Filing in new teeth on a Disston No.77 no-set.

[Daryl Weir]

Well this saw had been hanging around for a while waiting for me to get to it. I purchased 4 very nice saws from Ambidex last fall and was given one. The No.77 is the second saw from the top in the second picture.





It needed a new tooth line as 3 of the teeth had been broken off down to the bottom of the gullet and one was about half way gone. The cause..........someone had set the teeth. Not unusual on any of the no-set saws.





This required grinding all the old teeth off to start with and then jointing with a file to clean it up. The edge already had a good breast to it so I didn't have to establish that.



and starting to file new ones in using my gauges to start the gullet.







After I got the new teeth in I started bevel filing the first side. This was done at a pretty severe 45° but that's what Disston recommended in one of their 1907 books.



When all was said and done this is what I ended up with. With a 45° bevel you won't create a 60° included angle on the teeth. If it had been filed with a sloped gullet this could be achieved but would not create any bevel on the back of the tooth. Disston clearly said to file with saw held vertically and the file at 90° to the side of the plate. These no-sets will cut sweeter when there is a bevel on the front and back of each tooth.

[Woodbuster]

My goodness! that thing looks sharp. I'm still learning how to sharpen these things. Nice looking saw, sir.

[eg54string]

Thanks for the pictures and the post. Great looking work. Eric.

[Window Guy]

Daryl .......... Another great filing job, you make it look so easy. All ways enjoy seeing your work, methods and tutorials. The gauges you are talking about is that for a re - toother or are you doing all by hand there ?? It is early and I am not awake yet so maybe I am not seeing properly
.

Thanks for sharing !

Steve

[JimReed@Tallahassee]

That is just incredible work. You are a saw MACHINE!

[doobes]

Daryl Weir said:

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Maybe it's the lighting, but that plate almost looks like it's laminated.

[RickW]

..."and starting to file new ones in using my gauges to start the gullet."
Could you please give us a better description these gauges?
Rick W

[Washita Red]

I just got out of a sharpenig class, and I can file off the teeth and make a rip saw.

However, as I understand, you have created a crosscut saw, right?

I got completely lost on the crosscut flem (spelling?) angles. Could you show more action and help me to learn this? I can see them in your pictures, file every other point one way; then file the others every other point. But I just can't seem to understand flem angles at 90 degees??? Can you or anybody help me understand?

[Hoody]

I have no doubt that this is the best illustrated thread I've ever seen on this or any woodworking forum.

Thank you, Sir..!

[MarvW]

The 90 degrees Daryl refers to is with the file held perpendicular to the blade instead of lowering the file handle downward or tilting the saw vise when filing sloped gullets.

The 45 degree fleam angle that Daryl used on this particular saw is accomplished by angling the file handle toward the handle end of the saw. This is how the fleam angle on any crosscut saw is created as apposed to rip teeth that are usually filed straight across and not angling the file handle either way right or left.

A 45 degree fleam angle is considered to be an extreme angle. We usually file the fleam angle at a lesser angle, like 25 degrees, as an example. But because the No.77 was designed to runs with zero set, the the added fleam angle will be a bit more grabby than a 25 degree fleam, or perhaps I should say, has more of a slicing action as compared to a 25 degree angle. It's a little like grinding your chisel at more of an angle.

His saw should produce a very smooth cut surface, however, it would normally be expected to dull sooner because the front cutting edge of the teeth are thinner, but, Disston made the saw plate harder so as to compensate for the thinner edge.

Daryl does a most beautiful job of filing. He is at the top of the list of the best filers of our day.