Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Finding Files and Other Saw Sharpening Tips

I've been getting a few questions lately on saw files - what to get, and where to get them, mostly.  Here's some highlights from those correspondences that others might find useful.

 

I've found that Nicholsen saw files are getting to be poorer quality - though they will still do in a pinch, most certainly...  I have many boxes of older Nicholsens that will keep me in files for quite a while.   For new, I recommend Grobet files personally, though I've seen Daryl Weir recommend Bahco files, and with the immense skill he has in sharpening a saw I wouldn't doubt his word at all. 

You can get quality saw files at any of the following:
 
 
 
 
I believe they are all selling Grobet brand files, but I’m not positive about Lie-Nielsen – they may sell Bahco, but I believe it is Grobet.  In any case, they are all very good, Bahco is a good file, from all reports I've heard (though I've not used them myself).   Simonds also makes a good saw file, from my experience, if you can find them.  Sears sometimes sells them, along with Bachco brand files.
 
Vintage Saws is a small company, just one guy I think – Pete Taran – he’s actually the guy who started making Independence Saws, which were eventually bought out by and became the Lie-Nielsen line of saws.  He has a great sharpening tutorial on his site as well, well worth your time to read.
 
Lie-Nielsen you should know, they are a quality outfit all around, and make excellent quality saws.  Tools For Working Wood is Joel Moscowitz’s company out of New York, he sells a lot of great quality tools at pretty reasonable prices.  He’s my very favorite online tool dealer.  He’s my go-to dealer.  He also makes a line of saws – Gramercy – which are great saws, of excellent quality.
 
Mike Wenzloff makes saws and sells files also:
 
 
His stuff is always top-notch. 
 
Any of the above are absolutely guaranteed as top-notch – I recommend any/all of them.
 
Another place to get saw files - if you don't mind buying a box of 12 - is at amazon.com:
 
 
It's a pretty good deal for them, if you plan on filing a number of saws.
 
If you are in the UK or Europe I won’t be of  too much help finding saw files that cost a bunch to ship as all the places I know well are here in the US, but you might try these, they are all in the UK:
 
 
 
 
 

 EDIT:  Pedder (of Two Lawyers Sawmakers) in a comment below mentions:

 

The best source for saw files in europe is Dieter Schmid's fine-tools.com

http://www.fine-tools.com/euroscha.htm

Grobet files (labled F. Dick)

Thanks Pedder!  I had completely forgotten about that company...  For everyone else - take a look at Pedder's offerings - they are an up and coming pair of sawmakers whose work is amongst the best I've seen...

 

Just so you know, I am working on getting a supplier lined up for selling saw files through this website at some time in the future...  We'll have to see if it works out, but watch here for updates.

 

While I'm at it, here's a few links and images from previous articles on Norse Woodsmith:

 

Lines drawings with spacings for saw teeth in PDF format:

 
A guide for fleam:
 

 

 Here's a recommened list of files for ppi/tpi of saws - compiled and consolidated from several sources:

 

 For sizing a particular file to a particular tooth size - this is the general rule of thumb you want to follow:

 

 

Mike Wenzloff has taken information from Holly’s “The Art of Saw Filing” and Charles Holtzapffel’s “Construction, Action and Application of Cutting Tools” that cover choosing a saw for a task fairly well:
 
 
Mike’s chart and saw recommendations in the link above are quite good – spend some time looking his information over, and that should help you determine what sizes you may need.
 
 

On an entirely different subject:

A request was made in my last entry something similar to "no pictures, didn't happen"... so here is a portion of Neil Young's "Down By The River" accompanied by me on one of the guitars I made,,, 

Down By The River: 

It looks like you don't have Adobe Flash Player installed. Get it now.

If the player above doesn't load, here's a direct link to the file:

http://norsewoodsmith.com/files/images/casters/mp3/DownTrack3.mp3

No apologies for the player's abilities - he's trying his best, mind you.  You should be able to tell which guitar it is I'm playing pretty easily (it is Mjöllnir, BTW).

 

Leif


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