Handsaws

[Radar67]

Daren, can you sharpen the old one and two handed buck saws? I have a couple in pretty good shap I would like to have done.

[Daren]

Daren, can you sharpen the old one and two handed buck saws? I have a couple in pretty good shap I would like to have done.

To be honest Stew, I have never sharpened one  :. Not saying I can't...just saying I have not.

[beenthere]

Radar67
Do you have a picture of the tooth pattern? There is quite a variety of cutters and rakers on these cross-cuts.

Often, on the old cross-cuts found(two-man or one), the cutting teeth have been filed too much, making them shorter than the raker teeth...this makes for difficult wood cutting. The rakers are trying to remove chips that have not been severed from the wood.
If the saws are in this condition, first they need to be jointed (a jig is used to hold a flat file that takes all the teeth (cutters and rakers) down to the same level, making a flat area on each tooth. Then the rakers are swaged (tool for this) and the cutters are set and filed to just remove the flat on the tip. The rakers are then checked to see that they will rake out the wood chips that the cutters have sliced on two sides. More swaging may need to be done to the rakers to get them lower than the cutters.

[Radar67]

I'll take some pictures this evening. The teeth seem to be in real good shape. On the two handed saw, it looks like very little sharpening has ever been done.

[thedeeredude]

Tooth setters can be obtained from Lee Valley Tools, Traditional Woodworker and Tools for Working Wood.  Thats just off the top of my head though.  Files are the tapered triangular type.  I've heard Simmons files are real good, but Tools for working wood has real good saw files.
http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/Merchant/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=toolshop&Product_Code=EE-555-SF.XX&Category_Code=TFA

http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/Merchant/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=toolshop&Product_Code=MS-SAWSET.XX&Category_Code=TFA

From what Im told, saw files are only good to sharpen about four saws, after that they wear out.  Thats what spring steel does to ya :D

[Radar67]

Here are the pictures of my saws BT.

I picked this blade up in Montana for 8 bucks. I replaced the handle with poplar. The original handle was nothing more than a splinter left on the blade.


Here is the tooth pattern. There are a couple of teeth missing and the blade was broken on the end.


A close up of the handle.


A two person saw I picked up in North MS a few years back.


The tooth pattern.


Basically, all I have done to these saws is rub the blades down with mineral spirits and steel wool to remove the rust. No paint used on them at all.

[beenthere]

Place a straight edge over the teeth, and see if the cutters are higher than the rakers...then it's in pretty good shape. If the rakers are higher, then it needs to be jointed...first step.

I've not seen the likes of the teeth on the one man saw, but looks like a similar arrangement of cutters and rakers...

Thanks for the pics...nice handle job.

[SwampDonkey]

I have one like your second picture. I also have a 5 foot long blade that is missing the handle, it's a one man type saw. It's probably for bucking spruce logs.

[Daren]

Here are the pictures of my saws BT.

Yea, beenthere totally spelled it out how to tackle them. Those saws are like modern chainsaw chains, cutters and rakers. They don't look like they have been messed up by someone with a grinder or anything. You can still see the angle of the filed edge on the cutting teeth. You could touch that up with a flat file real easy on the 2 man saw and with a triangle file on the other (you have to sharpen all the way into the base of the tooth)

From the picture it looks like the 2 man needs the rakers taken down, but that may be the camera angle ?

Go for it.