As I was unpacking my tools for the Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event in Chicago this weekend, John Economaki from Bridge City Tools stepped up to my workbench with an astonishing piece of wood.
It was a narrow slice off the end of a dowel that was .004" thick. It was cut with a handsaw.
"I cut this with my new saw," Economaki said. "You ready for a rematch?"
Earlier this fall, he and I had a sawing contest to see who could make the thinnest crosscut (he won that contest; see the full story here). Economaki handed me the paper-thin slice and I knew two things: I didn't want a rematch, but I definitely wanted to see his new saw.
Turns out it is more than just a handsaw. It's a Japanese sawblade mounted in a frame that was topped with sliding tables. It is, in essence, a hand-powered table saw with sliding tables. Economaki calls it the Jointmaker Pro, and it's going to be available this summer (most likely June, Economaki said). 
In this photo, Economaki pulled away the stops so you can see what the cutting action looks like across the sloped blade.
Here are the particulars: The sawblade is mounted teeth-up in the frame of the Jointmaker. And the blade slopes up from the front of the tool to the rear. On top of the Jointmaker are two sliding tables – one on either side of the blade – that slide on dovetailed ways (no bearings, just a perfect fit).
Some of the controls are like a table saw: You raise and lower the blade with a crank, and you can bevel the blade left and right. To make common cuts, the Jointmaker Pro comes with a series of stops that you can set for the particular bevel angles. 
Look familiar? The Jointmaker Pro has controls similar to a table saw. And as a bonus it bevels both left and right.
The two sliding tables can be moved in tandem at any angle between 0° to 47° by securing the Jointmaker Pro's wooden fence across them. Then you simply secure your work on the table with a couple very clever hold-downs and – zip – push the work over the blade.
The slope of the 28-tpi crosscut blade (a rip blade is available) cuts the work with surprisingly little effort. But how much wood can you cut with a human-powered table saw? Economaki said you can cut stock up to 5" wide and 1-1/2" thick. Thick stock requires a lot more strokes against the blade, but it's easy (I tried it).
What is most surprising about the tool is the resulting cut. It is the cleanest sawcut I've ever seen, whether by hand or power. Economaki made dozens of different kinds of cuts during the hand-tool event for dovetails, tenons, half-laps and bridles – and all them were flawless from the saw.
At the end of the show, he made a series of compound miters, and they went together with an air-tight fit.
Economaki said the idea for the tool came to him during a sleepless night.
"I began by putting a Japanese saw blade upside down in a vise," he said. "I made a cut by pushing the work over the blade, and the light went on."
The Jointmaker Pro will cost $1,195 retail, Economaki said, but there will be an introductory price of $995.
"It costs 10 times that of a good dozuki," he said. "Yet you get perfect results."
— Christopher Schwarz
I've never fully understood how the U.S. Postal Service works – beyond the fact that you put an envelope in a slot here and it arrives somewhere else. This week, I don't expect any enlightenment on that mystery.
The Spring 2008 issue of Woodworking Magazine mailed out from St. Cloud, Minn., on March 17. I received my copy at my Kentucky home on Monday. Readers in New Mexico and Virginia have also gotten it, but readers in Indiana (and Australia) have not.
So the bottom line is that the magazine is still in transit to places both near and far. We're grateful for your patience with our first issue; I think you'll find it worth the wait. And if there turns out to be a problem with your subscription in the end, we'll definitely make it right.
To that end, I spent this morning enhancing one of the articles in the Spring 2008 Issue called "Understanding Western Backsaws." I converted it to a pdf and added some bookmarks and interesting external links to the story.
So to tide you over until your copy arrives in the mail, please click the link below to download the article. WesternBacksaws2.pdf (1.9 MB)Also, here is the publication schedule for the rest of 2008. After shifting around some dates, our manufacturing department has now cast these in stone (as opposed to Jell-O).
Summer 2008 issue: Starts mailing to subscribers the week of May 5.
Fall 2008 issue: Starts mailing to subscribers the week of July 14.
Winter 2008 issue: Starts mailing to subscribers the week of Nov. 24.
Kind regards,
Christopher Schwarz, editor
I'm always looking for little tricks to improve dovetailing, especially the part I dislike: transferring the tails' locations to the pin board.
Sawmaker Mike Wenzloff stumbled across this interesting short entry in William Fairham’s book “Woodwork Joints, How they are Set Out, How Made and Where Used” (available for free download here at the most awesome Project Gutenberg). After describing how some woodworkers use a knife or a saw to transfer the marks, Fairham writes:
“Other workers prefer a pounce-bag instead of a saw. A pounce-bag consists of a piece of fairly open woven muslin filled with a mixture of French chalk and finely-powdered whiting; the muslin is tied up with a piece of thin twine like the mouth of a flour sack. All that is necessary is to place the timber in position and bang the bag on the top of the saw-cuts, when sufficient powder will pass through the bag and down the saw kerf to mark the exact positions of the lines.”
So it was off to the store to buy some pantyhose.
But first, we had to find whiting and French chalk. The French chalk was fairly easy – it's essentially powered talc. You can find it at the fabric stores where it is used for marking cloth. Or you can go to the pharmacy and buy baby powder, which is talc and fragrance (essence du hinder l'enfant).
Whiting was harder for us to find. It is calcium carbonate (ground chalk) and is used in preparing artist paints these days. After a couple of clueless looks and pointless phone calls, Managing Editor Megan Fitzpatrick found some at an artist supply store.
And then the muslin. Surprisingly, we're a yard short on muslin in the workshop right now. So Megan suggested I buy pantyhose for the bag. I balked a bit. So she picked out a nice pair of L'eggs Everyday knee-highs (color: nude with a sheer toe), paid the man and we were off to the races.
Now before I ruined a nice new pair of knee-highs, I decided to try some other fabrics. First up: some old surgical rags that former Senior Editor David Thiel brought into the shop about 10 years ago. It actually was too coarse and the powder went flying.
Then I tried an athletic sock (I use them to transport my block planes to shows and classes). Bingo. It deposited a fine dusting of powder when I whacked the sock on the dovetails.
As I was experimenting with the different whacking forces and whacking vectors, I cleaned off the pin board after each whack with a little water and a rag. And that water seemed to make the powder even easier to see.
Then I tried marking some knife lines and just whacking those (seeing knife lines in walnut is really hard for me). That worked, too. The resulting pins were easy to see and to saw. I'm going to have to experiment with the technique some more, but it's another thing to tuck into your bag of tricks (or your nude, sheer-toe knee-highs).
— Christopher Schwarz
When it comes to saws, aspiring sawyers have two basic questions: What saws should I own to build furniture? And where can I get them?
During the last couple years I've been teaching a few classes on sawing, with more classes on the horizon. So I've been asked these two questions a lot. Below is my basic set, which is based on the furniture I build (casework, chairs, tables, general stuff), my personal preferences (I like longer, coarser saws) and established historical practice.
In other words, if you have a problem with my list, make you own list and post it below in the comments. Perspectives from other sawyers are useful and interesting. 
1. Crosscut handsaw: I like an 8-point crosscut handsaw for breaking down rough stock and general dimensioning of material. It cuts quickly (yea!), and the resulting surface is easy enough to clean up on a shooting board. Some woodworkers like 12-point saws, but I think they are slow and the resulting surface isn't significantly cleaner. My personal saw is a 24"-long panel saw (most handsaws are 26" long). It's a private-label saw made by Disston & Sons for an old Boston hardware store.
2. Ripsaw: I don't rip a lot by hand, but when I do, I want to be done with it. So I like a coarse ripsaw. The one shown in the photo is a 6-point Disston D-8. I also have a Wenzloff & Sons 5-point saw. Both are good workers. Some day I'll be man enough to use something even coarser.
3. Tenon saw: I have a few tenon saws. I prefer a saw that is about 10 points, though saws that are as fine as 13 points are OK by me (as long as the rake isn't significantly relaxed). Tenon saws start at 12" long, though I recommend the longer ones. Shoot for 14" at least; they make them as long as 19", which are surprisingly easy to wield. All tenon saws should be filed with rip teeth. They are designed to rip tenon cheeks.
4. Carcase saw: This is the backsaw I use more than any other. I like something that is 12 points to 14 points, filed crosscut, and about 14" long. The long sawplate helps improve my accuracy. The carcase saw shown in the photo is a sweet Wheeler, Madden & Clemson XLCR saw.
5. Dovetail saw: This is perhaps the most personal saw, so ignore my recommendation completely. If you like a 23-tooth Japanese crosscut dozuki, stick with it. Or a hacksaw. It doesn't matter. I like a 15-point Western saw with rip teeth. Shown is my Lie-Nielsen progressive-pitch saw, which has 15 points at the toe and about 9 at the heel. This is a love-it-or-leave-it saw for most people, so I recommend you try before you buy.
The names of saws are confusing. The types of saws overlap with one another in size and tooth configuration. I'd ignore the names in the catalogs and just buy them based on their specifications. It's much less confusing that way. Also, I use a lot of other specialty saws, including a flooring saw, jeweler's saw and a flush-cut saw. But those aren't necessary for all furniture-making.
Where to Buy Saws
There are lots of places to buy new, sharp backsaws, but buying a sharp handsaw or ripsaw is more of a challenge. However, there are three gentlemen I have bought handsaws and ripsaws from that I can recommend. Sometimes they also have backsaws in stock, though vintage backsaws are a lot more rare than handsaws.
Daryl Weir (weir@gallatinriver.net): 781 S. Market St., Knoxville IL 61448. Daryl sharpens saws and sells saws on eBay on occasion.
Steve Cook (SharpeningGuy01@aol.com): 1160 Taxville Road, York, PA 17408. Steve also sharpens saws if you have an old saw that you need toughed up (or completely refiled).
Tom Law: 62 West Water St., Smithsburg MD, 21783, 301-824-5223. Tom no longer sharpens saws for hire, but he will sell you a saw that he has rehabbed and sharpened.
If you know of other reliable sources for buying sharp handsaws, add a comment below.
— Christopher Schwarz
Tenon saws are one of the three essential backsaws for building furniture (the other two are the carcase saw and the dovetail saw), but until recently your choices were limited to:
1. A vintage tenon saw that you resurrected from the dead
2. A Japanese saw that may or may not be suited to cutting tenons
3. The excellent Lie-Nielsen tenon saw
4. Some other frustrating new English-named saw.
A couple years ago, sawmaker Mike Wenzloff started making tenon saws, including my freakishly huge Kenyon-style tenon saw that I have waxed on about so endlessly that you’d think that Mike must be washing and waxing my car every weekend. (He’s not, though he’s offered; it’s a long drive from Oregon to Cincinnati.)
And now Wenzloff, his sons, his lovely spouse and probably the family dog all make thousands of Western saws for Lee Valley Tools. It’s a lot of work for the Wenzloff family, I know, but it’s an absolute boon to woodworkers because now we have more choices in the marketplace. (Also, as noted in the comments, I don't own an Adria tenon saw, another new premium brand. I've used the Adria carcase and dovetail saws and they are good. I have no reason to suspect the tenon is any different.)
At issue here is not which brand of saw cuts better tenons. That point is honestly and truly moot. Both the Lie-Nielsen and Wenzloff brands come sharp, accurately filed and well-set. They both cut well once the saw has been broken in with some work and wax.
Instead, what’s important is the handle of the saw and the number of teeth. These factors will help you determine which saw is right for you. I’ve had a Lie-Nielsen tenon saw since the day the company started making them. I’ve had the Kenyon tenon saw for a couple years, and two weeks ago I ordered the Wenzloff Large Tenon Saw from Lee Valley. After a weekend of breaking in the new saw during a sawing class at Kelly Mehler’s School of Woodworking, I have a good feel for the Wenzloff tool and how is compares to the Lie-Nielsen version and the Kenyon tenon saw. 
Let’s start with the teeth: The Kenyon tenon saw sold today is 10 points per inch (ppi). On my unit, Wenzloff filed the first couple inches with progressive rake. These few extra degrees of rake in the starting teeth make the saw easier to start, though not as easy as a progressive-pitch saw. Wenzloff says he'll add this rake (no more than 4°) to custom saws by request. The Wenzloff & Sons Large Tenon Saw has 12 ppi. And the Lie-Nielsen has 10 ppi.
I was surprised how the difference in the number of teeth made a difference in the tool's cutting speed. The Kenyon tenon saw was the fastest because it was the longest, heaviest and (tied for) coarsest. The Lie-Nielsen was the second fastest, and the Wenzloff Large Tenon was a bit slower.
I prefer fast and coarse saws, but not everyone does. Beginners like finer saws, and people who do work in thin stock really like finer saws. So don’t judge a saw on its speed. It’s not a race. But if you work with thick stock, think coarse. Thin stock? Think fine.
The handles are also different. The Kenyon tenon saw has the most curves and feels more “made by hand” than the other saws. But the Lie-Nielsen is the most comfortable handle to my hand overall. I’m told that I have “girl hands,” but these girl hands seem to like slightly larger saw totes.
The Wenzloff Large Tenon Saw has a tote that appears to have more hand work than the Lie-Nielsen. The flats on the sides of the tote have been well-faired into the curves, and I suspect it is a process done by hand or with an inflatable drum on a sanding machine.
The tote of this Wenzloff saw feels good in my hands, but it’s just a little on the small side for me.
The other differences are aesthetic. The Lie-Nielsen comes stock with a maple handle (usually curly maple) and it looks like a 19th-century Disston. The Kenyon tenon saw is traditional European beech and reeks of the late 18th-century aesthetic. The Wenzloff Large Tenon Saw is bubinga, which matches Lee Valley’s house line of Veritas planes, and looks quite old school.
If you’ve read this far, you probably feel like I owe you a solid recommendation. I’m going to let you down. I’m delighted with all three saws and wouldn’t sell a single one. (Yes, Scott, I’m talking to you.) But what delights me even more is that we have a choice about what to buy. Not as many choices as the 1808 furniture-maker, but it’s a start.
— Christopher Schwarz
When you buy a handplane (even a Veritas or a Lie-Nielsen), it's not going to work well out of the box. You really need to hone the iron to do decent work.
However, with saws, it's more complicated.
If you buy a cheap Western handsaw or backsaw, chances are that the teeth aren't sharp or properly set. So you need to either learn to sharpen your saw or send it to somebody who already knows.
But if you buy a premium Western saw – Lie-Nielsen, Adria, Wenzloff & Sons – the challenges are different. The premium saws are set up and sharp, but I think you need to break in the saw before it will cut smoothly. Most new Western saws are too grabby at first, especially for beginners. But after about a dozen tenons the saw will be easier to start and will run more smoothly in its kerf.
I was reminded of this when I was teaching a class in precision sawing this weekend at Kelly Mehler's School of Woodworking. Many of the students brought new premium saws to the class, and several of them brought their new saws up to my bench and asked the question: "Could you try my saw and tell me if it's cutting well?"
On a couple saws, the teeth were set too strong on one side. We stoned those teeth (a couple strokes on a #1,000-grit stone) to help straighten out the way they steered.
But with most of the students' saws I tried out they cut true, but they were harder to start than my saws or they didn't run as smoothly in the kerf. In fact, one student, Glen Koopmans, had a heck of a time with his new tenon saw. It was hanging in the cut and just not working well at all.
He stayed late into the evening trying to figure out if it was just him or just the saw.
The next morning, we cut a few tenons with his saw and then lubricated the blade with some paraffin wax (I use canning wax from the grocery). By the end of the weekend class, Glen's saw was running as smoothly as mine, which has logged a couple hundred tenons by now.
What happened? Three things. One: The wax helped lubricate the blade in the cut, which helped reduce the grabbiness of the new teeth. Two: the dozen or so joints that Glen cut with the saw helped ease the freshly filed edges on the teeth. And three: After about a dozen tenons, Glen was a much better sawyer.
At the end of the day Sunday, Glen was cutting the cheeks of massive half-lap joints in resinous yellow pine for the sawbenches we were constructing. Even all the way across the room, you could hear how smoothly his tenon saw was cutting. And the resulting cheek looked as good as the cheek of a table-saw tenon.
So before you send your new saw back to the factory, put some wax on the blade and cut some tenons first. You might just be surprised how nice your saw is and how easy it is (really!) to saw.
— Christopher Schwarz
 Last year while I was teaching a sawing class in Michigan, one of the students brought along a dovetail saw he had purchased almost 10 years earlier but had never used. When I spied it on his workbench, I snatched it.
It looked like the classic Lie-Nielsen Toolworks dovetail saw, but there was something different about it. When I took it out of its package, I had my answer. This was a mint Independence Tool dovetail saw that was made before Lie-Nielsen purchased the company in September 1998.
Holding this pristine little saw was a little like driving a 1948 Porsche 356. This was the saw that changed everything for hand tool woodworkers. And it started with a friendship between an Army officer and a software developer that was struck up during early days of the Internet.
The story of Independence Tool isn't well-known among woodworkers, and so I gave one of its founders a phone call to chat about the early days of the market for premium Western-style saws, which has blossomed in the last 10 years.
The primordial stew for the story begins with an Internet listserv called "oldtools" (it's still around and thriving – I'm a mostly lurking member). Oldtools is an e-mail based discussion group that started in 1995 where the members chat about hand tools and hand work – anything meat-powered that cuts wood, really.
Two of the founding members were Pete Taran, then an Army officer in Maryland, and Patrick Leach, then a Boston software developer. They struck up a friendship through the oldtools list, Taran said, and that led to a discussion of quitting their day jobs and starting a tool-making company.
"Patrick was burned out," Taran said. "And I was ready to leave the Army."
The question was: What tool should they make? Taran said they had to pick a tool that didn't require a lot of heavy metal-working machinery to make. While Taran had some machine training in his background, it wasn't like he had a fully-equipped metal shop at home.
Coincidentally, Leach had just purchased a nice Groves & Sons dovetail saw that had beautiful lines.
"I was the resident engineer," Taran said. "So I sort of deconstructed the saw and figured out how we could make it. We made a prototype."
Leach and Taran showed off the prototype at an old tool sale in March 1996. Everyone who looked at the saw said they would buy one, Taran said. So they bought a couple machines and got to work on nights and weekends (they kept their day jobs at first). Taran was in charge of production of the tools. Leach was in charge of sales, marketing and the company's web site. (An early flyer for the company is pictured above. Click on the image to see it full-size.)
(While little Internet start-ups like this are now common, Taran points out that it was quite rare in 1996 to start a company that was little more than a web site and a couple guys working from home.)
By the end of 1996, Taran had made 500 saws.
"The word spread like wildfire," Taran said. "We couldn't keep up with demand."
Dovetail maestro Frank Klausz ordered one off of the Independence Tool web site, and Taran delivered it to him personally.
"Frank Klausz is the quintessential perfectionist," Taran said. "He became our biggest supporter."
With craftsmen like Klausz and others speaking out for the saw, the catalog companies began to call, but Taran said they resisted getting into the wholesale business. Eventually they sold their saws (both a dovetail saw and a carcase saw) through Highland Hardware in Atlanta, Ga., but the rest of the sales were direct to the customer.
After two years, Taran said that he had made about 2,000 saws. He had figured out how to outsource some of the parts (such as the brass backs and the special split nuts that attach the blade to the handle). But Taran said his relationship with Leach was strained by the work. Taran bought out Leach's part of the business, but that wasn't the cure-all.
"It became drudgery after two years," Taran said. "I looked at my life and said, 'This is fun, but I don't want to do this the rest of my life.' "
Plus, he had a sweet job offer on the table from a former superior officer who was working in the private sector. Taran said he put out some feelers about selling the business. One of those feelers made it to Thomas Lie-Nielsen through Clarence Blanchard, owner of the Fine Tool Journal.
Lie-Nielsen bought Independence Tool in September 1998 and has greatly expanded the line of saws to include tenon saws, gent's saws and a variety of saws with different filings and tooth counts.
"He's taken it and run with it," Taran said.
The original Independence Tool saws and the Lie-Nielsen versions are in many ways identical. The tooth configuration is the same. The length and depth of the blade are virtually identical. The brass back has the same crisp bevels. But the handles are different. The Lie-Nielsen handles have crisp details – a product of machine manufacturing. The Independence Tool saw has rounder edges throughout, a product of all the hand work that Taran put into the saws.
Though some people would disagree (one way or the other) I found both to be quite comfortable and wouldn't say that one was markedly superior to the other. But dovetail saws are a personal thing, so it's a bit beside the point.
Australian woodworker and writer Derek Cohen has done a nice side-by-side comparison of the two tools on the WKFineTools.com site if you'd like to read more and see some photos.
It's now been 10 years since the saw business was sold to Lie-Nielsen, and both Taran and Leach still have a hand in world of hand tools. Leach buys and sells some of the finer vintage British and American hand tools through his site at Supertool.com. (Be sure to subscribe to his monthly e-mail newsletter. It's filled with hundreds of excellent tools and photos – plus Leach happens to be a great writer.)
While you're at the Supertool site, visit the "Blood & Gore" section of the site – it's required reading for handtool geeks-in-training.
And Taran is now a Six Sigma Master Black Belt and a Cleveland-based corporate consultant who helps weed out inefficient processes in companies. He also runs the excellent VintageSaws.com site. He sells hand saws and back saws (all of which are sharpened and ready to go). And he has posted a great series of articles he wrote for The Fine Tool Journal on selecting, cleaning and sharpening saws. They are in the Library section of the site.
And Taran said he may someday make some more saws, perhaps if only for himself. You see, Taran said he doesn't even own one of his own production saws from his Independence Tool days, though he does own the prototype he built.
"And I probably have parts for 50 or 60 saws still lying around," Taran said. "Some day I should dig those out and make a nice set of saws – just for me."
Coming soon: We take a close look at the Independence Tool prototype, on loan from Pete Taran.
— Christopher Schwarz
I have a "saw problem." There, I said it.
And because I have too many saws in my shop at home and at work, I also have too many saws that have loose saw nuts. They loosen up with use and with seasonal contraction and expansion. Many of my late-model saws can be tightened up with a regular straight screwdriver. But early saws have what are called "split nuts," where the nut has two slots instead of one.
The bad news is that these nuts come in different sizes. So the solution is usually to take several old screwdrivers and grind them into the profiles you need. I have a drawer of these modified drivers.
The good news is that Gramercy Tools has a new split-nut driver that takes up very little space because it chucks into any standard ¼" driver (shown but not included), such as a 4-in-1 screwdriver. This split-nut driver fits the Gramercy dovetail saw (naturally), but it also fits my Lie-Nielsen saws with split nuts and a good chunk of my vintage saws, such as my beloved Garlick & Sons sash saw.
It doesn't fit my Wenzloff & Sons saws, however, so I'm going to have to keep some of the custom drivers in my drawer.
If you are wondering if this driver will work for your saws, here are the specs: the head of the driver is .435" wide. Each of the two tips is .118" wide and .042" thick.
The driver works brilliantly and is something I've never seen before in catalogs or at the flea markets. At $8.95, it is an excellent little accessory that I highly recommend and is available from Tools for Working Wood.
— Christopher Schwarz
In the world of handsaws, certain topics are taboo (or should be).
We dare not talk about the origin of "the nib," lest the conversation turn to the ridiculous.
When discussing backsaws, it's best not to say if you think the back should be folded over the blade (you old-school traditionalist, how do you post on the Internet with that goose quill?) or if it should be a solid billet of brass that has been slotted (I bet you'd use a saw with a plastic handle).
And wading into the debate on Japanese saws vs. Western saws is, in the words of Vizzini, a blunder equal to a land war in Asia.
But today I'd like to talk a little bit about one verboten topic: blade tapering. Now, a saw blade can be tapered in a couple of its dimensions. With a handsaw – a 26"-long saw with no back – it was typical for the sawplate to be tapered in its thickness. The sawplate would be thickest at its toothline then get thinner up near the top of the blade. My beloved Disston D8, for example, is .039" thick at the toothline and .029" up at the top of the blade.
This kind of taper is quite useful. It means the saw is less likely to jam in a deep kerf. And I don't have to add as much set to the saw's teeth, so it's easier for the saw to follow a line (more set creates a bigger kerf that the saw is likely to wobble in).
But that kind of tapering isn't controversial. Though early handsaws weren't taper-ground, most people agree that it was a useful invention and embrace it.
The other kind of tapering – the kind that makes tool collectors blue in the face – is in the width of a backsaw's blade. With this kind of tapering, the sawplate is narrow up at the toe and wider back at the heel.
I've seen a lot of vintage saws, and I'm always surprised at how many are tapered this way. One school of thought is that this taper is a defect. Either the sawplate has come loose from its back and slipped down at the heel, or the saw was sharpened over the years to this shape unintentionally. So some tool collectors disassemble the saws, and pound the sawplate back into the back at the heel to remove this taper.
Unless the sawplate is flopping around, I think this is usually a mistake. After years of using a wide variety of Western backsaws, I've concluded that the taper is brilliant. Here's why: It keeps me from sawing too far and crossing my baseline by accident.
Think about it. Let's say you are cutting dovetails at your bench. The work is secured in your face vise and you are sawing a tail or a pin down to your baseline. Now, unless you are some sort of magic flounder, it's impossible for you to look at the front and rear of your joint at the same time. And so when you get close to sawing to your baseline, you'll peer over the board to see if you've hit the baseline on the exit side.
A tapered blade makes this process easier. When I saw dovetails, I simply saw until my teeth touch my baseline on the front face of the board. If the blade is tapered and I haven't tipped my saw in a radical manner, then I haven't crossed the baseline on the back of the board. Usually all I have to do is peer over the board, tip the tote of the saw up a degree or so and make one more stroke to hit my baseline on the back. 
Here's the backside of my dovetailed board – after I've touched the baseline on the front side.
The taper works like this for all your joinery – tenons, half-laps, you name it.
Now the naysayers claim that the taper might be useful, but it isn't correct for a pristine, true vintage saw. It's a user-modification, like the dual Weber carbs I'm contemplating for my Volkswagen. To that I say: Read Joseph Smith's "Explanation or Key to the Various Manufactories of Sheffield" (1816).
The four backsaws shown in "Smith's Key." Note the tapered blades.
In case your copy of "Smith's Key" ain't handy, here's the deal. This book was kind of like a clip art file for early Sheffield toolmakers. Engraving was expensive, so a toolmaker needed an image of a bevel-edge chisel for a catalog, they could get one from "Smith's Key."
"Smith's Key" has one page devoted to handsaws and backsaws. And on that page, all four backsaws are shown with a prominent taper. If a tapered blade was a defect, why would you show that characteristic on a new saw in a catalog that might be used by as many as 150 tool makers?
By the way, I own two dovetail saws by modern makers that are tapered in width. My Gramercy Tools saw is 1-1/4" wide at the toe and 1-3/8" at the heel. My Wenzloff & Sons Kenyon-style dovetail saw is 1-5/8" at the toe and 1-3/4" at the heel.
— Christopher Schwarz
Kelly Mehler has opened the registration for his 2008 classes, including three classes that I’ll be teaching on precision handsawing, planecraft and building the Holtzapffel workbench from Issue 8 of Woodworking Magazine.
There are still spots available (as of this posting). If the classes fill up, I encourage you to sign up for the waiting list. People’s schedules change and so many of the people on the waiting list get in.
Before I drone on about the classes I’m teaching, I also want to point out that Larry Williams and Don McConnell of Clark & Williams will be teaching a class on making wooden moulding planes at Kelly Mehler’s school on Feb. 25-29. I would take this class if I had the time in my schedule available. These two gentlemen are a living treasure, and the way they build these tools is without compromise or shortcut.
OK, now for the self-serving part of the entry that helps keep my children in Nikes.
Precision Handsawing: March 1-2
 This is one of my favorite weekend classes to teach because I think there is so much to learn about sawing and sawtooth technology. During the weekend, we’ll be learning all about an English-style of sawing (though you don’t have to use Western saws to do it). And we’ll be building a traditional sawbench. That’s a good thing, because I keep giving my sawbenches away to woodworkers as gifts.
Building Furniture With Handplanes: June 14-15
This is a new weekend class that I’ve developed based on requests from other woodworkers. Many handplane classes focus on the bench planes but they ignore the joinery planes and how to actually use the tools to build furniture. In this class, we’ll learn a bit about sharpening and a great deal about using both bench planes and joinery planes, such as rabbet planes, plow planes, router planes and shoulder planes. And we’re going to use all these planes to build a Shaker silverware tray.
Build the Holtzapffel Workbench: Sept. 8-13
This six-day class is going to be the highlight of my fall. We’re going to build the Holtzapffel Cabinetmaker’s Workbench, the bench on the cover of Issue 8 and the bench I use in my shop at home. I’ve modified the construction process slightly so we’ll be building benches that can be knocked down and shipped back to your home when we’re done. You’ll be able to build the bench in ash, yellow pine or maple. We’re going to source all the wood for you and do the brutal machining before you arrive so the first day we’ll be gluing up the top.
If you have any questions about the classes, feel free to drop me a line. Also, I’ll soon be posting my schedule with the Marc Adams School of Woodworking as well.
— Christopher Schwarz
I know it might be hard to believe, but some days I'm glad I'm not a pirate.
For the last couple weeks, I've been discussing the role of your dominant and recessive eye – and I've also learned a lot from the golf pros, shooters, tennis players and neurosurgeons who have e-mailed me with data and advice.
If you're just joining us, here's the story in a nutshell (the unshelled entry is available here): You have a dominant hand and a dominant eye. If they are both on the same side of your body, it's easier to learn to saw and do a lot of other things requiring hand-eye coordination. If your dominant eye is on the other side of your body than your dominant hand, then it can be a struggle.
So how do you determine if you have this problem or not? Several people have suggested tests, including injecting an ultra-short-acting barbiturate into the carotid artery and then examining the person to see if he or she can talk or becomes aphasic. The side resulting in aphasia is the dominant hemisphere.
Now I love my job, but I have my limits.
So let's try this second test, which seems to work reliably. Hold your hands out at arm's length and use them to frame a small object in the distance. Keep both your eyes open. What you see might look like this. 
Now shut one eye. If the object stays in the frame, then the open eye is your dominant eye. If the object moves, the open eye is your recessive eye. Here's what the same scene looks like with my recessive eye (Note: Because the camera has only one eye, this is a re-enactment. No plow planes were harmed or moved during this re-enactment). 
So what do you do if you have cross-dominance (you are left-handed but right-eye dominant, for example)? One common suggestion seems to be the simple solution: Shut the offending eye (the right eye in this example) and do the work. Or get a pirate patch and cover the dominant ocular organ.
Well the retired neurological surgeon pointed out that you sacrifice your depth perception when you do this. Is this worth the trade-off? I wanted to know. 
So I bought a pirate patch and proceeded to cut some lines. For the record, I am right-handed and right-eye dominant. So first I cut a line with both eyes open. I tend to track a tiny tad right, and that's exactly what I did in the example above.
Then I covered my left eye. This was to test what it was like to saw without depth perception. It was more difficult, but I managed to stay on line pretty much. But I didn't much like it.
Then I covered my right eye. This was to test what it was like to saw if I were cross-dominant (and had no depth perception). It was like sawing dovetails at 3 a.m. at a frat party. I could not cut a straight line. I tried several times, but I wandered and wandered and wondered if I was going to be pulled over by the authorities.
So I don't know if the eye patch is the answer. I do know, however, what I am going to be for Halloween this year.
— Christopher Schwarz
You have a dominant eye and a recessive eye (assuming you still have both eyes – and not three). And that fact can make your life as a sawyer a lot easier – or a lot harder.
If your dominant eye matches up with your dominant hand (dominant right eye and dominant right hand, for example) then you’ll find it easier to train yourself to shoot a gun, swing a golf club or cut a tenon. That’s because the eye directly over your work is controlling the show.
But if your dominant eye and dominant hand are on opposite sides of your body, you might find it more difficult to stay on line when sawing. I’ve had many woodworkers with this problem comment that this was a significant hurdle for them to cross when learning to saw.
So how do you find out if you are cross-dominant or not? There are tests that optometrists can perform with a 2"-diameter disc. Another common (if imperfect) test is to intertwine your fingers. Which finger is resting on top? Is it from the same hand that you write with? Then your eye and your hand match up – you should be good. But if your left finger is on top and you saw with your right hand, then you might want to try this trick:
Shut your dominant eye when you saw so that the non-dominant eye can do a little driving. If you are right-handed, try shutting your left eye to see if your accuracy improves. If you are left-handed, do the opposite.
Because Halloween is coming up, I’m plotting a trip to our local Halloween Express store to score some pirate eye patches to experiment with. Wearing a pirate eye patch when sawing is a good conversation-starter in my eye.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. This Saturday, I’m going to be demonstrating at the Woodcraft store in Dayton, Ohio. One reader who is a golf pro has promised to stop by there to further my education in cross-eye dominance. So come by Saturday if you’d like some advice on how to saw, sharpen or plane – or where to get a good beer when in Cincinnati.
Most woodworkers I know aspire to cut their dovetails by hand. It is, for many of us, a self-imposed rite of passage to good craftsmanship. I’ve always tried not to encourage this attitude, because I think most woodworkers go about learning dovetails all wrong.
I’m not talking about cutting pins-first or tails-first, I’m talking about tenons-first. Or how about cutting straight lines first? Then maybe cutting some slanted lines? Instead most woodworkers buy a dovetail saw, read a magazine article (or 10,000 magazine articles) and try to cut them – typically with miserable results. It’s no wonder that there are hundreds of jigs out there today that help our power tools duplicate joints that could be cut simply with a good sharp backsaw.
This week I wrapped up teaching a class on the fundamentals of hand work at Kelly Mehler’s School of Woodworking in Berea, Ky. And though we spent an entire day learning about handsaws and two days cutting joints, we didn’t cut a single dovetail. Heck we barely discussed them.
Instead, we worked on learning the historical tricks and techniques for cutting straight and true. And on the second day of sawing we held a little contest: The students had 30 minutes to cut a perfect tenon and put it on my bench. (The best tenon won its sawyer a cutting gauge.) Most of them had never cut a tenon by hand, but after 30 minutes, almost ever student placed a tenon on my bench that any router woodworker would be proud of. I put the dial caliper on them and found them all consistent within a few thousandths of an inch.
So how can you learn to saw? I’ve written an article for Lee Valley Tool’s newsletter that will introduce you to the three classes of sawcuts and how to accomplish them. Most woodworkers make it difficult on themselves to cut perfect tenon shoulders and cheeks. Your knife and a chisel can make things much easier. Lee Valley has archived the article on its web site.
I’ve also developed a list of nine rules for sawing that might also help. These are tricks that other people have taught me or ones I’ve found in books.
Nine Rules of Sawing
1. Use a relaxed grip on the tote. Clenching the handle will push you off your line. Pretend you are holding a baby bird and that you are trying to keep it in your hand without crushing it. That’s about right.
2. Extend your index finger out on the tote. The handle was built for a three-fingered grip, and extending your index finger is good to do with any user-guided tool. 3. Always work so your sawing elbow swings free like a steam locomotive. Don’t work with your arm rubbing your body or move it at an angle to the back of your saw. 4. Whenever possible, work so you can see your line. Try not to let the blade of the saw obscure the line. 5. Use minimal downward pressure. Allow the saw’s weight to carry the cut. 6. Always imagine the saw is longer than it really is. This will fool you into using longer strokes, which will allow you to saw faster and wear your teeth evenly. 7. Whenever possible, advance on two lines (tenons, crosscutting, dovetailing at times). This increases your accuracy. 8. Always work right against a line. Never saw a certain distance away from a line. 9. Lifting the saw a tad on the return stroke clears your line of sawdust.
I was excited to see the results of the 11 students when they obeyed these rules. Even more exciting was that Kelly Mehler agreed to let me teach a weekend course this spring dedicated to sawing. More details to follow.
— Christopher Schwarz
In all hand aspects of hand-tool woodworking, how you begin an operation with a hammer, plane or saw greatly influences your chance of success. Maintaining a proper strike, stroke or slice is far easier than trying to recover from a botched one.
So it makes sense that a tool should be designed to be easy to begin an operation. That’s why some hammers have a cross-pane, some joinery planes have long fences and some saws have specially shaped teeth.
With saws, the simplest way to make them easier to start is to put some fine teeth at the toe of the tool and coarse teeth at the heel. You begin the cut with short strokes using the fine teeth and then lengthen your strokes to unlock the speed of the coarse teeth. And that’s exactly what Lie-Nielsen Toolworks has done with a customized version of its dovetail saw that is now available for a $10 upcharge.
This special saw with its progressive pitch begins with 16 teeth per inch (tpi) at the toe and ends with 9 tpi at the heel. Otherwise, the saw is the same as the stock Lie-Nielsen dovetail saw – the teeth are filed rip and the brass back and handle are unchanged.
Thomas Lie-Nielsen loaned me a prototype of one of these saws about 18 months ago to test, and to be honest I didn’t take a liking to it at first. I’ve never had difficulty starting a dovetail saw (everyone learns this with practice) and for some reason found the progressive-pitch saw a bit harder to control than the stock Lie-Nielsen I’ve been using for years.
The fine teeth at the toe of the progressive-pitch dovetail saw.
But I kept using the progressive-pitch model, part out of stubbornness and part out of the knowledge that all freshly sharpened rip saws are a bit grabby and jerky in the cut. After a few months of use, the saw began to break in and I began to – grudgingly – see its merits.
The coarse teeth at the heel of the saw. (This photo was taken at the same magnification as the one above.)
Now it’s my favorite dovetail saw. Not because it starts easy (it does) but because it will fly through a cut thanks to the ravenous coarse teeth at the heel. Now that the saw and I understand each another, each cut goes something like this: Two short strokes at the toe to begin the kerf, followed by three long strokes along the entire toothline, followed by a short stroke or so to just touch the baseline of my joint.
These last little strokes to hit my baseline can be made anywhere on the toothline of the tool – so if I’m really close to my baseline I’ll use the fine teeth at the toe. If I have a little ways to go I’ll use the faster teeth in the middle. I started doing this out of instinct (not cleverness) and didn’t realize I was doing it at first.
This week, Thomas sent me an e-mail saying that his company is ready to start making the progressive-pitch saw for customers. The price is $135. The saw isn’t yet on the company’s web site, but if you call and ask, they will be happy to take your order.
— Christopher Schwarz
A sharp, balanced and well-set handsaw is the difference between avoiding handsawing and looking for excuses to pick up the tool. While it is noble to resuscitate vintage saws and put them back into working order (instead of painting pastoral scenes on them), not everyone is inclined to haunt flea markets and remove rust. Some of us just want to cut wood.
Now, for the first time since saw and filemaker John Kenyon closed his doors in Sheffield, England, you can buy a complete set of Kenyon-style backsaws and handsaws. These saws, based on examples found in the toolchest of Benjamin Seaton, revive saw patterns that have disappeared from the modern landscape and are still useful to woodworkers.
The Best Things of Herndon, Va., now sells a complete line of Kenyon saws made by Wenzloff & Sons sawmakers of Forest Grove, Ore., from the diminutive 9"-long dovetail saw (filed to make a rip cut) to the massive, impressive and wood-eating 26"-long crosscut handsaw.
I own three saws from the six-saw set and can recommend them without reservation. These saws are beautifully detailed, hand-sharpened and cut as well as any saw I've used, vintage or new. And the prices are what I would call an excellent value for the workmanship: from $130 up to $265.
I own the large crosscut saw, which I use with a sawbench all the time to cut down rough lumber for processing. The saw is surprisingly heavy when you first pick it up, but I have found the weight to be an asset. When you raise the saw backward and then let it fall into the cut, it does all the work and almost floats through white oak. It's a much different experience that the one I had cutting 2x12s on our farm with a half-dull Craftsman handsaw.
The sash saw (I have the rip-filed version) is a great saw for cutting tenons on small rails and cutting deep notches. It has 13 points per inch (ppi) and is fine enough to actually do a fair amount of crosscutting.
And the tenon saw, the most unusual saw in the kit, is one of my favorites. It is the biggest backsaw I've ever used (that wasn't in a miter box). It's 19" long with a thin sawplate. It seems like a recipe for disaster, but the old-timers knew what they were doing, and bringing back this saw is a true public service to hand-tool woodworking. This saw is quite easy to steer. And its long length and impressive heft actually make it easy to saw larger tenons fast and true.
The handles are beech and have that 18th-century look to them that I like (and they feel good in the hand). The split brass sawnuts are sweet. The brass back is folded over the blade, like the old saws.
Mike Wenzloff paid attention to the details when building this line of saws. And Lee Richmond at The Best Things knew a good thing when he saw it. And so do I. When my next paycheck arrives (March 23, not that I'm counting), I'm going to pick up the dovetail saw.
— Christopher Schwarz
With so many excellent hand tools on the market, it's hard to find the space in the magazine to take the mediocre ones to task as much as I'd like. During the last six months I've been struggling to use a Stanley 20-331 flush-cutting saw in my shop without scarring my work and cursing like a pirate. Today the struggle ends.
The story begins in May when I was teaching at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking. As I packed up all my hand tools to leave the school, somehow my flush-cutting saw disappeared. It wasn't particularly nice or expensive (I paid $7), but it worked well and had lots of years left in it.
I didn't realize I'd lost the saw until I was in the middle of a project a few weeks later and had to cut a bunch of drawbore pegs flush. A deadline was looming, so there was no time to order the saw I've had my eye on for some time from Lee Valley Tools.
So I went to Home Depot and picked up a Stanley 20-331 Contractor Grade Flush-cut Saw. The saw looked good in the package. The teeth looked about the right pitch (23 tpi). The handle looked rugged. The blade was replaceable. Plus I needed it. And I figured I was actually upgrading my equipment because the Stanley was $12.
I put it to work and immediately got ticked. The teeth of the tool are set to one side, so you can use only one face of the tool. If you flip the tool over it's going to chew up your work, as I quickly found out. Why did they set the teeth? It's unnecessary for a flush-cutting saw because they aren't used for deeps cuts where binding becomes an issue. (Note: the photo at the top of this entry shows how the saw cut before I stoned the blade to remove the set.) Also, the saw cuts quite slowly compared to my old, somewhat dull flush-cutting saw.
The handle isn't comfortable. There's an octagonal section up by the tang that prevents the tool from rolling off the bench. But that section of the tool is uncomfortable to grip as a result. After six months I'm ready to admit I made a $12 mistake and just buy a new saw.
There is a bright spot in all this. I started looking around at all the flush-cutting saws available in the marketplace and have resolved that we need to test a group of them. And I'll claim the winner as my own.
— Christopher Schwarz
Sometimes the laws of time, space and economics get bent. And, in the case of two little Zona saws I've been testing this week in the shop, sometimes these laws get broken.
A couple weeks ago I picked up the latest Lee Valley catalog and there was a new listing for a pair of razor saws, made in the United States, that were quite inexpensive. The bigger one is a 24 tpi backsaw with a 6-1/2"long blade, 1-3/4" maximum depth of cut, and a straight handle with a shiny red finish. The teeth are filed rip and cut on the pull stroke; the sawplate is .01" thick. The smaller saw has eleventy billion tpi (actually 52 tpi) with a 4-1/2"-long blade, 3/8" depth of cut, and a straight handle with a not-as-nice brownish finish. I assume the teeth are cut rip (you cannot find fleam on them at 30x) and they cut on the pull stroke as well. The sawplate it .008" thick, according to my calipers.
Here is the kicker. The big saw is $8.95. The little one is $4.95.
Get out your credit cards, because Senior Editor Robert Lang and I were both floored by how sweet these saws are. Both of the saws cut slowly, which is to be expected, but the surface finish left behind is so clean that it shone like it had been planed. And when used in white oak (a difficult ring-porous wood for fine saws) the saws excelled. They both severed the surface fibers cleanly with no tearing whatsoever.
I used both saws to trim up a bunch of muntin material and found that I could get right on the pencil line and cut so cleanly that I generally didn't have to shoot the edge for fitting or appearance. Overall, I'd rate the fit and finish on these tools to be equal to a mid-range Japanese saw, which is to say, quite good. The handle on the larger saw is well-finished and this saw is particularly well-balanced. I'm not as wild about the finish on the handle of the smaller saw and it feel more like you are holding a round dowel than a saw handle. But at $5, I should pipe down. The steel backs of both saws are folded over the blades
I've seen these Zona saws in some stores and at shows for years and never gave them a second thought. They looked like saws for model makers – people who need to cut little balsa parts. And that's indeed one of the big markets for these tools. But the saws are excellent to have on hand (at this price, why not?) for detail work. Need to cut stringing or inlay banding? These saws will do the job. Trim a dowel. Define the limits of a hinge mortise. Rip or crosscut wedges before driving them into a joint.
Zona is, perhaps surprisingly, a U.S. company based in Bethel, Conn. According to the company's web site, Zona was founded in Arizona prior to 1955. In 1991, Zona joined the Blackstone Industries Inc. group of tools, which also includes the Olson Saw Co. (which makes my favorite coping saw); the Foredom Electric Co., which makes the flexible shaft rotary tools for carving, dentistry and jewelry; and the Edge Finisher Co., which makes plastic fabricating equipment.
A quick dip into Zona's web site indicates the company makes a wide range of small-scale saws in addition to these two excellent specimens. You should check it out yourself. I see a few more saws there that I would like to try. And at those prices, even a writer can easily afford them.
So sometimes you do get more than what you pay for.
— Christopher Schwarz
Sash saws are a bit of a mystery to the modern-day woodworker. These saws show up in early catalogs and inventories of cabinetmaker's possessions, but that's about all you get. According to the early writers (in this case Charles Holtzapffel), sash saws are backsaws that are 14" to 16" long, with a blade that is 2-1/2" to 3-1/4" deep and 11 ppi (it's the small one in the photo above). I have yet to find an early reference as to whether they are filed rip or crosscut.
Some of the large and modern tenon saws qualify as sash saws, such as the Lie-Nielsen 14" tenon saw, which can be purchased with a 10-point rip profile – so maybe sash saws do exist but we don't call them that anymore.
But that's no fun. That doesn't let me purchase a sash saw from Mike Wenzloff that matches my other Kenyon-style saws. So I went ahead and ordered one that matches the Kenyon saws found in the tool chest of Benjamin Seaton.
Every time I touch base with Wenzloff, his work seems to somehow improve – even though it's hard to imagine how the quality could get better. The sash saw he built for me is simply exquisite. The lamb's tongue detail on the bottom of the tote is delicate and perfect. Everything fits nearly seamlessly – the blade flows into the back and into the tote just like you hope it would.
The European Beech handle of the Wenzloff & Sons sash saw.
And, of course, the saw cuts smoothly and dead straight.
Of course, the next question should be: did I get it filed for rips or crosscuts? As I was debating this decision several months ago, I touched base with Don McConnell. McConnell, now a planemaker with Clark & Williams in Eureka Springs, Ark., knows more about early woodworking than anyone I personally know. He is a walking library of early texts, catalogs and account books. And – here's the best thing – he's worked most of his life as a professional woodworker, building furniture and doing ornamental carving using almost exclusively using hand tools.
If anyone knows about sash saws, it's McConnell.
So after reading his extensive writings on sash saws on oldtools (THE mailing list for hand tool geeks like myself), I concluded that sash saws could be filed either way. Here's what McConnell said about sash saws and the naming of saws in general:
I (hope) to wean people away from taking the terms too literally. For example, while I do reserve my dovetail saw (filed rip with no/minimum set) for drawer-type dovetail work only (1/2", or less, thickness of material/joint), that doesn't mean I haven't set up other saws of that size for crosscut work of the appropriate size. Such things as shoulder cuts on small mortise-and-tenon joints.
Larger dovetails, such as those used in carcass construction and in traditional door/sash frame construction, require larger back saws. Because of the deeper cuts, the saws for cutting these dovetails will benefit from having a little more set, etc. i.e., not all dovetails are cut with dovetail saws.
In the instance of "sash saws," it seems that many people automatically assume that these were intended for cutting the shoulders of various sash members. I don't think this makes much sense, given the scale of most of those cuts. Assuming the term arose in conjunction with sash work, their size suggests they may have been more likely used in conjunction with the heavier membered frames which house the sash (and doors). And, possibly, for cutting the cheeks of the tenons on the wider rails of the sash, itself. Many of these cuts would be closer to "rip" cuts, though some would be crosscuts.
[On a tangential note, the only period mention of the use of a sash saw, that I know of, is by Sheraton – and that was for ripping off widths of laminated curved bars for barred glass doors in cabinet work. i.e., not sash work, at all.]
It would be great to have a crosscut and rip saw in each size, though there is only one of each size in the Seaton chest. While I don't know the tooth configurations, Duncan Phyfe seemed to have a number of back saws – especially in the smaller sizes.
If I had to choose between rip and crosscut teeth, I guess I would, reluctantly, choose rip. A little better would be to have both rip and crosscut for the two smaller sizes. Better yet, of course, would be to have one of each in each size. Depending, of course, on the scale of work one does. Has that helped at all?
 My new Wenzloff & Sons sash saw with the old Garlick & Sons saw.Yes, Don, you were very helpful. Wenzloff filed my saw rip. I then got an old Garlick & Sons sash saw and had it filed crosscut. It is great to have both. Do you need these sash saws if you already have a tenon saw (a rip saw) and a carcase saw (a crosscut)? Probably not. These larger saws are, like Don suggests, better for larger-scale work. And I agree. I'm working on a very large project right now, about 8' long, that these saws are beautifully suited for. — Christopher Schwarz
Editor's note: This May, our company will be publishing a book that's tentatively titled "Hand Tools for Power Woodworkers," a 192-page hardback that will combine our best writings from Woodworking Magazine and Popular Woodworking magazine on the topic. Stay tuned here for more information in the coming months. Meanwhile, here is a taste from the introduction to the book.
For me, working wood without hand tools is like trying to write a story without using adjectives.
Power tools and machinery are the nouns and verbs. They do the heavy lifting of reducing rough stock to useful sizes, for roughing out joints, for getting things done. But power tools can take you only so far when it comes to the fine details.
Hand tools are the difference between a flat carcase side and a shimmering, ready-to-finish carcase side. They turn a dovetail into a London-pattern dovetail, with tails that are too close together to accomplish with any router. They turn a mortise-and-tenon joint into a piston-fit joint.
I’m not saying you can’t do woodworking without hand tools – lots of people make lots of beautiful objects using electrical tools only. But hand tools are the secret weapon that frees you from the limitations of your machinery.
Have you ever been frustrated by adjusting the fence of your table saw in small increments? Say, less than 1/64"? Adjusting your stock to thickness, width and length with a handplane allows you to tweak your stock in increments as small as .001". This is child’s play for a handplane, not something you have to practice at for years to master.
Do you get frustrated by the endless series of test cuts when setting a miter saw or table saw for a compound miter? I do. And I used to despair at the amount of decent wood I wasted with these test cuts. Learning to work a backsaw allows you to draw any line at any angle on any piece of wood and cut to exactly that line. It doesn’t mater if it’s 90° or 23.75°. A handsaw will do both with the same ease.
Do you dislike spending hours building single-use jigs to make a simple cut, such as notching out the corners of the base in a post-and-frame carcase? A saw and chisel will allow you to make any size or shape notch. Even if every notch is a little different, your hand tools don’t care. If you can mark it on the wood, they can cut it to that shape.
And do you wish you could add curves to your work without having to invest the time in making lots of router templates or spending money on a spindle sander? A saw and a decent rasp can shape any curve you can think of, and you aren’t limited by the depth of a router bit. If you can think it and draw it, a rasp can shape it.
I’m sure that all of this sounds somewhat appealing. Why else would you have picked up this book? But I’m also certain that you have fears and apprehensions about hand work. It seems difficult to master. The tools are foreign. And most woodworker’s first experiences with hand tools are frustrating.
I’m not going to lie to you, you need to learn to sharpen before you will have any success with chisels, planes or scrapers. But if you will learn this small skill (there are lots of valid ways to sharpen a tool, and some of our favorite are in this book), the rewards will far exceed the time you spent learning to put a keen edge on a piece of steel.
And, as a bonus, you will find that learning to sharpen a chisel will open up wide vistas of woodworking that might have seemed closed to you: turning, carving, marquetry. Sharpening is the gateway skill to a wider world of woodworking.
Once you start down this path, I promise you that the distinctions between power tools and hand tools will start to blur. In fact, the adjectives “hand” and “power” will have a lot less meaning for you than the word that they modify: tool.
You will find yourself cutting tenons with a dado stack and adjusting them to perfection with a shoulder plane. You will cut a cabriole leg to shape with a band saw and smooth its sinuous curves with a rasp and file. You will raise a door panel on your router table and fit it so it never rattles with a block plane.
You will work faster without meaning to. The crispness of your work will surprise you. You won’t dread sanding because you’ll be doing much less of it. You will hunger to get back into the shop more than you ever did before.
Whether you know it or not, we live in a new golden age of woodworking that has never occurred before. Machinery is less expensive in inflation-adjusted dollars since the Industrial Revolution birthed the industry. Almost any household of any income can afford a table saw, planer and jointer that can turn rough wood into furniture-ready boards.
And hand tools are now of a better quality than at any time since World War II. For almost 50 years, the best hand tools were old hand tools from the late 19th and early 20th century. And to get those old-timers to work you had to learn about tool restoration – removing rust, flattening warped cast iron, regrinding hopelessly damaged chisels.
But no more.
Modern manufacturers such as Veritas, Lie-Nielsen, Clifton, Auriou and Ashley Iles now make tools that actually exceed the quality of the old-time tools. These tools take minutes to set up for use, instead of days. They are properly designed and use modern manufacturing and steels to compete against the other premium tools flooding the market. They are, like our machines, a joy to use.
The book you are holding in your hands is the missing link between the world of hand work and machine work. The skills and tools discussed herein are all you need start incorporating hand tools into your power-tool shop. We’ve carefully selected each of these chapters to provide this crash course in how to turn your woodworking into fine woodworking. Now let’s get to work.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. The bowsaw shown in the photo above is the new one from Gramercy Tools. I just finished writing a review of the saw for our December issue of Popular Woodworking. Here's the much-condensed version of the review: Get one.
The traditional English sawbench looks a bit like an alligator with really long legs. This curious appearance has left some readers a bit curious themselves about some of the features of the sawbench and how exactly it should be used.
But before I launch into some of the basic techniques for using the sawbench, I'd like to answer some of the most common questions we're getting from readers about the sawbench featured in the Autumn 2006 issue.
Question: I'm X-feet tall, should I build my own sawbench taller than 20" (or shorter than 20")?
Answer: I'm 6'4" and have 21" from the bottom of my kneecap to the floor. I really like a 20"-high sawbench. I recommend you build it at 20" and then cut it down if you have trouble kneeling on the work as it sits on top of the sawbench – your knees are the clamps and all those peanuts you've been eating are the clamping pressure.
Some traditional sources put the sawbench at 18" high. That works, too. Any lower, however, and you risk hitting the floor of your shop with the toe of your handsaw.
Question: Why are the legs splayed in only one direction? I've seen ones with the legs splayed in two directions.
Answer: I splayed the legs as shown to make the project easier to build. Splaying the legs in two directions makes the sawbench a bit more stable, and a bit more complicated to construct. My first prototype and the finished version are both incredibly stable, even without the double splay.
Question: Do I have to use Southern Yellow Pine? I cannot find any in my area.
Answer: Use any construction-grade lumber that's heavy and clear. This can be fir, poplar or hemlock in some markets. I think white pine or sugar pine would also be quite acceptable. Don't spend a lot of money.
Question: How do I use the thing?
Answer: OK, here are the basic strokes. Let's start with crosscutting. You can crosscut short boards (36" and shorter) with one sawbench. Longer boards require two sawbenches.
Start the saw at a low angle to the face of the board.
Short Crosscuts
With one sawbench, lay the work along the top and crosscut off the end – out of habit I do it by the ripping notch. Your two legs are the clamps. If you are right-handed, then your right leg should be on the floor with your workpiece butted up against your shin. Your left leg should be bent 90° and resting on top of the work. Make sure your right arm swings free over your cutline. (If you are left-handed, reverse these directions).
The saw at working angle.
Finishing the cut.
Then you make the cut: Start with the saw at a low angle (20° or so to the face of the board) and work your way up after four or five strokes to 45° – that's the working angle. As you finish up the cut, reach around the saw with your left hand and support the unsupported part of the board to avoid the last splinter ruining your finished piece.
Long Crosscuts
Use two sawbenches and lay the work across the tops. You can work with the boards either across the width or the length of the top of the sawbench. In either case, you'll use the same two legged footwork above to clamp the work for cutting.
The body position for an efficient short rip down the entire length of the board.
Short Rips and Notches
Use one sawbench. Lay the work along the top of the sawbench. I'll hang the waste side of the rip off the top and work from the side of the sawbench as shown in the photo. Use the same two-legged footwork as above. The only difference is that you won't be able to use your shin to keep the board in place.
With rip cuts, start the cut low (20°) but move up to 60° for the working angle.
For notching the corners out of pieces (such as the bottom of a chest), put the waste side over the ripping notch to support the entire piece around your planned notch – especially in thin material. The notch supports the work during the violent pushing of the handsaw.
This is a lot like working.
Long Rips
Fire up the table saw. You think I'm joking. I'm not.
OK, OK, here's how to do it if the power is out: Use two sawbenches and lay the work across the skinny part of the tops. Begin the rip on the short end overhanging one sawbench. When you're about to saw into the sawbench, move the work forward and continue ripping. To keep the board balanced on the sawbenches, then move the board backwards and work between the sawbenches (shown above). I usually finish up the long rip by rotating the sawbench so it's in line with the board and finish the rip with the waste hanging off the side, like I do with short rips.
Sawbenches are not just for sawing. I use mine all the time for assembly and holding stock as I work on my workbench. Even if you rarely do a lot of handsawing, it's a useful workshop appliance.
— Christopher Schwarz
While learning to saw with a handsaw on our farm in Arkansas, I had one fond wish: Please Santa Claus, bring me a Skil saw for Christmas. (He never did.)
So it surprises even my fellow hand-tool enthusiasts how deep my affection is for full-size handsaws. And I don't just hang them on the wall; I use them. With a handsaw and a shooting board, I can get a lot of work done quickly. (One confession: My affection does not extend to rip saws. That feels a lot like working. Hand me a hatchet or a drawknife.)
I think the reason I really like my big 26"-long handsaws is that they are excellent practice for dovetailing with my little backsaws. The more I saw with a handsaw, the easier it is for me to follow a line with a backsaw. The handsaw helps develop my skill for sawing both square and plumb – which is the real trick to accurate dovetailing.
I have a lot of handsaw models that I like (the Disston Nos. 7 and 12 in particular), but I've always had a thing for 18th century English saws. The problem here is that old saws are hard to come by, they're expensive and they usually are less than ideal for use. After years of sawing, I've found that a shiny sawplate makes the sawing easier. Lots of rust or patina just seem to add to the friction. There are other advantages to a shiny sawplate, but I'll leave that revelation for carpenter Carl Bilderback to make in the October 2006 issue of Popular Woodworking.
So I asked custom sawmaker Mike Wenzloff to make me a handsaw that was as close as possible to the specifications for a "pannel" saw made by John Kenyon in "The Tool Chest of Benjamin Seaton." It was a lot of extra work for Mike, but he came through. The saw arrived this week, and I've been sneaking off to the shop all week to mess with it. Here is my preliminary report: wow.
OK, here's some more. The saw is massive and heavy. My heaviest saw, a Disston No. 7, tips the scales at 1 lb. 11 oz. The Seaton saw is 2 lbs. 2 oz. And you really can feel those extra seven ounces. Like the original, the sawplate is taper-ground, meaning the saw is thickest at the toothline and gets thinner toward the spine, just like on the original. The taper is not dramatic: The plate is .045" thick at the tooth and .040" up by the spine. But combined with the set of the teeth, it helps prevent binding and allows a little more steer.
Like the original, the saw is filed crosscut – the original was 7 tpi, this one is 8 ppi (very, very close). The toothline is slightly breasted, meaning it has a slight curve from toe to heel. The rounded toe on the blade is very nice to look at, but it makes it tricky to set the saw up on its toe. The nib slants forward a bit. It's unusual and interesting.
The performance is, quite frankly, extraordinary. I've made about 50 cuts with it in a variety of really easy woods (sassafras), OK woods (curly maple), and PITA woods (Lyptus). The saw just soars through everything and hugs the pencil line – I've been splitting my mechanical pencil lines with the saw with little difficulty. The saw is probably the easiest-starting 8-point saw I've ever used. Part of that must be the sharpening, part is the weight and part is the balance of the saw. Though the saw is heavy, it handles easily.
We'll see how I feel about the saw in a few months. But from my first impressions, this handsaw is dead-nuts equal to the finest handsaw I've ever used – a super sharp and pristine Acme 120 that alone was probably worth more than any of my other hand tools.
— Christopher Schwarz
My favorite part of woodworking is the anti-climax. This is the point where you do something risky, but you're so prepared for it that the actual act is just a slight thing: brief and easy and boring. This week my climatic anti-climax was cutting the transition between the legs and aprons.
After putting off the task for a week, I finally figured out how to keep the tiny piece of end grain attached to the leg as I sawed the vast majority of it away with a coping saw. My solution was to glue a thin backing board behind the eight fragile areas with the boards' grain oriented in such a way that it would stiffen everything up.
As I glued those backing boards in on Saturday I thought, "Maybe this is overkill. Maybe I should just grab my saw and teach those aprons a lesson."
But by that point the glue was out, half the backing boards were in and I had to rush off to meet friends for dinner.
So when Monday came around I took up my coping saw and went to work. Point one in my favor: I had marked the cut on the inside and outside of the piece so it was easy to follow the line. Point two: I had loaded my Olson coping saw with some sweet 15 tpi coping saw blades from Tools for Working Wood. These blades are head and shoulders above the home-center dreck, which always come with a nasty burr and poorly shaped teeth. (I really should review these new blades for the magazine because they are excellent.)
And point three: I am so glad I glued those eight blocks in behind the aprons. After I sawed out the aprons I began chiseling the waste to its final shape. The end grain flaked off the legs like dry skin after a nasty sunburn. The backing boards held the delicate parts in place brilliantly.
— Christopher Schwarz
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