I've had this Veritas tenon saw for 4-5 years now, but I hardly ever use it. Its tooth line is 11" long and it is filed rip at 12 tpi. I reach for a $5 garage sale gents saw for dovetailing and other small work instead of the Veritas saw.
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| Veritas 12 tpi tenon saw |
Here's the problem I'm having. When sawing, I get about 6" of the tooth line into the wood and ... CHUNK! The saw stops dead. I had thought that maybe I had overset the teeth in that area, so I stoned them and verified that the set was not out of whack. The set was fine, but I still had the problem.
Well, I marked the area on the saw where the "CHUNK" was stopping the cut and took a closer look at the teeth and this is what I found.
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| Teeth marked in red are lower than the rest |
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| Two teeth not jointed. |
A test cut went much better than before. However, it still wasn't as smooth as it should be. I'm not getting the big "CHUNK" anymore, but this saw hops all over the place as I push it forward. I file my rip saws with 0° rake.
It could be that my first test cut was in oak. If I change my technique a little bit it gets better. At first I had the board straight up in the vise and tried beginning the saw cut on the far edge. The saw bounced all over, even with a very light grip. But if I lean the board away from me and saw the front edge of the end grain first, I get a smoother cut. I'll have to play with this some more. Maybe I'll use a Sellers trick and file the first inch or two of teeth with a more relaxed rake, which would ease the teeth into the cut. Time will tell.
Question - does LV offer saw sharpening services for their saws like LN does? I'll be watching this because I am having a problem with one of my rip saws.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen anything about Lee Valley sharpening services, but then again I might just have missed it. Sometimes what it takes is just a little time to look into the problem. I hope you can figure it out, that is, if you can fit it into the to-do list. :-)
DeleteSure sounds like a saw sharpening problem. Good news is when you figured it out, you will become a better sharpener. NO pun intended
ReplyDeleteBob, who still have the occasional saw sharpening boohoo's
The funny thing was that I thought absolutely that it was the set. It never occurred to me that it was something else. It really pays to take the time to investigate the problem.
DeleteWhen I get weird results on my sharpening, I often get out magnifying devices out to have a close look at the edge. It does not take much of a changes in angles to make a differences sometimes. VERY noticeable effects when sharpening drilling implements.
ReplyDeleteThe good news is you don't really forget it, you just keep rediscovering it :-)
Bob
The Veritas rip carcass saw is my workhorse...which is what I think you've got there. They sell a tenon saw but it's a big half back thing. I’ve come to find that it's impossible to do a good sharpening job in one pass - I need to lightly joint the whole length a couple more times, with lighter passes of the file triangular file, just taking the shiny tips off with a single stroke at the end. I used to think a light set saw was desirable but now find that it's too unforgiving to tiny abberations. A heavier set eliminates the problems I was having with snagging and friction.
ReplyDelete