Blackburn Tools Smith’s Key Carcass Saw

I got around to finishing another saw kit from Blackburn Tools; this time the 12 inch Smith’s Key carcass saw, again in quartersawn cherry. As before, I used Isaac Smith’s handle design, available on the Blackburn website. I definitely like his design, both in looks and feel, but perhaps I’ll consider a somewhat different design for the next kit (which I have yet to purchase).

The handle was roughed out with a scroll saw and Liogier rasps, and finished with shellac and tung oil.

If any of you are inclined to build your own saw, the Blackburn Tools kits are great quality and quite enjoyable both to build and to use. I highly recommend them, and they are well worth the lead time. The Blackburn Tools 9 inch dovetail saw kit I built last April has become one of my favorites (https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....vetail-saw-kit). I expect I’ll get a good deal of use and enjoyment out of this one as well.

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Michael, that is a fine saw!

It looks gorgeous, and better than anything I've ever used. All of mine are old ones. I've never even had one that nice in my hands.

How do you find the steel of the saw blade? Does it hold a sharpening well?

Mark and Tom, thanks for the kind words. I have no doubt that your skills far exceed my own; if I can build a saw from one of these kits, I am sure you can, too.

Tyler, the saw plate is 1095 steel, spring tempered to somewhere around 50 Rc. It holds an edge fairly well, but more importantly, I have come to conclude, sharpens easily and well. For the dovetail saw (16 ppi) and the carcass saw (13 ppi) I have had good success with the Glardon (Grobet) needle files Blackburn also sells.

Thanks Michael. The 18" kit looks awfully appealing for sawing long dado sides.

Great looking saw. I built a gramercy kit many years ago and I didn't get the handle as crisp as yours. I'm sure you'll enjoy and will look forward to seeing any projects.

Best,
Chris

That's a great looking saw. I went and looked at his kits and their prices. If someone is looking for a project, one of his kits would be a good start.

Mike

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Originally Posted by Mike Henderson

That's a great looking saw. I went and looked at his kits and their prices. If someone is looking for a project, one of his kits would be a good start.

Mike

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I just ordered one of the 18" kits in crosscut. I have a bunch of long dado and sliding dovetail cutting in my near future, and it'll be a lot more efficient than my 12" carcass saw. I have an old turn of the century Disston with a handle that fits my hand like it's made for it that'll be a perfect template for a handle for the Blackburn.

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Originally Posted by Tyler Bancroft

I just ordered one of the 18" kits in crosscut. I have a bunch of long dado and sliding dovetail cutting in my near future, and it'll be a lot more efficient than my 12" carcass saw. I have an old turn of the century Disston with a handle that fits my hand like it's made for it that'll be a perfect template for a handle for the Blackburn.

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It sounds like you have a good plan for the handle contour: my suggestion would be to keep the same hang angle as Isaac’s template. It’s my understanding that he put a good deal of thought and testing into the hang angles for each of his saws. If I remember correctly, he has at least one blog post about his thoughts on hang angles and tooth rake. I don’t have much experience using the carcass saw yet, but my initial impressions are that the hang angle feels about right. On the 9 inch dovetail saw, the hang angle seems just about perfect for that saw.

Christopher, thanks for the kind words. Maybe someday soon I’ll actually start a build thread. My main hesitation has been that my projects usually take a number of months, for a few reasons.

First, my shop time is very limited: I work more than 40 hours per week and have two young children. Second, I work 100% neander on most of my projects so I can build my hand tool skills (often but not always starting from rough sawn stock, though I’ve recently been experimenting with riving). The saw handles are an exception: I used a powered scroll saw to cut out the handle blanks and a drill press to accurately drill the holes—particularly for keeping the counterbores concentric with the through-holes, because I don’t have a piloted counterbore bit and instead drilled the counterbores with a Forstner bit. Everything else is done without any machines. Third, bigger projects tend to get interrupted by smaller, quick projects.

Mike, thank you also for the kind words.