Crosscut Saw Thread

Finished filing tonight. Got quite the pile of filings. The little stone at the top is for removing the burr.

5.jpg



78 points jointed and shaped. I still have to set the cutters.

6.jpg



Calibrating my homemade spider on a true machined surface. For this flat ground saw I'm taking the set up to .018".

7-spider.jpg


phantomknives said:
the closest i'v come to a saw vice is a 45 cut into a log for touching up teeth. believe me, a MOUNTED vice would be nice. you guys would scream if you saw how i file my saws. you guys have all your fancy jointers and CC saw tools... im over here like HAMMER MAKE RAKER GOOD
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My spider is made from a scrap of 1085 agricultural steel that I annealed and cut to shape and tapped. It's fully adjustable with set screws on all 4 points. I do have a nice Simonds 342 file and raker gauge. That's a critical piece of equipment.
 
damn.

i have the govt manuals on setting and sharpening, but i haven't yet practiced my skills, i lucked into some good saws...

perhaps i should get some bad saws and practice...
 
Most 'good saws' aren't nearly as good as they could be. It they cut without a ton of drag or bind then you got lucky. I think I've got about 5 minutes per point into this saw. And I've got 3 more saws in the garage that need work including a 90".
 
i have a couple two man saws in good shape that were tuned and used to make a log cabin up in VT. retired.

will likely never get a chance to let them rip (maybe once or twice) - misery whips, desirable pattern, wonderful.

have a FEW one or two person saws (moveable handles) in the same tooth pattern (forgot name just now, the kind with holes)

sharp as anything, were working saws when i got them. nice. Diston i think.

plus the single cross cut one/two person saw. wow. great work that.

i've boxes of carpenter saws i might fix, and a few are also cross cuts.

mmm.

in a month, the new england, nashua nh, antique tool sale/auction ... can't wait. best used tools venue ever.
 
Perforated lance tooth is the name of that saw you're describing. I like them in the 48" and 54" lengths with the auxilliary handle you can move out to the end for double bucking (two-man). They're able to cut very large wood in single-buck mode because you can pull the opposite end through the log when there's no handle out there.
 
Bladite said:
i have a couple two man saws in good shape that were tuned and used to make a log cabin up in VT. . .
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I posted these pictures a few years back. My family built a cabin in 1954. We couldn't afford a chainsaw or power tools (besides no electricity).

Dad with a crosscut (uncle on the other end):

33448712142_9e6b884f24_c.jpg



We all pitched in and nobody complained about a bruise, cut, or blister. Left to right are mom, me, and grandpa:

33564856086_5702c84795_c.jpg



Bob
 
Square_peg said:
Most 'good saws' aren't nearly as good as they could be. It they cut without a ton of drag or bind then you got lucky. I think I've got about 5 minutes per point into this saw. And I've got 3 more saws in the garage that need work including a 90".
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Noticed your mention of a 90" saw and immediately looked for your location. Yup, big saw in big tree country. I almost never have a need for a big saw in Virginia, but was asked to help a trail crew clear some old growth blowdowns on a wilderness trail. Filed up a Simonds 503 and went at it. Sixteen deadfalls, smallest about 30" (at cut, not DBH).



[URL=http://s1171.photobucket.com/user/ATsawyer/media/Crosscut%20saw%20and%20axe/P1030857_zps18tvhoqg.jpg.html]

[URL=http://s1171.photobucket.com/user/ATsawyer/media/Crosscut%20saw%20and%20axe/IMG_5707_zpshh57kes4.jpg.html]

[URL=http://s1171.photobucket.com/user/ATsawyer/media/Crosscut%20saw%20and%20axe/P1030880_zpsdv0cxyje.jpg.html]
 
phantomknives said:
jeez trail, where were you? never heard of that many trees like that here, looks like south.. west? virginia
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Ramsey's Draft, near West Augusta. There is an old growth forest in that wilderness that passed through several generations of conservationists before being turned over to the Forest Service. The hemlocks were huge, but now dead from the woolly adelgid, and falling. Still a lot of other huge and healthy trees in there.
 
I finished setting the cutters on this saw this afternoon. Now I just need to get a couple more coats of tung oil on the handles before I put it together and test it out.

First thing I learned is that .018 is a lot of set. I gave up hammering and starting wrenching the set. Made do with a crescent wrench.
Wrenching%20the%20set.jpg


I found I made fastest time by wrenching slightly past .018 and then hammering back to the spider. I'm anal about having absolutely no 'tick' in the spider before I move on to the next teeth. Are others filers this particular or can you get away with being .001 off?
I'm using the end of a heavy (3.4 lb.) cold chisel as my anvil and setting the teeth with a small - maybe 10 oz. - ball peen. In the past I've used an un-handled large ball peen hammer head as my anvil. I think anything with sufficient mass and a slightly rounded face would do fine.
Hammering%20the%20set.jpg


Testing the set with the spider I found that this saw was so small at the tip that it was difficult to fit my spider on it. The very last tooth couldn't be measured with the spider. The first 5 or 6 teeth were measured with one leg of the spider set on a tooth that hadn't been set yet. I couldn't have done this if I had started from the big end of the saw. The last tooth I set with a straight edge once I'd set 3 teeth in front of it.
Testing%20the%20set.jpg


If you look at the top tooth of the saw in this image you can see the set of the teeth and the height of the raker.
Set%20and%20raker.jpg


Here are the teeth set. The white flashes are the rakers.
Teeth%20set.jpg


Here's my home made spider and a small pocket stone I used to remove the burr off the teeth while filing. I love the little stone. It fit between the teeth nicely. I'd like to grab a few more of these tiny stones. I see Council has a nice little hard Arkansas stone like this but they really beat you up on shipping.
Spider%20and%20stone.jpg
 
i need me a spider or two, and i don't have a proper rake; do have a large saw set, and man small ones; sometimes soon all my small hands saws are going to get hacked on :D

also have two large saw vises - SCORE. eventually they'll get a go...

great job on the sharpening. looks super good.

eventually i'll master that :D be better to see someone do it, and to be sure have all the tools, but in a pinch...
 
Square_peg said:
I finished setting the cutters on this saw this afternoon. Now I just need to get a couple more coats of tung oil on the handles before I put it together and test it out.

First thing I learned is that .018 is a lot of set. I gave up hammering and starting wrenching the set. Made do with a crescent wrench.
Wrenching%20the%20set.jpg


I found I made fastest time by wrenching slightly past .018 and then hammering back to the spider. I'm anal about having absolutely no 'tick' in the spider before I move on to the next teeth. Are others filers this particular or can you get away with being .001 off?
I'm using the end of a heavy (3.4 lb.) cold chisel as my anvil and setting the teeth with a small - maybe 10 oz. - ball peen. In the past I've used an un-handled large ball peen hammer head as my anvil. I think anything with sufficient mass and a slightly rounded face would do fine.
Hammering%20the%20set.jpg


Testing the set with the spider I found that this saw was so small at the tip that it was difficult to fit my spider on it. The very last tooth couldn't be measured with the spider. The first 5 or 6 teeth were measured with one leg of the spider set on a tooth that hadn't been set yet. I couldn't have done this if I had started from the big end of the saw. The last tooth I set with a straight edge once I'd set 3 teeth in front of it.
Testing%20the%20set.jpg


If you look at the top tooth of the saw in this image you can see the set of the teeth and the height of the raker.
Set%20and%20raker.jpg


Here are the teeth set. The white flashes are the rakers.
Teeth%20set.jpg


Here's my home made spider and a small pocket stone I used to remove the burr off the teeth while filing. I love the little stone. It fit between the teeth nicely. I'd like to grab a few more of these tiny stones. I see Council has a nice little hard Arkansas stone like this but they really beat you up on shipping.
Spider%20and%20stone.jpg
Click to expand...

Looks like a lot of work. Cool picture\little how to picture set.
 
Bladite said:
...... be better to see someone do it, and to be sure have all the tools, but in a pinch...
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That's part of why I posted this. You can learn just from watching the Warren Miller videos or Dan Dueweke's video. And you don't need a lot of expensive equipment to get started. You just need a combination jointer/raker gauge, a spider and a vise. Even a basic bench vise will do if you have a runoff stand.
 
Woodcraft said:
Looks like a lot of work. Cool picture\little how to picture set.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I probably have 10 or 11 hours into this little saw.

Clean
Straighten
Joint
Shape rakers
Peen rakers
File rakers
Sharpen cutters
Set cutters

It is a lot of work but when you pull a freshly sharpened saw it will amaze you. They cut fast!
 
Square_peg said:
Thanks. I probably have 10 or 11 hours into this little saw.

Clean
Straighten
Joint
Shape rakers
Peen rakers
File rakers
Sharpen cutters
Set cutters

It is a lot of work but when you pull a freshly sharpened saw it will amaze you. They cut fast!
Click to expand...

I have been looking at/for a single man.
 
You can find them on ebay or at 2nd hand/antique stores. You can likely get a nice saw for under $100. But the real value in a saw is the sharpening. Good filers charge $25/foot and they are basicly giving away their labor at that rate. A badly damaged saw will cost much more than that.
 
Square_peg said:
You can find them on ebay or at 2nd hand/antique stores. You can likely get a nice saw for under $100. But the real value in a saw is the sharpening. Good filers charge $25/foot and they are basicly giving away their labor at that rate. A badly damaged saw will cost much more than that.
Click to expand...

I have had a chance to pick up a couple lately locally. I always seem to find saws and scythes when I am out looking for other stuff.
I may grab one next time I am out. It does not look like an easy task. My axe sharpening is pretty utilitarian. This looks like a cut above.
 
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