Dovetail Saw

[DMS]

My girlfriend is an amateur woodworker. She tends to prefer hand tools. She also tends to be kind of a cheap-skate . She is learning to cut dovetails. After tuning up her saw, I decided it was a POS, and decided I could do better... oh boy, why does everything seem easier before you start?

In any case, after a bit of a struggle, I think it turned out really well, and having done it, it really wasn't too hard.

 

[DaveInPA]

That's really nice looking. Has she seen it yet?

 

[itsme_Bernie]

Wow man! That is beautiful, and she'd be proud to use it...
I second Dave's question!

Bernie

 

[DMS]

Yeah, she's seen it, she was there while I was making it; In fact, I made her sand the handle because I was sick of working with wood

 

[12bolts]

Nice job!
Did you use an old saw blade for material?
If you used new stock how did you cut the teeth?

Cheers Phil

 

[DMS]

It's new material. It's 1095 high carbon steel sold as shim stock in a pre-tempered state. The nice thing is it comes in a variety of thicknesses, and the hardness is exactly what you want for a saw blade (high 40s to low 50s rockwell C scale). The teeth were cut by hand with a taper (triangular) file using a paper pattern to get the spacing right. Off the top of my head, I think I did 16tpi. The teeth are not perfectly even, but I was surprised how well it worked cutting them by hand.

 

[Tom Griffin]

Nice job on an unusual project.

Cutting the teeth by hand is actually better than machine cutting them. The variation in pitch keeps the saw from resonating when it's used, resulting in a smoother cut. Hand cut wood rasps are preferred by woodworkers for the same reason.

Tom