Cross cut saw

Today I did my best ever job on sharpening a one-man cross-cut saw. This saw was bought for £5 from a recycling centre. Most of these places now sell stuff that would once have been trashed.


It did take me over three hours to do. The main problem was that the raker teeth were longer, or higher, than the cutting teeth. The cutting teeth are the ones that come to a single point and are set or bent left and right alternately. They cut the fibres and the set means that they are cutting a kerf wider than the saw blade. These teeth are in sets of four on this saw. The raker teeth remove the swarf by chiselling out the fibres cut on the left and right by the cutting teeth. Raker teeth have no set on them.
If the raker teeth are set higher than the cross cut teeth then the saw does not work. You could cut with it but you will take for ever cutting even a 6 inch diameter log. How it got into this state I do not know. Other than the raker teeth being to high, the saw was sharpened correctly.


Above is the swarf, the waste from the saw, and I am pleased with it. If the swarf has little whiskers on it, that means the raker teeth are still too high and are tearing out the wood that the cross cut teeth should be cutting.

The log of wood is a bit of burr lacewood or London plane. The saw had no problem cutting through it and the finish was surprisingly good.

Before I hung the saw up I gave it a good wipe down and applied oil to stop rusting and most importantly I made a blade guard for it. In this day and age we are so use to hardpoint saws that once blunt or damaged we throw them away. Sharpening your own saw immediately gives you another perspective and gives the saw a greater value and respect.