Best selling wood projects - Backsaws For Woodworking A Practical Introduction

Best selling wood projects

Backsaws are particularly useful in the workshop, especially in furniture making and fine woodworking. Of all of the various types of backsaw, the most useful for me is the humble tenon saw.
These are usually filed so that the teeth are a cross-cut pattern, and they get used for much more than cutting tenons.

I find them indispensable in box making and carcass work as well.

Here are two of my favourite old tenon saws.  At the top is a Colver Brosler 14 inch 12 PPI, and below it a Taylor Brothers 14 inch 11 PPI.

The handles are works of art, and fit the hand beautifully - decades of being handled have smoothed these, and added the patina that sweat and workshop dust combined to form in use.  The blades are better than they look - there is dried tea-oil across them as a rust deterrent, and it looks a little patchy in pictures.

Of course tenon saws are initially designed for cutting tenons, but they are even more versatile than just that.

Sometimes they come in canted blade versions like this smaller 12 inch Taylor Brothers brass backed saw.  This one has 12PPI.  The canted blade allows me easier sighting to the end of the cut, and is especially useful when cutting dados.

Ill include a picture of my much more recent Spear and Jackson cutting dados - I havent one handy using the Taylor.

Tenon saws are the workhorses of the woodshop, and I find it useful to have more than one.  The most common sizes that I use the most, have 11 or 12 PPI.

Less commonly used - by me, at any rate - is a dovetail saw.  I dont cut a lot of dovetails, and if there are a lot to do, I will use a router and a jig to save time.  However, small projects like boxes, small cabinets and trays etc warrant hand cutting, as the dovetails can be finished by the time the jig is set up and tested.

This lovely example was made by Ian Wilkie and has a walnut handle.  Ian has written a  wonderful article on backsaws in this months - issue 78 - Australian Wood Review.
It is a 10 inch saw with 15 PPI and a fine kerf, and being a dovetail saw, is filed rip - for cutting along the grain.  Ians work is stunning.

It is also useful for fine work and doubles as a crosscut saw in a pinch.

The standard go-to handsaw for panel work in my workshop is a 10 PPI Disston.  The blade on mine has some spotting, but it is well away from the cutting edge.  In spite of its looks this is a sweet little saw, and a joy to use.

In the past, when long dados were to be cut, I have used the 10 point panel saw, as I had nothing else.  Recently I found a Spear and Jackson 10 point large tenon saw - for the odd occasion that large dados present.  It has an 18 inch blade, and is so much easier to use and keep straight in the cut, than was the panel saw in this case.   The number of times I cut long housings is infrequent, so this saw will outlast me and my grandchildren I expect.  It has certainly seen little use over its life.

Not, technically a backsaw - (of course not - DOH!), but so useful none-the-less, is a little flush cut saw.  I use this a lot in repairs to furniture, and it is superb at trimming broken dowels and fractured tenons.  These are made with one flat side on the blade and a set on the teeth of the other.  It leaves a smooth surface on the face of the timber, and cuts off the offending projection, flush with the surface.
The blade is flexible so that the handle can clear the surface when cutting.

Finally, I should mention a long backsaw, for cross cutting mitres and other angles.  These are used in a mitre box, and are much safer for cutting short pieces than using an electric dropsaw or SCMS.

This saw is long at 24 inches, and is an 11 PPI saw for general work. Even though it is a long back saw, it uses a lot of its length just staying in the mitre box, leaving not too much to do the cutting.  An even longer saw would be ever more useful here in my opinion.
This one is a Warranted Superior - probably by Disston.

 For fine work, a smaller saw - around 15 PPI - and a wooden mitre jig are more useful.

Backsaws are real joinery workhorses, and a necessity for fine work.  The fact that they are a pleasure to use is an added bonus.

Happy shavings to all .........................

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Best selling wood projects - Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder

Best selling wood projects

I have been away for the last month or so, and in traveling the outback, there isnt much in the way of internet coverage.
It was a wonderful trip in the company of my sister, her friend Judy and the LOML.

Woodworking has had to take a back seat for the immediate past, but I am thrilled to be back.

The trip home again from Brisbane mandated another visit to Bangalow, and Heaths Old Wares.

Yes - I know - Im weak.
I dug around the saws bin again for another bargain, and came up with two saws that were exceptional.

One was a little 10 point Disston panel saw in rusting condition, but otherwise excellent.  The handle was superb.  Sadly, when I tried to buy it, I was given the third degree on where did I find it ............
Turns out it was Heaths own saw, that his wife had mistakenly "put away" in the sales bin. Ho-hum.
No sale there - lucky for Heath and unlucky for me....................

Sandvik Hand Saws - Woodworkings Best Kept Secret
.................the other saw is a lovely little Sandvik.

While woodworkers all value Disston, Atkins, Simmonds, Tyzack, Spear & Jackson and other well known hand saw marques, few acknowledge the excellence of the Sandvik offerings.

This one is a 23 inch 8PPI panel saw, cross cut of course.
Sandviks also come with a blue handle, and they are often dismissed as not as good as other handsaws because they are judged on their handles alone.  For this reason, they are almost always cheap - really cheap for what they are.

I am not a fan of plastic handles as they can become slippery when sweated upon, in the course of cutting, and they dont accommodate my three fingered grip very well - but this one is at least tolerable in its ergonomics.
What Sandviks miss out on in the handle department, is more than made up for everywhere else.

Its Sandviks blades that make them special.  The steel is exceptional, and they cut like a hot knife through butter.
This one is breasted - the slight convex curve that runs the length of the cutting edge.  The rust is only on the surface, with no pitting to contend with.
This saw will clean up beautifully, and make a great general-purpose cross cut saw for small projects.  It will also be a suitable stable mate to its bigger brother - used in the last post (see below).

Sandvik Saws were made in Sweden and the blades are taper ground.  They are renowned for their edge keeping qualities among those who know of their worth.

Prior to rust removal here is a comparison of sizes with my current X-cut saw:

First step - remove the handle:

One obvious sign of the quality of these saws is the use of heavy duty brass handle screws.  It is easy to dismiss these saws on first appearance because of their plastic handle.  Its only when we look a little deeper that the quality appears.

Easy to see here what the original saw blade looked like, and the accuracy of the mating holes in the saw plate.

When I rust-clean, I use a wire brush on my old Makita grinder.  It doesnt hurt the sawplate - the steel is much too hard for that.  I do it outside, as there is a fair bit of rust-dust generated, and it is a dirty job.

Once the steel has had its rust and grime removed, its time to wipe off the black detritus generated by the cleaning process.  I oil the blade at the same time with camelia tea oil.  The old rag shows how dirty the remaining residue can be.

Next step will be off to the saw doc to have the teeth sharpened and set.
The teeth need setting only at the point and not from the base - there is an etch from a Sandvik saw here that explains it.
The steel in these old Sandviks is harder than the Disstons that I am used to, and the teeth are prone to snapping unless the blade is warmed first before setting. Ill leave that step to Dr. John.

Here are the two saws together. Nice couple arent they.
Cant wait to use them again.
So if you ever see one of these in the wild, and you dont mind using a saw with one of these handles, you will be rewarded with the joy of a premium tool for  the price of McValue meal.
They really are that good.

For now - its just so good to be back........ 
Adios Amigos................
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