jeff

[Bill Stephenson]

Hi Phil,
I just finished filing my second attempt on a Craftsman saw I purchases 28 years ago. My first attempt came out like yours (big tooth ,little tooth) This Time I had great success the saw cuts as good as my disstons.(for how long I don't know)
What helped me was A beginners primer on the Vintagesaws.com site. On page 15 you will see where it is advised to file bias slightly to the left toward the tooth that is bent toward you. The one bent away files more easily. Not doing so will cause big tooth little tooth which you seem to have. I followed this advise after reshaping the teeth and it worked like a charm. Vintage is a great site. Check it out.

[phil harold]

Hi Phil,
I just finished filing my second attempt on a Craftsman saw I purchases 28 years ago. My first attempt came out like yours (big tooth ,little tooth) This Time I had great success the saw cuts as good as my disstons.(for how long I don't know)
What helped me was A beginners primer on the Vintagesaws.com site. On page 15 you will see where it is advised to file bias slightly to the left toward the tooth that is bent toward you. The one bent away files more easily. Not doing so will cause big tooth little tooth which you seem to have. I followed this advise after reshaping the teeth and it worked like a charm. Vintage is a great site. Check it out.
This was a craftsman saw I bought 31 years ago
and has never been my favorite
I also noticed the slot in the handle is not parallel to the side

Second attempt is better after i viewed
http://www.calast.com/personal/ken/Saw%20Sharpening.pdf

but I still need some practice so I will look at Vintagesaws.com

I need practice, practice practice

If I can make this saw decent it might have been worth the 31 year wait

thanks guys!

[Jim Matthews]

If the teeth have some set, you may have a parallax error in the photograph.
Check with a steel straightedge thicker than your saw plate to see if all the teeth are at the same height.

If not, the jointing step mentioned above will get you back to a baseline.
I mark (each step) with a simple black magic marker, so I can see bright steel revealed.

If you flipped your saw end-for-end when sharpening, it is easy to have gullets at an angle greater than 90 degrees to the saw plate.
Combined with significant set, you could see this as teeth alternating in height. This is readily verified with a straightedge (see above).

The reason not to flip the saw is simple, it keeps the gullets sloping the same direction and keeps a constant rake angle.


Jim
wpt, ma

[Mike Allen1010]

hi Phil,

You Already got lots of good advice here.

It might be helpful to consider that the first step in the sharpening process is to establish teeth with consistent height, width and rake angle. Once you have these established, it's a lot easier to then add the fleam angle and still maintain the consistent profile you're shooting for.

Acouple specific suggestions for your consideration:

1) As others mentioned, the first step is joint the teeth until you have a flat spot on at least 75% of them. Don't worry about the others as you will get them all lined up with subsequent jointing.

2) Mark the flat spots with a sharpie.

3) Starting at the heel and working towards the toe, use a jig to establish the correct rake angle. Working from one side of the saw only, file all the teeth straight across (90 degrees to the long axsis of the plate- in other words 0 fleam angle) . Your goal is to bias your filing left or right to make the teeth equal in width and only file until the flat spot (marked with a sharpie) goes away.

If you're having trouble getting the teeth equal in width it's sometimes helpful to use a smaller file than typically recommended, one that's just long enough so that one side is slightly Wider than the desired finished tooth height. The smaller file makes it a little easier to see both teeth being filed and helps you achieve equal width and height. For example, with an 8 PPI saw, try a six-inch double extra slim file, rather than the slim/X slim profile.

Once you complete these steps you should have teeth that are fairly uniform and consistent in height, width and rake angle.

4) Joint lightly and again Mark the flat spots. If your teeth are consistent in height, width and size of flat spot, you're ready to start filing every every other tooth set away from you with the desired fleam angle.

If you're not happy with the consistency of your tooth line, flip the saw end for end in the vice and working from the other side of the saw plate repeat the above process. After the second time around profiling and working from both sides of the saw, you should end up with teeth that are consistent in height, width and rake angle and you can now move forward with adding the fleam angle.

In a nutshell, establish a consistent height, width, rake angle profile first, before adding the fleam and/or gullet angles.

Final thoughts;

* Rake and Fleam angle jigs are your friends - Don't be afraid to use them all the time

* A magnifying visor and adjustable light source make a huge difference

* If you think your file is dull -- it is! Get a fresh one. The easiest way to ruin the correctly profiled tooth line you've just worked so hard to establish is to keep trying to sharpen with a dull file-- it's harder to control and will cut unevenly leaving you with the dreaded "cows and calves" alternating big and little teeth.

All the best,

Mike

[David Nighswander]

I've been working on a video primer for sharpening hand saws and have a pretty consistant process for rip saws. I'm now working on crosscut panel saws. I hope to move on to the one and two man crosscuts that I have.
I posted the vids to Youtube here. http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXlq5qGw1per7vwSDLSi81R448BUJ1mcc I would appreciate feedback on both the tools and techniques.

Thanks