Saw Nibs…Can’t Explain ‘em But I Like ‘em
This is really Bob Roziaeski’s post at the Logan’s Cabinet Shoppe, not mine, but I’m just so excited that I can’t sit still. Take a look at this video. Notice the beautiful saw blades that Bob has created. Why does this excite me so much? Cuz those blades are MINE…all MINE!!!!! The wood in my shop is already quivering in fear.
Thanks, Bob, for doing these for me. I owe you in so many ways.
Cheers — Larry
Why Do Chisel Restoration?
With so many quality chisels available today, why would anyone restore old ones? Back in October, Chris Schwarz did an economic analysis in his Yuppie Tools: A True Accounting post and suggested that it just wasn’t worth the time and trouble.
I agree with most of what Chris talks about and I don’t disagree here, but I do restore chisels. You see, I don’t think money is everything in the analysis. For one thing, for most of us, woodworking is about having fun. The notion that ‘time is money’ just doesn’t apply. For many it’s fun to find an old socket chisel that hasn’t had it’s brains banged out by someone with a metal hammer. Lifting old tools from the flea markets of the world is an honorable activity. Whether it’s fun to de-rust it is less clear but there are those of us who actually enjoy this messy, mindless task. Certainly, using a tool that you’ve restored is a pleasure for most.
But an oft-overlooked part of the analysis is that Lie-Nielsen (the company whose chisels Chris used for his comparison) doesn’t make wide chisels. They don’t make slab-sided firmer chisels. And for this reason alone, you might find oneself doing a chisel restoration even if they own a stack of Lie-Nielsen chisels, which I agree are wonderful.
I did. I’d been looking for a wide chisel for cleaning up the sides of mortises, for cutting a notch next to a cutline when doing dados with saw and chisel, and for the various other tasks for which a wide chisel is useful. I found one.
I had also picked up a 3/8″ firmer chisel. I have a 1/4″ firmer and have found the vertical sides very nice when you’re paring the ends of a mortise and since I do both 1/4″ and 3/8″, I jumped at the chance to pick up a 3/8″ version of this chisel. 
I cleaned them up, sharpened them and then thought about handles. The firmer came with an old, but quite usable handle. As it had a tight leather top and was otherwise not too beat up, I sanded it a bit and added some BLO and called it done.
For the other chisel I needed to turn a handle so I took a scrap of maple and did just that. I didn’t record this process as I’ve talked about making chisel handles in a previous post titled Handling My Chisels. Here are the end results.
In the end, for the princely sum of $5 + a couple bucks worth of expendibles, I’ve got two very useable tools that Lie-Nielsen doesn’t sell (grin). I do wish they’d come out with a 2″ wide chisel to match their bench chisels, though.
Cheers — Larry
Mallets From Pallets
I have a nasty habit of working with old tools, well past their prime, if they ever had one. There’s nothing worse than hammers and mallets in that regard as I’ll use an old stone if it’s available.
This is the mallet I’ve used for at least two decades. It never was much to look at but it could find the back of a chisel so I used it, and used it, and used it some more. But I decided to replace it and this is where I always say to myself “If I’d known how little time it would take, I would have done it a long time ago.”
I took a piece of what I believe to be white oak that I got from some pallets a friend of mine brought me. It was 3 3/4″ x 3 1/2″ in cross-section. I figured it would make a decent-size mallet for tapping on my LN chisels without insulting them with ugliness as my existing mallet was doing. My tools talk to me and they had complained – honest.
So, the first thing I had to do was to heat up the shop and so I did. Nothing like a Disston D8 and a big chunk of white oak to warm things up.
Then, I’m sad to say, I failed as a blogger. I was so excited about being in the shop that I forgot to take photos. I took my blank (which was nothing more than a foot long piece of the oak) to my chopping block and I lopped off the corners, somewhat rounding it up. It’s much faster to do this than to chuck up a big square stick and then spend forever being beaten around by my roughing gouge.
Once finished, I chucked it into my lathe and turned a cylinder. I used a parting tool to mark the two ends of the mallet-to-be. Note that I changed its length when I got to this point. I’d originally guesstimated a length where the pencil line is but decided that I didn’t need the handle that long once I got to the point where I could actually wrap my hand around the stock to see how it fit my hand. This is the real virtue of making your own hand tools. One can buy a mallet like this for not much money but I was able to fit the handle to my hand as I refined the shape.
At this point all that was left to do was remove everything that didn’t look like a mallet. I ‘designed’ it on the fly, putting a slight taper into the head, fitting the handle to my hand and turning a knob on the end. I actually had to shorten that knob just a bit as there was a nail hole that I didn’t want to include. Roughed out it looked like this:
I’d gotten to this point using a roughing gouge and then a spindle gouge. The surface, however, could be a lot better and so I smoothed everything up using a skew chisel. I sanded it a bit, particularly in the curved places where it’s hard to create a surface with a skew. then I applied a thin coat of #1lb cut shellac to bring out the color and followed with a layer of Renaissance wax, which is named after the Renaissance Woodworker, I think 
The result looks like this and my chisels approve. It was embarrasssing to listen to them giggle.
Cheers — Larry
What Tool Does Kari Need?
I’m feeling sorry for my fellow woodworker, Kari Hultman, aka The Village Carpenter. Due to health problems her plans to carve wood with a bunch of other folks got scuttled and I suspect there’s been a certain amount of pain and discomforted associated with her health problems.
It may be the case that she’s suffering some delirium to go along with it as today, she wrote a blog post, saying that as a woodworker she “There isn’t a single thing I need, tool-wise..” I think you’ll agree, Kari is just not thinking straight.
I thought long and hard about this, searching for some way to help her out of her funk. It’s true that she’s got a beautiful shop. It’s true that she’s got pretty much one of every power tool in existence. And its true that she has planes, shaves and saws to make any hand tool lover drool. But there MUST be a tool she needs, even if she does now own a set of pocket tweezers.
I think I’ve found a tool that she probably doesn’t have but needs. Several years ago Black & Decker went through a phase where they were creating “innovative” products, like battery-operated C-clamps. I don’t know if they sold much of that stuff but they did take a certain amount of good-natured ribbing by the woodworking community.
At that time, I was writing articles for a miniatures magazine and I was asked if I’d review some products for the magazine. One of the products they sent me was a pair of “innovative” electric scissors. I remember receiving them and as I recall my first impression was to roll my eyes and wonder what I could possibly say about the product.
But there are times when I’m surprised and this was one of them. I use my electric scissors for a single purpose but they work so well for that purpose that I wouldn’t be without them. I go through a lot of small “rags”, mostly cut from things like old t-shirts, towels, and wash clothes. While it’s easy enough to cut up a t-shirt with manual scissors, and if you’re a ‘no-electron’ sort, that’s probably the pure way of doing it. But the virtue of B&D’s electric scissors is that they come with this bench clamp thingie and you can turn them on and then shove t-shirt at its mouth. It’ll cut material as fast as you can shove it into its gaping maw. I can cut a t-shirt into 6″ squares in, literally, a few seconds, eliminated the sewn seams in the process. I drag it out anytime the rag stash gets thin. Kari, you NEED one of these (grin). Oh…I’d say “get better” but you’re already the best.
Cheers — Larry
larry@woodnbits.com
A Few Notes About Handsaws
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
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