Posted By Larry on August 3, 2010
We’re having a great summer in Quebec, with day after day of sunny, pleasant weather. This has kept me smiling but also reluctant to spend much time in my shop. You may have noticed that the blog posts have been sparse lately.
But a while back I made a comment that you needed a sharp saw to do resawing. I added to this that you don’t find them at the local big box store. I thought I could sidestep the issue but then Troy wrote a comment asking for some information about saws and made me feel all guilty inside for doing so.
I thought I might talk a bit about my use of handsaws – call it a minimalist’s approach. You see, when it comes to handsawing, I’m handsaw challenged myself. I simply don’t have enough of them and when people talk about what you “need” as a basic nest of saws, I feel incomplete. And while I do wish I had more of them, the reality is that I get by with a few saws and don’t suffer (much) for it.
So, what follows are some random thoughts on my handsaw use. It reflects no generalizable “truth” but rather what I do, not what you should do. My goal is to answer (sort of) two questions. They are:
- What saws do I use and how do I use them?
- Where can good saws be purchased?
I am going to purposely limit comments to keep the length of this post under control but some comments will undoubtedly be spouted by me, Johnny Applesaw. I will avoid discussion of Japanese handsaws, turning saws and specialty saws.
One last caveat. I own a tablesaw. These days it gets used if I need to rip a bunch of boards to a similar width, like rails and stiles for door frames.
My Meager Saw Nest
The “inventory” looks like this:
- Spear & Jackson 28″ 5tpi rip saw
- Disston 26″ 10tpi cross-cut saw
- Wenzloff 11″ 13tpi carcase saw
- Wenzloff 9″ 14tpi dovetail saw
- Wenzloff 14″ 11tpi tenon saw
I have a couple other saws but they are more useful for cutting tree limbs than for cabinet work. And yes, I am under-equipped. But good saws cost money. Old saws are hard to find around here. And so these are the tools I aim at wood when I want to cut it. Let’s talk about saw use.
I’m a “function” kind of guy so let’s start here. Saws are sharpened and set to cut wood either across the grain (cross-cut) or with the grain (rip). We can also divide them into panel saws (a conventional non-backed saw) and the various joinery saws that typically have a stiff back on the blade. These two dichotomies should allow some structure to my otherwise diffuse thoughts…I hope, I hope.
My Panel Saws
Rip Saw
I use my 5tpi rip saw gets its most use when I need to cut a board to width. I’ll clamp it to my saw bench (you must have a saw bench to use handsaws) and while I’m not the fastest sawyer in the world, it can make pretty short work of cutting a 3-foot board to width. As I’ve mentioned above, if I’ve got a lot of ripping to do, I turn to my table saw as rip-sawing can burn a lot of calories and I’m old.
I also use this saw for resawing. This too can generate a lot of calories and make you wish for a big bandsaw. I wish for a big bandsaw (grin). That said, unless you’re trying to produce enough veneer to cover an 8-foot table top, the process goes fairly quickly. I cut all the shelving for two bathroom cabinets in somewhere around half an hour.
I find a 5tpi saw about right for this work. If I were going to do a lot of ripping I would like something a bit more coarse, maybe a 3tpi saw. These saws do produce a rough cut which is easily cleaned up with a handplane.
Cross-Cut Saw
The flip side in terms of effort is cross-cutting boards to dimension. I find it far easier to do this task with a cross-cut handsaw than I do using my table saw. The reasons are straight forward. First, cross-cutting long boards on a table saw requires a lot of clearance space around the saw and it’s potentially dangerous.
By contrast, with a handsaw, you can quickly drop a board on your saw bench and start cutting pieces off it, sliding it along to make the next cut. It takes only a few seconds to cut a 6″ board in this way so you can dimension parts quickly, efficiently, and quietly. My 10tpi saw works well for this and provides a very clean cut but, as with all tool junkies, I long for an 8tpi saw. If I had an 8tpi saw, of course, I’d want a 10tpi saw. Such is the way of my thoughts.
Summary
One can always “need” more panel saws with fewer or more teeth per inch and you can even specialize the way they’re filed for hardwoods and softwoods. But the two saws I have allow me to dimension wood quickly and efficiently. Thus, with only two panel saws you to dimension lumber for pretty much any project you have in mind.
Backed (Joinery) Saws
There are a lot of names associated with these saws. You’ll see tenon saws, sash saws, carcase saws, and dovetail saws. I would argue that these terms obfuscate more than clarify their uses. The problem is illustrated by the name “tenon saw” that historically was a cross-cut saw for cutting tenon shoulders whereas today we typically think of them as saws for rip-cutting tenon cheeks. These shifts in the name game leave us with a marketplace where many tenon saws are offered in both rip and cross-cut form. So, let’s stick with the cross-cut and rip dichotomy and talk usage.
I’ll start with a heretical comment. Of all the backed saws on the market, the LAST one a newbie should buy is a dovetail saw. Of course, this is always the FIRST one everybody buys, including me. Why? Simply put, it’s cuz the woodworking world has put dovetails on a pedestal and the belief that hand-cut dovetails means you’re an accomplished handtool guy.
Truth is, dovetails are but one joint in woodworking and dovetail saws are the most limited of the backed saws. They are typically very short (9-10″), have a depth of cut less than 2″ and they have a high-tooth count (13-15tpi) which means they will cut slowly and can’t cut deep. So, buy your dovetail saw but just realize that it is more limited than other choices.
Like the panel saws, general furniture construction requires both cross-cut and rip cuts and so the same is true when considering what backsaws to buy. It can be argued that you can use a rip saw to make cross-cuts. This is true, but with joinery saws you want smooth cuts and a cross-cut saw will produce smoother cross-cuts.
You’ll want to cut things like rails and stiles to length (cross-cut) and you’ll be wanting to cut things like a small cabinet case top to depth (rip cut). If I were to start over and buying a “first” backsaw, I’d be hunting for a 14-16″ cross-cut backsaw simply because there’s more ‘cutting to length’ being done in cabinet work than rip-cutting. If I had it to do over again I’d choose the 16″ saw.
The reason is two fold. The 14-16″ backsaws typically will give you 3 1/2″ – 4″ of cut depth and they’ll typically have 11tpi I or thereabouts, which will let you cut quickly and yet the cut will still be relatively smooth. The other thing that’s nice about larger backsaws is that the center of gravity of these saws is high, making it easier to “feel” whether the saw is vertical. This attribute has to be experienced to be appreciated.
For myself, when I bought my backsaws there weren’t any new, high-quality 16″ saws available. I use my carcase saw (11″, 13tpi cross-cut) and tenon saw (14″, 11tpi rip) saws constantly to do final cuts on furniture pieces, cutting mortise & tenon joints, bridle joints, and many, many other operations. Oh…and I covet the Bad Axe 16″ and 18″ backsaws. As soon as I can plan and execute the bank job I’ll be picking up one of each.
Last, but not least, the saw I bought first, my dovetail saw (9″, 14tpi). I use it to cut dovetails. It’s also handy for cutting small notches and such. Of the 5 saws I’ve outlined, it’s the one I use the least. I also use my 14″ tenon saw to cut dovetails and my carcase saw to cut off the half-pins on the ends of the board.
So, What Should I buy?
This is a personal thing. My goal here is to point out how much you can do with just a few saws. I’m just as convinced (by the evil tool devil on my shoulder) that you can never have too many saws. As I’ve noted, I do most of my cutting with only 4 saws. If you owned these four saws and used them, you’ll know better than I what you want to add to your saw nest. Sawing is more about knowing how than how many tools you own.
Where do I buy them?
I’ve not used all of the fine saws on the market. I’ve used Wenzloff, Lee Valley, and Lie-Nielsen saws. I like them all. I covet the large backsaws available from Bad Axe Tools. Rather than try to say intelligent things about the various brands, however, I’m just going to list their websites and let you read what they have to say about their products.
Hey, What About Old Saws?
I haven’t mentioned old saws as a source for good quality saws for a reason. To me this is a Catch-22. If you know how to take an old saw, restore and sharpen it and put it to use, you don’t need to be reading about saws from me. It doesn’t get more complicated than that.
Yes, you can find and and restore older saws. My panel saws are examples of Disston and Spear & Jackson saws that I have restored and sharpened myself. Find one that’s straight and sharpen it and you’ll get a lifetime of use from it but be prepared for a learning curve. I recommend Tom Law’s Handsaw Sharpening video for guidance.
Learning to sharpen saws is something you will need to do eventually. The question is how to know when you’ve succeeded if you’ve never used a saw sharpened by someone who really knows how. One way to get these old saws in ‘out of the box’ working condition would be to buy one (both backsaws and panel saws) from Bad Axe Toolworks. Mark Harrell typically has a bunch of restored/sharpened saws available for sale on his website.
One more thing. Rumor has it that Chris Schwarz has a handsaw video coming out. If you want to learn about handsaws, keep checking the Lie-Nielsen DVD section as it’s supposed to show up ‘real soon.’
Cheers — Larry
larry@woodnbits.com
http://www.badaxetoolworks.com/
Category: Tools, Woodworking |
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Tags: Hand Tools, Saws
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