New Saws

[RichardS]

Hmmm, settled down tonight to start off on the first of 8 wardrobe doors. 8 mortise & tenon joints per door. All cut by hand in American Black Walnut.

I have no problem chopping mortises out by hand. It's very therapeutic.

However, the tenons are a different matter. A nice sharp new saw would speed this process up no end....

Flipped open the Axminster catalogue, skipped over the Lie-Nielsens (I wish I'd thought of this whilst I was in the States a couple of weeks ago), Victor dovetail ripcut appears to be what I want.

But, for the price of that I can get 2 or 3 Japanese pattern saws, and I know a lot of people swear by these.

Anyone any suggestions on which ones to go for? Accuracy is important to me....

thx

-- Richard Sampson

email me at richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk

[Jerry Built]

Anything of reasonable quality properly sharpened is fine. There's a lot of crap talked about brands. I'd be inclined to go for a longer saw if you see one you like.

J.B.

[RichardS]

This is for fine work - dovetail / small tenon size is ideal for my purposes.

I've since reworked my plan and set up a couple of jigs for hogging off the bulk of the tenon waste with a router - perhaps not the classical technique for tenons but it's quick (got 64 of them to cut in total) and produces nice flat surfaces.

I'm going to give these Japanese saws a go for some other joints and see what the results are like - longer term plans involve a bandsaw when I get more workshop space sorted out (ie bigger shed!).

First door complete (bar finishing), 7 more to go, missus is dead impressed with the results!

thanks

-- Richard Sampson

email me at richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk

[John Forbes]

Japanese for me every time - I find the tiny kerf (1/3 the width of my tenon saw's kerf) makes like much easier both for starting the cuts at the right place and for letting you tell more quickly when you're going off course with your cut.

An alternative is a cheap gents saw with the set removed by judicious hammering. If this cuts too slowly for you then remove (by file) every other tooth.

John Forbes