Handsaw sharpening

[Smoothjazz077]

I am looking to get some handsaws sharpened, and wanted to see if anyone had any recommendations on people they've used to sharpen their handsaws. Thanks

Scott

[professore]

I've sent a saw to our own MarvW for sharpening and can highly recommend, and I have purchased sharpened saws from enjuneer and Admiral. Daryl Weir also comes highly recommended also being a saw maker along with others.

[Mark Allen]

This might seem flippant but it's worth learning to do it yourself and the cost to get into it is relatively low. Start learning on saws with larger rip filed teeth, move to large crosscut, then take a stab at progressively smaller teeth. It's not as hard as it looks.

[Window Guy]

professore said:

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I've sent a saw to our own MarvW for sharpening and can highly recommend, and I have purchased sharpened saws from enjuneer and Admiral. Daryl Weir also comes highly recommended also being a saw maker along with others.

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+1 ........ I am trying to learn myself, yeah I have buggered up a couple but starting to get good results. Need to buy more files now. And by the way you can't beat Issac's ( Blackburn Tools ) saw gauge with the level it is fantastic.

Steve

[MarvW]

Thank you guys for the recommendations, but about six months ago, I announced my retirement from sharpening saws. It is true, what they say about all good things must come to an end.

[Mike Brady]

My view on hand saws is that you should learn to sharpen them if you are planning on using them. Its really no different than needing to know how to sharpen planes to use them successfully. Actually, saw sharpening is much less complicated and contentious than edge tool honing and requires relatively inexpensive equipment. The hitch is that it helps greatly to have someone spend a few hours with you helping with the basics of it. There are some good videos that come close to that experience. Ron Herman's is a great one.

Right now, files are a bit scarce, but they are out there. Read some of the threads about files and sources. Start with a big-tooth rip saw and learn to achieve consistently-shaped teeth. Don't sharpen a back saw until you can do a good job on a full-sized saw with no more than 10 points-per-inch. Don't do your best saws until you've practiced on junkers. Have fun!

[Window Guy]

MarvW said:

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Thank you guys for the recommendations, but about six months ago, I announced my retirement from sharpening saws. It is true, what they say about all good things must come to an end.

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Wow Marv I did not know that, that must have come when I went in the Hospital .

Wishing you well in your retirement, you deserve it.


Steve

[Bibliophile 13]

You can try Matt Cianci: The SawWright. He's got a 3-6 month turnaround, though.

I think that, more and more, we hand-tool users are going to have to learn to sharpen our own saws. I can't afford (in money or time) to send my saws out for professional sharpening, so I've just had to learn to do it myself. It's not a job I like doing, and I sure as heck wouldn't take money to sharpen anybody else's handsaw, but I can sharpen them to my own satisfaction. And they cut better after I sharpen them than they did before.

I also suspect that, if there's anybody out there who genuinely enjoys sharpening handsaws, he or she could pretty easily take in enough sharpening work to make a small living at it.

[Admiral]

Agreed, if one is using handsaws, they will get dull and the best option is to acquire the skill. It takes time, but once you get to the "ah-ha" moment of success, its pretty satisfying. If a saw is in good shape to begin with its not hard to do, get a guide and some files and go at it. More challenging is the full rehab of a badly sharpened saw where it hasn't been jointed in several sharpenings. I've gone as far as three tooth shaping filing passes on some saws to get them right, before the actual sharpening pass. But that is satisfying as well when you're done and the saw cuts like butter.

[enjuneer]

Here are the 'before' and 'after' shots of an old Spear & Jackson crosscut (I think!) saw that I just finished yesterday. The nose was chipped and the tooth line was in horrible shape. It was out of joint by at least 1/4" and there were three different tooth sizes. However, since it was a customer saw, I had to work with it. After giving up on jointing with a file, I just chopped off the whole tooth line on a stomp shear and started over. I refiled it as an 11 ppi crosscut saw.

I tried it out on a random piece of pine when it was done and learned that it was one of the smoothest cutting saws I'd ever used.

Before





And 'after'