Travis Johnson
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Somehow I got away from the Honey Do List, managed to keep the sheep happy, got enough trees cut yesterday to make headway on another load of wood, so I figured a day in the shop was in order...or at least a portion thereof. I don't do many Pictures of a Project in Progress (PIP) but today as I resurrected a long stalled project...my from scratch presentation handsaw...I snapped some pictures as I worked. There are nothing great, but this saw is SLOWLY starting to shape up into a rather unique saw.
For those that don't know, this presentation saw is unique from the start in that it is made from stainless steel. The spine is also made from stainless steel and is TIG welded together for strength, but without question it won't ever rust! Just to add a little flare, I flared the spline upwards so it mated with the handle a little bit differently. The handle itself is a bit different too. It is made of Crab Apple and was a tree that my Great-Grandfather² planted over 150 years ago and harvested and sawn right on the family farm, so it has history.
Today I spent a lot of my time doing 3 things to this saw:
1. Sanding down the handle and then applying some cherry stain to it
2. Filing the teeth on the saw
3. Drilling holes for the screw-bolts
As anyone who knows, hand sanding apple is very laborious, but a few hours of doing that made the handle comfortable in my hand and I finally said enough was enough and put some stain to it.
As that dried I set up the stainless blade to have some teeth put in it. Most teeth are punched on a machine, but lacking that I decided to put teeth on this saw the really, really old school way. I had some triangle saw sharpening files and made my teeth by hand filing each tooth. It worked surprisingly well though each tooth isn't perfect by any means. I did have a saw setter so I did put some set into the teeth after I was done and then finally went back, refiled each tooth for sharpness and tried to make the teeth as perfect as I could.
Because hand filing steel can be boring and took a long time, I took the occasional break by drilling out the handle for the screw bolts. This is a three drill process and required micrometer accuracy to ensure the button heads are exactly flush with the handle of the saw. I have a few of these screw bolts already machined out and like the rest of the saw, its of stainless steel to prevent rusting.
Still a long ways to go, but just for fun here are some pictures of this very slow project.
For those that don't know, this presentation saw is unique from the start in that it is made from stainless steel. The spine is also made from stainless steel and is TIG welded together for strength, but without question it won't ever rust! Just to add a little flare, I flared the spline upwards so it mated with the handle a little bit differently. The handle itself is a bit different too. It is made of Crab Apple and was a tree that my Great-Grandfather² planted over 150 years ago and harvested and sawn right on the family farm, so it has history.
Today I spent a lot of my time doing 3 things to this saw:
1. Sanding down the handle and then applying some cherry stain to it
2. Filing the teeth on the saw
3. Drilling holes for the screw-bolts
As anyone who knows, hand sanding apple is very laborious, but a few hours of doing that made the handle comfortable in my hand and I finally said enough was enough and put some stain to it.
As that dried I set up the stainless blade to have some teeth put in it. Most teeth are punched on a machine, but lacking that I decided to put teeth on this saw the really, really old school way. I had some triangle saw sharpening files and made my teeth by hand filing each tooth. It worked surprisingly well though each tooth isn't perfect by any means. I did have a saw setter so I did put some set into the teeth after I was done and then finally went back, refiled each tooth for sharpness and tried to make the teeth as perfect as I could.
Because hand filing steel can be boring and took a long time, I took the occasional break by drilling out the handle for the screw bolts. This is a three drill process and required micrometer accuracy to ensure the button heads are exactly flush with the handle of the saw. I have a few of these screw bolts already machined out and like the rest of the saw, its of stainless steel to prevent rusting.
Still a long ways to go, but just for fun here are some pictures of this very slow project.