Hi guys.
So, in the past, I have had great success sharpening and setting tenon saws around 10-12 TPI, and even made my own bow saw blades before.
I've used the screwdriver method, and I think I've also used a hammer and nail before (I don't remember too well if that worked out) to set teeth. I had great success with the screwdriver method though.
However, I picked up this little dovetail saw recently... I think it is around 18tpi perhaps. I sharpened it with an "Extra Slim" saw file, and it's sharp now, but for the life of me I cannot set it.
The teeth are really shallow with kind of wide gullies between them (maybe my saw file is not narrow enough?) making this even more difficult. I tried the screwdriver method, and it requires far too much downwards pressure and inevitably just pops out and results in my hand flying into the saw blade...
Then I tried the hammer + nail approach, and it is just totally ineffective. The teeth don't get set / bent.
I even tried going after them with pliers, and could not get a strong enough grip on them.
I then tried carving a little groove in a thin piece of metal to grip the plate, and allow me to twist ala the screw driver method. That worked, except it too had the tendency to pop out, and upon popping out it chipped off the tip of one of the teeth. Yikes!
How the heck do you guys sharpen and more importantly set really fine saws? I feel like the hammer technique should work, but I need something that doesn't "slip" so badly off the teeth. That, and it's easy to lose what tooth you're on.
I'm tempted to just file all of the teeth off and re-cut them at 12-14ish TPI... Though, I really would like to be able to sharpen and set teeth finer than that.