Restoring an old handsaw

[Dan_Shade]

how many strokes to cut through a 1x12 pine board?

[WDH]

Beautiful restoration. 

[purple otter]

Nice job! You must have quite the collection by now :D. Keep up the good work!

[Dodgy Loner]

how many strokes to cut through a 1x12 pine board?

I'm not sure - it's a heck of a saw, though. I used it extensively on the chest in the other thread that I just started, and I feel like I was able to go about 3/4" per stroke in 1" white pine. I'll have to count next time I'm in the shop and let you know.

[Dodgy Loner]

Nice job! You must have quite the collection by now :D. Keep up the good work!

Yep, once I got this one fixed up, I pretty much decided to quit actively searching for saws, but that's not to say that I won't pick up another if I see one at a good price. I have all the handsaws that I need fixed up and ready to go, but I still have some backsaws that need some love. I have a 16" tenon saw and a 14" sash saw that are next on the pecking order. I worked on a 10" carcase saw right before this one (a Disston No. 4), and it works fabulously. It has 13 PPI and I filed it at 10° of rake and 15° of fleam. It feels great to get these saws that have been hanging around my shop in unusable condition, finally back in working order!

I took some pictures of the process I used to clean up and sharpen the big rip saw, but I figured I would post that separately from the post able the handle. Maybe tomorrow.

[Dodgy Loner]

Beautiful restoration.

Thanks, Danny. I hope you have a saw ready for me next time I come back. I will have you putting your SawStop up for sale. Handsaws have flash-detecting technology that is significantly cheaper, anyway ;D ;D ;D

[thecfarm]

17 pictures on one page!?!?! You keep doing that and I'll have to get something faster than this dial up thing.  ;D  :D The wait is worth it. I don't think I have any old handsaws in the old farm house. My 14 year old grandson loves going in there. If there's one in there,he'll find it. His Grand Father had a lot of fun in there about 30 years ago too.

[Red Clay Hound]

Yep, once I got this one fixed up, I pretty much decided to quit actively searching for saws, but that's not to say that I won't pick up another if I see one at a good price. I have all the handsaws that I need fixed up and ready to go, but I still have some backsaws that need some love.

I hope you remember that you have one of my saws that you promised to bring back to life! ;D

[Dodgy Loner]

I remember

[Dodgy Loner]

17 pictures on one page!?!?! You keep doing that and I'll have to get something faster than this dial up thing.  ;D  :D The wait is worth it. I don't think I have any old handsaws in the old farm house. My 14 year old grandson loves going in there. If there's one in there,he'll find it. His Grand Father had a lot of fun in there about 30 years ago too.

Sorry, farm. A picture is worth 1000 words, and its quicker to snap than it is to type ;D

[Dodgy Loner]

Okay, as promised yesterday, here are some pictures of the restoration of the saw plate.

This is sighting down its length - arrow straight. It's hard to find old saws in this condition, and a kink or wave is a lot harder to fix than rust.



I didn't take pictures of the sanding and scraping process, but it's pretty straightforward. I sharpened a cheap, 2" wide chisel and used that to scrape off the majority of the rust. Make sure you have the saw on a FLAT surface when you do this - you don't want to dig in! You can use a razor blade, and it helps to round over the corner so they don't dig in. You don't need to be making any more scratches that you'll have to sand out later!

Once I scrape off as much as I can, I use 150-grit sandpaper with a cork-backed sanding block to smooth out the plate and sand out the rest. I pour on some turpentine to lubricate the blade. It will gum up with rust pretty quickly, and you'll have to wash it off and start fresh. After a few minutes, you should have off most of the rust.

The next step is one that I would reserve only for the rustiest saws. This one had some light pitting, and there's no way that your sanding and scraping can get into those nooks and crannies. If you don't get rid of that rust, it will eventually start up again, slowly corroding your saw. So to neutralize that rust, I turn to my good friend, phosphoric acid. Phosphoric acid will convert the insidious iron oxide into harmless iron phosphate. The iron phosphate creates a tough barrier that will actually protect the pits from moisture and helps prevent rust from getting started back.

You can find it at your Ace True Value by the name of "Ospho". They sell it near the paint and finishing supplies to prep metal for painting. I start by cleaning the turpentine and loose rust off the plate with water and dish washing detergent. Then I coat the whole thing generously with phosphoric acid using a foam brush and hang it up to dry for several hours.



When it's dry, the plate will be coated with a dull grey film. I finish sanding that off with 220-grit. Some people will go up to 400 or even 600 grit, but with a saw plate that is stained and pitted, that's a waste of time. When you're done sanding, you're ready to sharpen.

First step in sharpening is jointing. This is when you run a single-cut file down the length of the teeth to bring them all down to the same height. You don't want some teeth high and some low - the cut will be rough and some teeth won't be doing any work at all. I use a block of wood with a kerf in it to hole the file at 90*. The blade has a slight "breast" (that is, a curve), and I follow that line as I joint to maintain the curve. You want the curve to be convex – if your blade has a concave curve, that's not breasting, it's bad filing.



You can see the flats on top of the teeth when I'm done with the jointing – some are big and some are small – an indication that the teeth were out of joint to start off with. You stop when you can just see a flat on every tooth.



Now I'm ready to begin filing. I set my filing guide to 5* of rake and 0* of fleam. Most big rip saws have 8* of rake. That's a good angle for more aggressive teeth (like 4-5 PPI), but for these smaller teeth, (6 PPI), I want to make the teeth a bit more aggressive by reducing the rake. More rake = less aggressive. Rip saw are almost always filed with 0* of fleam. Fleam makes crosscut saws cut cleaner and faster, but it slows down rip saws significantly. I file all the teeth from the same side. Some people file every other tooth, then flip the saw around, but I do not. Either way works.



I file the teeth down evenly, until all of the flats are *just* gone. To keep the teeth evenly spaced, watch the depth of the gullets as you file. When you see a gullet that it a bit shallower then the others, you know that it needs some work. Look at the teeth on either side of the gullet, and put pressure according to which tooth has the bigger flat. If both flats look the same, you'll just file with downward pressure and no side-to-side pressure.



Now it's time to "set" the teeth. That is, bend them side-to-side so that the kerf that the saw cuts is a bit wider than the saw itself. This allows the saw to move freely through the cut, and it also allows you to correct if you wander off of your line while sawing. Here I'm using a Stanley 42, but most any saw set will do – it takes some practice to know how to set it properly, though.

 

When the teeth are set, I make one last light jointing pass, the dial in every tooth just right so the flat has just disappeared. Then I very lightly run a dull file down the sides of the teeth to remove the bur from filing and even out the set. After that, I'm all done, and the saw is ready to try out!

Old 26" Disston D8's and 28" Disston No. 7s have identical handles. Only the location of the saw nuts are different. So this rip saw makes a handsome pair with the D8 that I fixed up earlier this month!



Happy sawing!

[isawlogs]

 Thanks Justin, this is a very interesting thread.   :P

[purple otter]

Hey Dodgy, I noticed you are using the Veritas saw file guide. I just read an article about  it. How do you like it? Would you recomend it? The price seems decent.

[Dodgy Loner]

Otter, the Veritas guide is a well-engineered and well-executed little gadget that I wouldn't be without. I filed a few saws before I got it using homemade wooden guides, but the consistency in the shape of my teeth went way up once I started using this guide. I highly recommend it.