One of the hand saws that I bought from eBay was an old Disston rip cut saw. It arrived in pretty poor shape, but I hadn’t really paid anything for it, not much more than the postage really.
The teeth were all blunt and misshapen, and it was difficult to tell how many points per inch (ppi) it was. Needless to say, it couldn’t cut through a blancmange, let alone a piece of wood.
I thought about sharpening the teeth, but really it was in such poor shape that it really needed recutting. Then I came across a Paul Sellers video about recutting saw teeth, so I gave it a go.
You begin by making a cutting template in a straight piece of wood, preferable the length of your saw blade. Score a series of knife lines along the edge of the wood, spaces according to haw many teeth you are after. In my case, I wanted 6ppi, so I went for a spacing of about 5mm. Next, take a sharp chisel and cut a into each knife line, flicking the wood away to create a ‘v’ shape, what Paul Sellers calles a “knife wall”.
This knife wall serves to register a hack saw against. Make a saw cut at each knife wall to the depth of the tooth you want, and the template is ready.
Next, you need to file off the saw’s existing teeth. Once that is done, you can clamp the saw plate and the template in the vice and make you cuts into the plate with a hacksaw, using the template as a guide.
Then, with a triangular saw file, you can shape the teeth to the pattern you require.
Check out Paul Sellers’ video for a demonstration.
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