Handsaw build

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Now that my giftee will not have his surprise spoiled, I thought I would post a little build thread, a pair of hand saws I crafted for Christmas.

First, supplies: I have used saw blades from Dominic at "Two Guys in a Garage" a couple of years ago, so it was no great dilemma where to get supplies this time. They provide quality stuff at a very reasonable price, and I generally consider vendors here on WoodNet to be friends. This time I also got folded brass backs and my saw nuts.

My secret Santa assignment placed a helpful mention in an earlier thread about not having a good dovetail saw, so I undertook to make one. And, being overly ambitious, I ordered components to make a carcase saw with it. On the previous couple of saws I have made, I have used slotted backs, so the new folding brass backs were a learning curve, but also a pleasant surprise in the end.

I knew that I liked the thicker handle of the Rob Cosman saw I had purchased when I took his class and learned to cut dovetails myself. So, I elected to use inch thick material prior to shaping. Also, I looked at several different images as I thought about the type of wood to use. While I had not set out to reproduce anything from Rob‘s site, I happened to notice that he offers a white oak handle. I found it surprisingly pretty, not being a fruit wood, nor an exotic. I have a stash of white oak on hand that was felled on my own property and sawn on my request, and I thought this would wake a gift more personal.

Here again, Dominic‘s website is very helpful. I chose the handle template that I preferred, printed full-size copies, and placed it on my wood blanks with spray adhesive, orienting according to grain direction.

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Next I used some Forstner bits to rough out the tight curves. I do not have all of the size increments that the template specifies, so I used those that were close, knowing I could use the bandsaw and rasp to fair these curves later.

   

   

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Now we are on to the bandsaw, and with an open handle it's relatively easy to get close to your finished shape (closed handles take a jig saw, scroll saw or coping/fret saw to cut the enclosed area).

   

   

Now we have sorta' handles!

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It's time to begin the shaping:

In this part of the forum we know that the right tool makes all the difference. Here I am most gratefu for having purchased the saw handle-maker's rasp from TFWW several years ago. It's a sweet rasp for this particular job.

   

Next I cut the slot for the saw plate. For this you need a saw with a blade of a similar thickness, or you need to use the plate you purchased, which is more difficult and may require some sharpening of said plate and tricky work holding. Fortunately, I had a saw for the job:

   

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Next, the tricky business of holes for saw nuts:

I marked the center of these holes with an awl, then used a Forstner to barely start the hole, so that I could still use the center mark for the smaller bit that would house the barrel of the nut, then come back and deepen the forester hole for the head of the nut.

   

   

   

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I did not take pictures of the process putting holes in the saw plates. In short, I put the saw plates into their positions in the handle slots. You will likely have to cut an angle of steel off of the plate to fit the handle well.  Again, no pictures. I used a Dremel with cut-off wheel as per Dom's instructions, cutting partway through and snapping off the waste, then filing/grinding the new edge smooth.  You can see this angle in the later pictures when I apply the brass back.

Then, I used my carbide Czech Edge awl to scratch/mark the hole perimeters, removed the plates and used a Sharpie to place a center dot by eye. I then punched the center of each hole with a metal punch, took them to the drill press and drilled them out. The 0.20 dovetail plate drilled like butter, but the thicker carcase plate took some work. I lubricated with oil as I went.

Now we have functional marriage of plate and handle!

   

   

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Now it was time to refine handle shapes and the pitiful lambs tongues and chamfers. To make this more comfortable I used several workholding techniques. Good old hand screws are probably underutilized in my shop (but my whole shop is hugely underutilized!).

   
Prior to the events of the above picture, I had carefully affixed a mirror image template to the opposite side of my handle so I could have the lines to guide my shaping. I tried my darnedest to figure out a simple way to print a mirror image, but I could not - and ended up doing it the hard way, retracing lines through paper by hand before affixing it to the wood.

I entered this next part with fear and trepidation. Dom's site tutorial makes it look easy, but I was skeptical. He includes a shim with saw plate orders. You need to make a simple jig to hold the folded brass, carefully knock in the shim to open one end of the back, then gradually tap your plate into place with pieces of wood and some type of mallet. I additionally used a spring clamp here as a third hand. (Note the trimmed corner of the saw plate referenced earlier.) In the end, having approached it cautiously, it wasn't a bad process!

   
Ignore the extra holes in the plate! This plate was from a prior order and had pre-drilled holes from a time I thought I would want a different handle style.

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I wanted the plates and backs together before I approached the next part, so I could determine how deep these mortises needed to be. Having the backs on, but the saw plates not inserted to full depth (not necessary, and per Dom's site, not really recommended to fully seat them either), I could now mark the mortise depths. This I did, then proceeded to drill them with some gimlet bits and excavate with both a wide very flat chisel for the walls and then a very narrow mortising chisel for the floor, paring directly in from the end. I did not have enough hands to really capture that on film.

   

   
(Ignore the huge gaps in the dovetails on my bench! They were some of the first I ever made, with techniques I learned from the magazines and without having seen good work in the flesh.)

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Not shown in my pics is a lot of sanding of plates and backs to generate relatively clean and shiny pieces - though these are tools, and I did not have time to make mirrors, as well as sanding the handles to get most of the tool marks out (still a few if you look close). I also used chisels to put some bevels on the outside curves where handle meets plate, and to clean off bandsaw marks on tight inside corners.

Finally, the big reveal:

   

   

   

   

I finished with two quick light coats of Tru-Oil, followed by a too-soon trip to the Beall buffer (Tru-Oil wasn't fully dry, so I bought to clean off fuzz later).  I wanted these in the mail for Christmas.

What I liked best about the white oak handle I saw online was the ray flecks. On my handles the medullary rays show nicely on the portion against the palm, not really the larger "show faces."

I am really quite happy with the dovetail saw. Of course, a rip saw is easier to file/sharpen. I filed these after the pictures, and in my haste I messed up the hybrid crosscut pattern I was doing on the carcase saw. I fixed it a bit, but it really needs re-jointed and done again. So, I had to send apologies along with the saw. I hope the recipient can refile/sharpen it and enjoy the learning process. It does crosscut, but not as smoothly or aggressively as it should. I was almost too embarrassed to send it, but I built these to go together and I was slap out of time. I had long shifts coming at work and it was then or never if to arrive before the big day.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this. I love the build threads others have posted. I also hope it will inspire some of you to try this yourselves and give Dom some of your business. You'll get a premium saw for half or less than half you would pay the retail guys, and it will be built to your liking. Most of us enjoy the learning process too, right? Finally, there really is tremendous satisfaction in using a tool you made to then build your later projects. Heck, some of those pictures I posted are as much to show off the awls I built a few years ago as they are to show the saw build! :-)

[Stwood_]

Very nice