Elbow grease and sweat: resawing by hand

For the bottom of the drawer I currently build, I will use some 1/2 ship lapped pine boards like for my previous one. For my last drawer I used my table saw to resaw 1"1/2 board that I planed to get two 1/2" thick boards. At that time I tried to resaw by hand but got disappointed by the result so I turned to the table saw. This time I wanted to make everything by hand, even resawing, and I will not turn back to the table saw.

You may wondering why not to take a 3/4 board and plan it as it would be simpler. Well it would be simpler for sure but where would be the fun? Moreover it would cost me near to nothing to make these boards by hand and it will be a good training exercise to improve my resawing skills.

So here we go, I took my lumber, cut it in five 14" long pieces as at the end I need 10 boards, I marked the center line all around the boards and the fun began.

I used the usual well documented and explained process of sawing from one corner then turn the board etc, no need to explain this here as you can find all this in numerous blog posts and article on the web.

I tried to make use of two different saws, both well sharpened, to find out which one would be the best. The first one is a Canadian Disston D8, 10 tpi.

My Canadian D8...

...10 tpi.

The second one is a Disston D8, 5 1/2 tpi.

The D8 beast...

... with monster teeth.

After having saw the 4 first boards it is obvious that the two saws are very different.

First the Canadian D8. The blade is shorter and a bit less flexible, however it requires more effort to be pushed through the wood. 

On the other hand with the 5 1/2 D8, the blade is longer and more flexible what makes it, for me, harder to keep it on a straight line, but the cut is far more aggressive and requires less effort to be pushed through the wood what is helping down the line. That saw is going through like in butter!

The result I got while resawing were mixed, the best I could do is this:

Best result I could get...

...not bad but not a perfect saw line.

I guess I need more practice! Anyway after resawing the board I have to plan them flat and to the right thickness. This is what the end result looks, not bad.

A flat board, flat enough for a drawer bottom.

Now a little challenge... what is the plane that gives these nice thick shavings?

A bunch of nice thick shavings...

The answer will come in a future post!

Saw sharpening - First hands on experience

Few weeks ago I got my hands on a saw vise in correct condition but since then it was resting in my workshop waiting for some time for me to set it up and play with it. This weekend was the right moment.

I don't know exactly the brand of this vise but it is very similar looking to Wentworth saw vise.

This saw vise is looking like a Wentworth.

I made a simple wood support to fix it to my workbench at the desired height, low enough to allow me to look over it if standing up and high enough so I can sit on a stool to sharpen a saw.

My saw vise setup.

Before starting anything I read a lot of things regarding saw sharpening, from different sources, included some writings from Daryl Weir from who I got some really sharp saws.

In order to play safe my first try was a rip saw as crosscut saw teeth are more complex to sharpen. I selected a Disston D8 that I got for few bucks to play with.

Looking at it, it was clear and obvious that the teeth, while in good shape, were not of the same size at all so my first step was to use a file and a Veritas file holder for jointing the saw teeth.

Using the Veritas file holder for jointing the saw teeth.

After a dozen of strokes the teeth were showing a shiny flat tip.

Jointing the teeth to the same height.

That saw got 10 tpi to I selected a 6 inches X-slim taper file to sharpen it.
To set and control the file angle I used the Veritas saw file holder.

Before starting I set the saw blade so only a minimal part was protruding above the saw vise.

The saw blade set in the vise.

I started to stroke each other teeth from right to left (so from the heel to the tip), 3 strokes per teeth. It took me around 15 minutes to reach the saw tip. Then I switched the saw in the vise and did the same to the remaining teeth. Overall it took me 30 to 45 minutes to complete the whole blade.

Not easy to take a picture of the saw teeth!

After trying the saw I am pretty happy with it but I need more practice before trying to sharpen a crosscut saw. It was a nice experience and I have a bunch of backsaws that needs to be sharpened to improve my skills, much more fun ahead.
Some lessons learned while sharpening that saw was that first I prefer to do it standing on my feet so I can look to the saw from above. Second, a small level on the Veritas saw file holder would be a great addition as an easy way to visually check that it is handled correctly.

Vintage tools: Disston saws

In order to satisfy my insatiable vintage tools addiction (this is the problem my wife has diagnosed), I just got two very nice Disston vintage saws. As I do not feel capable yet (not yet) to handle saw restoration with filling, setting and sharpening I got these two the lazy way, already restored and ready for use.

First one is a D8, 28", 5½ ppi for rip cut...

Second one is a D8, 26", 12 ppi for cross cut.

I love these etches and I feel very lucky to be able to hold these saw from the 1896-1917 era in my hand, I feel like holding a piece of history.


I cannot wait to put these beast to work!