New Saws At Wood’n Bits
Long ago, far away, Bob Roziaeski of the Logan Cabinet Shoppe made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. He had a source for saw blanks and for almost nothing relative to the time required, he offered to cut/sharpen teeth to my specs. When the blades arrived they were gorgeous and I set to work creating handles for them. I finished the cross-cut saw in short order and it has gotten considerable use, though I’ve been somewhat diverted from my shop lately.
The rip saw, however, is another story. The handle was roughed out and even attached. I’ve actually cut a couple boards with it but it sure wasn’t comfortable as the handle hadn’t been carved. Have I mentioned that square edges on a saw handle aren’t a great idea?
Anyways, I am finally clearing the decks for a new project and the first thing I’ve done after finding my workbench, and moving all the stuff it was under, was to carve that handle. I now have a great set of hand saws that are oh so sweet. Both perform beautifully. Thanks, Bob. Now I really can sell my table saw.
For those into details, the saws have 24″ blades. The cross-cut saw is 8 ppi, 15-degrees of rake, and 25-degrees of fleam. The rip saw is 7 ppi, 4-degrees of rake, and 0-degrees of fleam. And yes, that’s a fairly high toot-count for the rip saw. I already have a nice 5 ppi Spear & Jackson and wanted something a bit finer. Likewise, I have a nice 10 ppi cross-cut saw and wanted something a bit coarser. One can never have enough saws, ya know. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
-
Blogroll
Good looking saws, Larry. And good to have you posting again.
The saws turned out great! I like the cherry! I’m working on one now in cherry for myself (finally). It’s finally time to replace my too long for me Atkins ripper with something sized a little better for my frame. I need to order a couple of saw nuts though.
Can’t wait to see the new project! Welcome back!
I have heard stories and songs of Mr. Rozaieski’s saw tuning skills! I agree with your ppi choice on the rip saw. I have the same nest configuration. My 4 & 5 ppi saws see little use now for anything under 8/4 and the 7 ppi does the work in the 4/4 stock. Enjoy them and I hope to see you ’round here more often with a new project coming up!
Thanks..I’m rather partial to cherry and don’t have access to apple or other typical handle woods. I stained the rip saw with a Puritan Pine stain which darkened it a bit relative to the cross-cut handle, just so it’s easy to tell which is which. Both saws perform with Roziaeski sharpness
Cheers — Larry
The blades he sent me were fantastic and the best part was that they shipped easier/cheaper than saws with handles.
I’ll still use my coarser saw for resawing, though I did take this new saw for a test drive while resawing a bunch of walnut. Works great, though just a bit slower than my coarser saw. I think I’d have to time it closely to see a difference for a single resaw, though.
Cheers — Larry
Those look awesome, a handmade saw from the ground up. I have some restored saws from Bad Axe (not new) and they are awesome. I’m still waiting for a Disston I sent to Matt Cianci (thesawblog.com) for sharpening. His backlog is pretty long, but worth it. Can’t wait to put these to good use building a saw till and saw bench.
Thanks Matt,
I’ve heard so much good about Bad Axe sharpening techniques that I’d love to send my Spear & Jackson monster rip to them. The shipping costs to and from keep me from doing so. I really need to build a decent saw till myself. Mine’s a couple hunks of particle board with a large dowel between them to support the saws. Functional but it’s the photo next to the word ugly in the dictionary.
Cheers — Larry