"New" Saw

[Harbo]

I bought a Crown saw having read that it was FWW's "Best Buy" but was not very happy with it?
Following David C's advice I filed down the kerf but still not OK, especially having handled Rob's (Woodbloke) LN saws - the Crown saw felt really clunky!

So after a few hours work with bandsaw and rasps on an off-cut of spalted beech:

Still not a LN, but a much better feel to it (I copied the shape from an old saw of mine).
I used my collection of cheapo Workshopheaven, Dick's & my 1 Auriou.
You certainly get what you pay for - the Auriou which is a grain 13 (fine) removed wood faster and finer than the coarser cheaper ones and was the one I kept going back to.

Rod

 

[DaveL]

Rod,

I do like that.

I have a few old saws I bought to practise sharpening on, before I need to sharpen the nice Alf supplied ones. I might just try making a handle as well. :roll:

 

[Paul Chapman]

Very nice, Rod.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[Harbo]

Dave - the hardest part I found was cutting out the slot for the brass back - perhaps some of our saw experts can give some advice?
I carefully mortised it out after I cut the blade slot - with hindsight perhaps should have cut the slot last?

Rod

 

[Philly]

Lovely job, Rod!
Philly

 

[Evergreen]

Harbo

Nice handle!

When I rehandled my old tenon saw, I took Alf's advice and cut the slot for the saw blade first i.e. before I did any shaping at all. That way, if it all goes horribly wrong, you haven't wasted any time in shaping a piece of wood that ends up in your "odds and ends" bin!

Mike Wenzloff's websight has a lot of useful information on how to cut the mortise and general shaping of the handle.

Regards.

 

[JesseM]

Very nice handle! I don't think I've ever heard of spalted beech before. It looks pretty nice.

 

[newt]

The colour of that handle makes a real nice change. A really nice job.

 

[Harbo]

JesseM - Spalted beech is discolouration caused by fungal attack - found on other timbers too. Here's a vase I made a while ago even more figured:-

I think the saw Alf made did not have a back? The trouble with cutting the slot first is that you have to clamp it to prevent the slot opening when you cut out for the back. Also I had to cut quite deep to accommodate the blade profile - more than I wanted as I would have liked to reduce the amount of rear end overhang?

I could not find MikeW's website only his Trade one - no instructions on that?

Rod

 

[Evergreen]

Harbo

Here is the link http://www.wenzloffandsons.com/saws/kits/index.html.

Mike's trade website is the one you want. Look in the section on "saw kits" and you'll see both a PDF file and a truly inspirational slide show on shaping handles.

That's a beautiful vase, by the way.

Regards.