Saw Vise: Buy or Build??

[Mike Tekin]

I am wanting to learn to sharpen my own handsaws including 4 handsaws I got cheap and was wondering if the Grammercy Vise is worth the money or should I just build one? I would rather build furniture and with my limited time but if the feedback is a built one will be just as good...I am all ears. If you build one or have a good idea in mind, can you share?

Also, are their good vintage ones that won't cost an arm and leg that will function as well as the Grammercy?

[Jim Koepke]

My experience with old saw vises is their quality can be pretty hit or miss.

A simple one can be made from two pieces of wood. Actually it might be easier to start with one piece and make a wide chamfer along one edge. Then cut the board in half, place the saw between the two pieces with the chamfer on the top outside and clamp it in a vise. If this set up works well, then you can work on making it a bit more elaborate.

Here is a thread on saw sharpening with a wooden vise by Bob Smalser a few posts in:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?8198-Sharpening-Handsaws

And another vise design:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?71888-Tool-Till-and-saw-vise

If you can afford the Grammercy saw vise, it would be a good lifetime investment. I've been drooling over them since they first came to market.

jtk

[Bill McNiel]

Mike,
I have used all three of the saw sharpening approaches you have described. Way back in the day I didn't have a Saw Vise so I faked it to the best of my abilities. Then I bought and started using a "vintage" Disston Saw Vise. A big improvement. Then a couple of years ago I bought a Gramercy. Another significant improvement and well worth the money.

FWIW-I am a frugal individual and have always lived by the mantra that a tool must pay for half of the initial investment right off the bat to justify its place in my my shop. The Gramercy has surpassed that standard easily. I am not a tool freak or one of those folks who has to have the latest/greatest but I do appreciate advances in technology that makes my woodworking easier and more enjoyable. The Gramercy again passes the test.

JMHO - Bill

[Pete Taran]

Mike,

I'm sure the Grammercy tool is a good one, but you can find a vintage one for much less. You are in Frederick which is within an hour or so of many major antique malls. If you drive up to Adamstown, on a Sunday, and start going through them, you will not be able to swing a dead cat without tripping over a saw vise. Look on the floor and under tables. They are everywhere.

Things to look for:

I personally like the ones that have a screw that tightens the jaw. Avoid the wentworth models that have an eccentric which tightens the jaws. They often don't close tight enough. Disston and Sargeant made good examples. The coin of the realm is a Disston D3 which has 12" wide jaws, but they are not common. There are many made with a ball that allows adjustment for fleam and sloping gullets.

Check carefully for welds and breaks. Cast iron is brittle. If a saw looks shiny, look at it very closely. It's probably been blasted and repainted. That's great if the previous owner just wanted to clean it up. Just as often it was to hide a repair.

Tighten the jaws and make sure they close evenly across their entire width. If there are significant gaps, pass it by.

Finally, they are typically cheap...$30-50. Don't overpay, unless it's new in the box or 100% with it's paint.

Check it out and report back!

[Michael J Evans]

I built my own out of (1) pine 1X6 (I think) and a scrap piece of 2x4.

modeled after the one in the link below.

I changed the dimensions, and obviously used pine instead of whatever the plan calls for.

I had to tune it a little to get it clampin the way I thought it should, but it works well enough for my needs and brought the vise up to a comfortable height to stand and file. Really didn't take that long either.

http://www.popularwoodworking.com/articleindex/jig-journal-shop-made-saw-vise

(Hopefully it's okay to post that link?)

[Stew Hagerty]

The Grammercy vise is the king. That said, there are some very serviceable vintage vises to be had for a reasonable price. I have 2 in my shop. One clamp-on model from Disston and another one by "Binkerd". It's really interesting in that it incorporates a strip of leather as a vibration dampener. I happened to pick it up online for something like 40 bucks.

359238

[Jeffrey Martel]

The few times I've needed it I just clamped 2 pieces of wood together and called it good. I threw it in my leg vise, but you could just as easy make one with a 90 deg bend and clamp that to a workbench top.

[Mike Tekin]

Pete, thanks for the Adamstown idea...had no idea:) but have a feeling it's going to be awhile before I get up there.

I also appreciate everyone's ideas on diy plans and just have to see but am starting to lean towards the Grammercy as I like to support modern makers that have solid designs with really nothing else new on the market and can get it to work immediately

[lowell holmes]

I started out with two pieces of wood in a bench vise, and it worked. Then I acquired an old steel vise and it is the one I use now.
It is better, but if you want to start with two strips of wood, many of us did it too.

Actually, I also have my Daddy's old saw vise as well.

[steven c newman]

I have an old Wentworth No. 1 vise....

You CAN tune old saw vises, by leaving the jaws a bit open, and passing a large mill file between them, checking as you go to see how the jaws tighten up.

However, go to pbs.org look up The Woodwright's Shop. Underhill has an episode where he built a free-standing, fold up saw vise.....might be worth a watch....

[Kees Heiden]

The great thing about making youw own wooden vise is that you can make it as wide as the length of your longest saw. Then you don't have to move the saw in the vice all the time.

[michael langman]

I just took a 20 inch length of 1x3 pine, drilled a 1/4" hole through the center a couple of inches from one end, and then sawed down the length of the pine with a bandsaw, to split the pine up to the hole.
Slip my saw into the kerf and then into the vise.
May have learned this from Paul Sellers.

[steven c newman]

Season33, Episode 5. The Woodwright's Shop, pbs.org

Swinging saw vise.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

If you have a good vise, build a wooden saw vise for now, but save up for that Gramercy vise. It's a dream. Don't do what I did and use a baked linseed oil finish on it. It didn't hold up at all, but with the rust it looks kinda cool. :-)

[Kurtis Johnson]

Also beware that the clamp joint on those old Disston 3's aren't ragged out. They work like a cam lock. I've had to re-engineer mine by way of a shim. Not quite happy with it yet. Without the shim the clamp is too loose won't hold a saw. Great vise otherwise. If anyone has a good solution to this I'd be interested.