I love hand saws, and I cannot afford them, so I find them for $5 - $7 in thrift shops and some from eBay, and have them sharpened, As yet to learn the skill I bought the Veritas Jointer/edger and the 8" file for it (also bought some other stuff from LV too).
I struck it lucky a few times with saws so far, the two best are a Disston D-23 (big wow you say?) straight back with an apple wood handle and 9 ppi, last made in
1928.Both blades have new sharpenings, the Disston has been used several times as such and the Simonds only one cross cut through a DF 4x4.
(digital caliper and metric conversion software)
Disston D-23 blade thickness at the butt: 0.037" or 0.94mm (MC: 0.9398mm) blade thickness at the tip: 0.027.5 or 0.70mm (MC: 0.6858mm) Set width at the butt, to both sides: 0.057" or 1.45mm (MC: 1.4478mm) Set width at the tip, to both sides: 0.048.5" or 1.24mm (MC: 1.2192mm) This blade actually tapers from thickness to thinness from back to tip...Anyone think it's from wear, or engineered that way?
Simonds #10-1/2 blade thickness at the butt: 0.038" or 0.97mm (MC: 0.9652mm) blade thickness at the tip: 0.035.5" or 0.85mm (MC: 0.889mm) Set width at the butt, to both sides: 0.062" or 1.58mm (MC: 1.5748mm) Set width at the tip, to both sides: 0.066" or 1.68mm (MC: 1.6764mm)
If anyone can apply this, the Disston cuts like a hot knife through butter, very sweetly and smoothly. Whereas the Simonds cuts like a disaster to be dealt with, it gets stuck, hard to start, very rough, with the new sharpening used once. Can anyone tell me why this is? I feel betrayed.