Custom Saw

[scottg]

Here is a short story of a saw
 My friend Russ was digging though a junk shop. Well the guy had saws. Backsaws. The worst kind!! Plywood flat as a plank handle, thin wimpy back.
 Basically your Wallmart quality backsaw.
 So he asks the guy how much?
Guy says 3 bucks.  Russ is thinking not really very interested.
  Guy pops up, OK I got a dozen, how about 20 bucks, all in?
 So Russ took them. Got them home and realized no way could I have a worse saw than this.
  But there was one thing.
All spring steel rolled nowdays, comes from a single mill in Germany. The last spring steel rolling mill.  So whether you buy a sheet of blue spring from Mcmaster-Carr, a K-mart saw or a $400 Lie-Neilsen or a totally hand made Wensloff saw,  all the spring steel is the same stuff.
  The difference is the quality of the handle and workmanship in general.
 
 Well Russ sent the saws out to 8 or 10 guys. "Lets see what you can do with this", he said.
 So far, I think I am the only guy to do anything with one.

 Here is what he sent, lovely as it is.  But it does have a .028" German spring steel blade, good as any.

 

 I made up a handle pattern. I don't copy.  But I did draw some of the inspiration from an early Henry Disston saw of the 1840's.  One of Henry's first saws.
 I cut out one for me and another for Russ from black walnut wood.
 I decided to do a 1/2 back saw.
 Halfbacks were very popular before the civil war. You had a saw that could cut a wide plank or panel,  and yet 1/2 of the saw had a substantial back so you could do accurate joints and such. Kind of a marriage. Neither quite as good as either, but then a guy could get by with one saw in a pinch.
 Since they didn't sell many, well, they are rare as hen's teeth now and command heavy money.  I knew I was never going to have an original, but then mine is custom made one-of-a-kind in an original pattern that is also one of a kind, so I ain't bitchin.

 Roughed out. This is the original "too thin" steel back.

 

 Why I did it.

 

 Oh, I bent a sheet of brass and soldered it to the original steel back so now I have a beefy thick back that will actually work as a saw.
   yours Scott

[john k]

I'm wondering what makes these saws awful?  The handle, a whippy blade?  Workmanship?  Does it cut or did you reset the teeth?  Your finished saw looks great as a  half back and with the much curvier handle.  How much time in that handle? 

[Papaw]

And it has a NIB!!

That'll get you comments, Scott!

[64longstep/Brian]

That came out nice.....

[Branson]

I'm wondering what makes these saws awful?  The handle, a whippy blade?  Workmanship?  Does it cut or did you reset the teeth?  Your finished saw looks great as a  half back and with the much curvier handle.  How much time in that handle?

The usual suspects.  The steel is the same (thank you for pointing that out, Scott!) but everything else is poor.  No saw (except maybe Nielsons or Tyzak) is truly sharp from the factory.  The handles are not, in modern parlance, ergonomic.  The backs are too thin to do much good.

Scott's is a masterpiece, and you can bet he made it sharp.

[Branson]

Scott, that is a real beauty!  Reading about the spring steel all coming from the same factory made my day.  I have some of the modern backsaws that I couldn't bring myself to toss, and this gives me an idea of what can be done with them.  The half back has long interested me.  I just might try that out while I'm at it.

[Nolatoolguy]

WOW, thats a neat looking saw. Sure shes got that great feel in your hand to. Not like the ones they sell today at the big box stores.

[scottg]

Scott, that is a real beauty!  Reading about the spring steel all coming from the same factory made my day.  I have some of the modern backsaws that I couldn't bring myself to toss, and this gives me an idea of what can be done with them.  The half back has long interested me.  I just might try that out while I'm at it.

Thanks Guys
  Yup, same stock. Just size the saw to the thickness of stock you have, and you'll be gold.
Also scraper stock is all same never mind. Lop some up into scrapers, I do.

 Its a funny thing about making your own tools. I can sharpen any tool I like as sharp as I like.
 Have been able to forever now. 
 I never get a whole bunch out and marathon sharpen as sharp as I can, like I used to do once. 
 Whats the point of that?
   Rust will have its way with your ever-so-fragile edge before you get to all of them anyway.
 
     So I sharpen exactly what I need, when I need it. That's it.
 I also try to only sharpen as much I need for any particular job.
  I can take them all the way to the limit, but that is a waste for ordinary well behaved wood.
  When the wood is terrible to work, but extraordinarily beautiful, that is when you give your all to an edge.
 Otherwise you are wasting your time making tools sharper than you really need.

You always have to do what the wood wants. What you want is secondary.
  Closing your eyes and brain and shoving straight ahead will get you nothing but heartache over and over,
  until you finally stop, look at the wood closely,
try a few different attack angles whether they are comfortable for you or not,
 and find the way the wood wants to be worked.
 
 Just like a girl, it'll let you have your way, only if you let it have its way, first.
       
 yours Scott

[Branson]

I've got some amens here, Scott.   

Saws that have become useless or broken make great scrapers!  You can grind them into shapes that match the work, and you can easily duplicate odd contours and moldings.

Sharpening...  Um, yes.  I'm glad to see someone else makes things "... only sharpen as much I need for any particular job."  Seems to me that a lot people waste a lot of time polishing an edge like a Samurai sword, spending more time sharpening than they do working.

On the best days, I sharpen the chisels I've used, sometimes at the end of the day, more often  I leave them out and sharpen at the beginning of the next day.  It's a nice (and useful) rhythm of working. 

"You always have to do what the wood wants. What you want is secondary."

Yep.  And not just carpentry, but blacksmithing as well.  I see it as a three way conversation, a kind of partnership.  You want what you want.  The tools let you know what they will do, how they will do with the material, and the material lets you know what it will accept.  A matter of team work.  Horsing a project, not listening to the tool or the material always produces a poor result, if any, and a lot of frustration.

[BruceS]

How did you redrill the blade for the new screws. ??

[scottg]

Seems to me that a lot people waste a lot of time polishing an edge like a Samurai sword, spending more time sharpening than they do working.

 A great many people have not reliably conquered putting a working edge on anything.
So they buy expensive stones and gadget galore and spend untold hours futzing around.
When its actually easy to learn!
 Its not limp wristed pansy work, its actual work.   But hey, its over quickly!

 For some, they catch on so slow, they develop a hobby of pure sharpening. (not that there's anything wrong with that). 
    For one guy I know, it has become his life!! He sharpens and then tests for weeks and takes microscopic pictures for proof!!  There is no question no one on earth prepares a sharper edge than Mr Brent Beach.   He truly does know exactly how far any particular piece of steel can be sharpened.
 
 And yet, not a cutting board or 5 plank spice rack, like you made in jr high shop, is forthcoming from his shop.

 Me, I make things. I would rather have a new custom saw or whatever.
  I sharpen because I have to.
  After you have shaved hair comfortably, and laid yourself open to the bone a few times, with the slightest slip, I see no attraction for trying to see how sharp I can make a tool beyond that.
 
  I am looking to get some work done myself. So I sharpen for a couple/three minutes all in, (when needed) for the average chisel or plane blade. 
 I penned an article called Sharp Enough, about 25 years ago, for Knife World magazine.
I still stick to the same philosophy, even now.

 Oh, Bruce, in a word, cobalt.
Cobalt drills go through spring steel just fine.
  (Well carbide does too, but its ridiculously brittle and you break too many. )
  Regular HS drill bits will drill spring too, but its mortal hard on them. 
 So be prepared to resharpen after every couple holes.     
  yours Scott

[rusty]

>  (Well carbide does too, but its ridiculously brittle and you break too many. )

But they are cheap ;P

I keep a throwaway set in my tool bucket. The fellow I work with used to zing me, 'we have rotory hammer drills, why do you carry around crappy masonary bits?' ...I just smile and mumble...

One day he stripped out a stainless screw.....
He spent 15 minutes trying to drill it out with an ordinary drill bit...
Several drill bits in fact....
The screw barely noticed....stainless is like that,
the more you annoy it by drilling it or wacking it, the harder it gets..

So I showed him a secret...

[Stoney]

Alright ScottG beautiful work and I agree about sharping to much.