Clean up of a back saw

[Dominic Wellik]

Finally cleaned up a one of my Disston saws today. Looks like it was made between 1888-1900. Still need to sharpen but looks pretty decent from what it was. Any sites for resharpening and files?

[John Keeton]

What a difference a little (lot!) of elbow grease will make. But, this reminds me of those glamour shots we see in marketing. The before pic is laying on newspapers:(, and the after pic on a nice dark background with lots of light:D. Does really show off the hard work though! Good job.

[Frederick Rowe]

You did a nice job cleaning up your saw. Here is a link, which has further links within it, should give you plenty of grist for getting started. You may also want to buy a copy of Tom Law's DVD on hand saw sharpening. In it, Tom demonstrates everything you'll need to know.

You may also want to consider practicing sharpening on a less rare specimen. Particularly filing for a cross cut saw has a bit of a learning curve, but very satisfying when you get it right.

Enjoy!

http://www.geocities.com/plybench/saw_sharpen.html

http://www.thebestthings.com/books/dvd_handsawsharpening.htm

[Jim Becker]

That did clean up very nicely!

[Gary Herrmann]

Very nice job, Dominic. If you'd rather have a pro sharpen it for you, I send my saws to Steve Cooke. He does a great job.

One of these days I'll learn to sharpen. Hmm. Maybe when I retire...

[Alan DuBoff]

Nice saw, put it to use!

Perfect saw to learn how to sharpen on, get a file, saw vise (make one if need be), and sharpen it.

Don't get too involved, just sharpen/file. Later you can joint it, shape, sharpen, and set, but to start just get a file and understand what angles you want to sharpen the teeth at.

Make sure to use a file handle, even if only a piece of wood with a hole drilled in it.

I like the info on vintage saws (http://www.vintagesaws.com/cgi-bin/frameset.cgi?left=main&right=/library/library.html), but don't like to put anything on the end of my file, just a handle to hold. All of our mileage varies.

Chris Gochner has a decent video, here (http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking/SkillsAndTechniques/SkillsAndTechniquesArticle.aspx?id=24976).

I learned mostly from vintage saws and Tom Law's video, but a lot of sources for this information these days.

[Dan Carroll]

Very nice job, Dominic. If you'd rather have a pro sharpen it for you, I send my saws to Steve Cooke. He does a great job.

One of these days I'll learn to sharpen. Hmm. Maybe when I retire...

I sent a couple of saws up to Steve about two months ago. Got them back in three weeks and all three of them are a joy to work with now. I have a few more to send him, when I get the cleaned up and looking as good as yours.

[Denis Tranchemontagne]

Dominic
Looks excellent.

Any chance you could tell us, what you used to clean the saw so well? Anything you learned along the way that you wouldn't mind sharing.

Denis

[Dominic Wellik]

I followed Bob Sturgeon's tutorial from Old Tools Shop. Used mineral spirits, and went slow. On my 26" there is an etching, it seems this saw saw more than the 12". But will go slow and post pics.

[David Martino]

Nice job! I have a similar saw waiting for some tlc, thanks for the inspiration.

What did you use for handle and the sawnuts?

[Johnny Kleso]

Very Nice!
Looks like an old one per 1890s I would say

[Gary Herrmann]

I sent a couple of saws up to Steve about two months ago. Got them back in three weeks and all three of them are a joy to work with now. I have a few more to send him, when I get the cleaned up and looking as good as yours.

I've got a couple queued up to go to him as well. He's having knee replacement surgery about now, so I was going to wait a week or so.