FILER GUIDE FOR HAND-SAWS

[Philip Davies]

That is a very nice looking appliance. I’m curious to know why you took so much material off when topping the teeth. When a saw has been badly sharpened, I charge more if I have to do more than 6 strokes, because then the teeth have to be evened out. One tooth will need several strokes, the next less.. You didn’t do that in your example. I top only to the lowest tooth so that there is a flat on each tooth, then file until the flat just disappears. If a saw has never been resharpened, usually each tooth gets no more than 3 passes. When I’ve done both sides, I peer at each tooth very closely, in case there is a barely visible flat still, which entails bobbing backwards and forwards to catch a minute reflection. Unless I missed something, you did not account for the fleam. I would encourage people to learn to sharpen, after all there are lots going, why buy a new one, save your better saws until you can do a satisfactory job on one that’s had a lifetime’s use,like this..This is a quality Disston, which I have done 3 times. But you must file every other tooth from one side, turn the saw round, and then do the others, remembering the angle, the fleam, is “mirrored”, as you would cut a pair of mitres. I usually file from handle to toe, as you did, which is wrong, I believe, but it helps to remember that the direction of the file stroke is towards the toe, from each side. The previous owner of this Disston didn’t know that, so he can never have been satisfied with his sharpening and would have tended to cut in a circle. I bought a file guide when I started, a plastic thing, one file fits all, mucked up my first saws, but it did indicate the fleam.