There are so many fine Western sawmakers today that it's hard to believe that there were virtually none in 1996 – the year Independence Tool was founded.
New sawmakers are cropping up so quickly that it's tough for me to keep track (and heck, it's my job). I do try to stay on top of the market as best I can, and during the last couple years I've gotten to use saws from almost every maker – thanks to the handsawing classes I've taught in Michigan, Kentucky and Oregon.
I'm telling you all this because I've been working with a dovetail saw these last two weeks that has blown me away. It is, compared to its peers, the first among equals.
The dovetail saw from Andrew Lunn's Eccentric Toolworks is a super-tuned jewel of a saw. It starts easier than any Western saw I've used – much like a Japanese saw. It flies through ½" and ¾" stock with ease. It is extraordinarily balanced. It leaves a whisper of a kerf behind.
And on top of all that, the saw has handmade touches (such as carving on the tote and engraving on the brass back) that make it as nice to look at as it is to use.
The price of all this amazingness? As of Jan. 5, 2009, it's $350.
So who the heck is Andrew Lunn? And where did he come from?
Denizens of the discussion groups, such as WoodNet, have seen Lunn's work. And if you were at the Woodworking in America conference, you might have seen some of Lunn's saws in Mike Wenzloff's booth (Wenzloff graciously agreed to host a couple toolmakers in his booth).
But Lunn is not a professional toolmaker. He's a 37-year-old 911 paramedic who lives in Worthington, Ohio, and makes saws in his spare time. He describes himself as "obsessed" with saws, and that's not an overstatement.
His dovetail saws are different than other premium saws in several significant ways. The blade is thinner than any other Western saw I've used at .015" thick. Other saws use steel that is .018" or .020" thick. One criticism of this thin steel is that it will kink more easily if the saw is abused. Perhaps. But I think the saw's blade feels very steady.
The teeth are minimally set – Lunn sets them with a special hammer that he forged himself. As a result, the saw removes very little wood and produces a razor-thin kerf that looks like a kerf from a Japanese saw. This is one of the other factors that makes the saw plunge through wood.
Also different: The saw's rake. Most commercial saws have a consistent rake on every tooth. Relax the rake and the saw is easier to start but slow. Tighten it up and the saw becomes more aggressive but harder to start.
Lunn has relaxed the rake at the toe, which makes the saw easy to start. In the middle of the blade the rake is almost zero, which makes the saw aggressive once you start it. And he's relaxed the rake at the heel as well, which prevents the saw from sticking there. It really works.
A criticism of this filing is that it is going to be a challenge for the user to replicate. Perhaps, but you can always get Lunn to resharpen it.
Another interesting difference is the folded brass back. The back is narrower at the toe than at the heel, which reduces weight at the toe. Also, the saw's blade is "canted," which means it's narrower at the toe than at the heel. Both of these tweaks help give the saw its excellent balance.
And finally, the tote is thicker than those on other saws. When I first picked it up I thought the tote felt too thick (so did Senior Editor Glen D. Huey). But after working with the saw a bit, we changed our minds on that score. It's a very comfortable handle.
The handmade touches only add to the whole package. The saw uses traditional split nuts, with a hand-engraved medallion. The tote itself feels very handmade with no sharp edges for your hand and has the subtle toolmarks of good hand work. The engraving is just cool.
All in all, I'm profoundly impressed and recommend this saw without reservation. Lunn loaned it to us to try, but it's not going back. I am buying this one personally for my shop at home.
To contact Lunn about making a saw for you, visit his web site at Eccentric Toolworks.
To download a chart comparing the saws in our shop right now, click the file below.
Dovetail Saw.pdf (23.5 KB)
— Christopher Schwarz
If you are among those who are put off by the modern look of the new Veritas dovetail saw, take a look at the photo above. Using the power of Photoshop, Art Director Linda Watts made the bubinga handle look like ebony.
I think that perhaps some of the aesthetic objection to the tool comes from the transition from handle to spine. It is in an unexpected place. Replacing the handle with ebony (or a black-dyed equivalent) makes the saw look more traditional to my eye.
And the good news is that this would be an easy thing to do: Veritas supplies instructions on making a replacement handle with the saw.
— Christopher Schwarz
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This weekend I spent some time working with the new Veritas dovetail saw, which I first picked up at our Woodworking in America conference. The saw has a radical love-it-or-leave-it look that is whipping up the proletariat on the messageboards. No matter how it looks, wouldn't you like to know how it cuts? I thought so. Check out this short review that I've just published on our web site.
— Christopher Schwarz, who is now going to write about planes for a while.
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Several readers have asked what the differences are among the Kenyon saw that showed up at Woodworking in America, the Gramercy dovetail saw and the Lie-Nielsen dovetail saw. In what I promise is my last post about saws this week, here are some observations.
1. Weight. The Kenyon saw (the bottom saw in the photo) weighs 7.8 ounces. The Gramercy (the top saw in the photo) weighs 6.2 oz. The Lie-Nielsen comes in at 11 oz. Can you feel the difference? You bet. Does it matter? That's your call. I can cut good joints with a lightweight saw and a heavy one. And so can you.
2. Handle. This difference is important to me. All three saw handles are about the same thickness (Gramercy: .88". Kenyon: .86". Lie-Nielsen: .89"). But they definitely feel different. To my hand, the Gramercy feels the smallest and has the most open space. It is .9" at its narrowest point on the handle. The Kenyon saw fits my hand extraordinarily well, like a driving glove. It is 1.13" at its narrowest point. The Lie-Nielsen is between the two. It's not as open as the Gramercy, but it is a tad more open than the Kenyon. It is 1.23" at its narrowest point.
3. The brass back. The Gramercy's is the smallest at ½" wide. The Kenyon is a bit wider at 5/8". The Lie-Nielsen is widest at ¾". The back adds weight, so these statistics should come as no surprise.
4. Blade thickness. The Gramercy is .018". The Kenyon is .017". The Lie-Nielsen is .02". These are all workable thicknesses for a dovetail saw.
5. Point per inch. The Gramercy is 18 ppi. The Kenyon is 20 or 21 ppi (the teeth are fairly boogered up). The stock Lie-Nielsen is 15 ppi. In my book, that means the Gramercy and Kenyon saws are tuned for thinner stock, such as drawers. The Lie-Nielsen is tuned more for carcase work. But you can use either kind of saw for either operation.
What does all this mean? The Kenyon saw is a little different than these two other commercial saws. And so when Mike Wenzloff starts making them, it will be another good choice for your short list.
— Christopher Schwarz
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Good news for those of you who went wild with lust over liked the early Kenyon dovetail saw featured earlier this week. Saw maker Mike Wenzloff says he will manufacture very close copies of this valuable and rare saw for sale during the next few weeks.
The saw surfaced at our Woodworking in America conference in Berea, Ky., when an attendee brought it in and asked Wenzloff if he could sharpen it or replace the blade. People went nuts.
Tool historians in the crowd estimated the saw, which the attendee purchased for $35, was circa 1770. Saws from the 18th century are rare. And dovetail saws from this period are even less common. So Wenzloff took a bunch of measurements off the saw and is about to start making the tool at the same time he makes a batch of sash and tenons saws from the same era.
The dovetail saw will be available directly from Wenzloff & Sons for $140. You can order one by e-mailing Wenzloff directly.
Wenzloff says he's going to make his saw as close as possible to the original. I measured the thickness of the sawplate of the original at .017" thick; Wenzloff's will be .018" thick. The brass back will be essentially the same thickness. Wenzloff said he's going to alter the usable depth at the toe a bit because the blade in the original had shifted a bit. The saw will be 20 ppi, which is just about the pitch of the original (which was hard to measure).
The saw is even going to be stamped like the original with "Kenyon," "Spring" and London" stamped into the spine. On the original saw, the word "Kenyon" is upside down.
"(I) wonder how many I will produce with an upside down portion," Wenzloff wrote in an e-mail.
I hope he'll stamp all of them wrong. It seems the right thing to do.
— Christopher Schwarz
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 During the Woodworking in America conference, I moderated a discussion on saws between toolmakers Mike Wenzloff, from Wenzloff & Sons, and Joel Moskowitz, from Tools for Working Wood.
Both men are knowledgeable and have firm opinions about the topic of saws. The discussion was spirited and at some points contentious, though no blood was drawn. It took a long time for the three of us to navigate the technical details of the shape of sawteeth, and so we didn't get to spend much time discussing what saws you need to build furniture. Several attendees approached me after the session for guidance, and so I decided to share it with everyone here on the blog.
Earlier this year I wrote an entry that explains my personal set of saws (check it out here) and their configurations. This is a good place to start.
Number of Teeth
In general, when I choose a saw I try to match the number of teeth on the saw (called the pitch) to the thickness of my work. With backless saws, such as handsaws and rip saws, I aim to keep six or seven teeth buried in the wood at all times. With backsaws (such as dovetail and carcase saws) I aim to keep 10 teeth buried in the wood at all times.
Here's an example of how this works. If I have a 3/4"-thick carcase to dovetail, I'm going to pick a 15-points-per-inch (ppi) saw. But if I am dovetailing a 1/2"-thick drawer side, I'm going to reach for something finer, such as an 18-point or 20-point saw.
Either saw will work for carcasses or drawers, it's more a matter of what will work better. You don't have to own two dovetail saws. Just pick the one that suits the style of work you do. (Note that these rules don't apply to Japanese saws because they have deeper gullets that don't fill with sawdust.)
And note that there are practical limits. Few tenon saws come coarser than 10 ppi, but sometimes you have to saw a 2"-wide tenon cheek. A 5-point tenon saw would be a bear to start. So be flexible.
Kinds of Saws and What Order to Buy Them In
If you build typical furniture – cabinets, chairs, tables and chests – the following list of saws is meaningful. If you build smaller stuff (jewelry boxes) or bigger stuff (huge armoires), you are going to have to adjust. But I think this is a good list.
Carcase Saw
Typical blade length: 10" to 14"
Points: 12 to 14 ppi
Type of filing: Crosscut
I think this is a great saw to purchase first. It is easy to start and control, and it is useful for all sorts of crosscuts with a bench hook. Practicing with this saw will prepare you for the more challenging backsaws. What length should you choose? As with all saws, I think longer saws make straighter cuts, but they can be harder for beginners to control. My favorite is 14" long. I'm not worked up about the ppi. I see little difference between 12 ppi and 14 ppi.
Dovetail Saw
Length: 6" to 10"
Points: 14 ppi to 21 ppi
Type of filing: Rip
No matter what I write you'll buy a dovetail saw as soon as possible. We all want to cut dovetails. So go ahead. The smaller dovetail saws generally have finer teeth so the length isn't as issue as much as the ppi. Choose a ppi that matches what you like to do. Do you build lots of drawers? Get a finer saw (18 to 20 ppi). Like blanket chests? Get something in the 15 ppi neighborhood. What about the "progressive-pitch" saws, where the teeth are finer at the toe and coarser at the heel? I like them, but it took me a bit of time to acquire a taste for them. If you can try one before you buy it, that's ideal.
Tenon Saw
Length: 16" to 20"
Points: 10 ppi to 11 ppi
Type of filing: Rip
I'm using the specifications for an old-style tenon saw. Usually they don't come this big anymore, except for one made by Wenzloff & Sons. I like a big tenon saw (19"), but I seem to like bigger saws in general. When I teach sawing, my students are split: Half like the bigger saw for cutting tenon cheeks; the other half like a smaller sash saw instead.
Sash Saw (aka a Modern Tenon Saw)
Length: 14" to 16"
Points: 10 ppi is typical
Type of filing: Rip or Crosscut is available
The name "sash saw" has disappeared from most catalogs, but the form lives on as a "tenon saw" or a "crosscut tenon saw." I like a rip-filed tenon/sash saw because cutting the cheeks is a rip operation. Some people choose a crosscut sash saw in place of a crosscut carcase saw because they like big saws or have larger-scale work to do. As you can see, this is where it gets complex. You don't need both a rip tenon saw and a rip sash saw (though you are free to get both). Choose one that suits you. I like a 14" sash saw no matter what the filing. Go figure.
Handsaw
Length: 22" to 26"
Points: 5 ppi to 12 ppi
Type of filing: Crosscut
These backless saws are used to break down rough stock before you process it and to cut larger components to size before you shoot them to their final lengths. I like a 7 ppi saw (they're as common as dirt). Choose a shorter saw if it matches your stature or if you work on top of a workbench. Choose a longer saw if you are taller (I like 26") or if you work on a sawbench (an 18"-high platform designed for sawing). I think these saws are great because they give you lots of sawing practice, which pays off big when you cut dovetails. Usually the saws shorter than 26" are called panel saws.
Ripsaw
Length: 22" to 26"
Points: 3-1/2" ppi to 5 ppi
Type of filing: Rip
I don't use a ripsaw all that much (see the dust on the sawplate?). Honestly, I prefer a powered band saw. Long rip cuts are a lot like work. I'd get a ripsaw only if you are deep into the purity of hand work or you have kids sleeping upstairs.
I hope this has helped some of you at the conference. If you didn't like the session, I apologize. We'll do better next time.
— Christopher Schwarz
As the Woodworking in America conference wound down on Sunday, I dashed out the door with Louis Bois to fetch a six pack of beer he had chilling in his rental car. As my hand touched the exit I heard a voice call my name.
I waved back to the guy. The reply was not what I expected.
“I have something that you have to see.”
I stopped for a second and then plunged into the cold with Louis, who draws the technical illustrations for Woodworking Magazine. Louis had brought me a box of lager from Canada, and after he put the beer in my hands I returned to the conference to investigate.
The guy was standing at the front desk, empty-handed.
“It’s on the copier,” he said. “Just a minute.”
What came off the copier left me speechless: An early English dovetail saw that looks much like the 18th-century dovetail saw from the famous tool chest of Benjamin Seaton.
The saw had a brass back stamped both “Kenyon Spring” and “London” – just like the Seaton saw. A close inspection revealed some differences between this saw and the one featured in “The Tool Chest of Benjamin Seaton.” The Seaton saw is listed as 9” long. This saw has a blade that is 8-3/16” long. The brass back is 7-3/4” long.
The blade is 1” wide under the toe and 1-3/8” wide where the tote begins. The saw is filed at 21 points per inch (the Seaton saw is listed as 19 points). The teeth are filed for ripping. I measured the sawplate at several places and almost every spot was at .017" thick -- very similar to the Seaton saw. That's thinner than modern dovetail saws
The handle is a little different than the Seaton saw. On the section of the tote that overlaps the blade, the wood comes to a point on the Seaton saw. On this saw that area is more rounded.
But all in all, the saws are strikingly familiar.
However, what’s more striking is the story of how the saw arrived at the conference. Its owner is an auctioneer who likes to collect vintage tools. One day he and his wife were in an antique store just browsing around when he spied this Kenyon saw.
He liked the look of it, but he didn’t like the price. The blade was warped a little at the toothline. He figured that if he could get the saw for a little less he could find someone like saw sharpening savant Tom Law to replace the rusty blade with a new one so he could use it.
He hemmed and hawed but his wife finally encouraged him to take it up to the counter to negotiate.
“I tried and tried,” he said. “But they just wouldn’t come off their price of $35.”
He bought the saw anyway and put it aside. He had no idea the saw was anything special until he brought it to the Woodworking in America conference in Berea, Ky. When he took the saw out to show it to someone, the attendees went nuts. People began photographing the thing, taking measurements, and generally just gaping at it in awe.
Sawmaker Mike Wenzloff vowed to make a copy. So they stuck the thing on a photocopier to make images of the saw’s shape. And that’s when I walked in.
After staring at the saw for a while I looked up at the auctioneer and just grinned. And that’s when he pulled out a tool that was even more rare from one of his old gym socks.
We’ll save that story for another day.
— Christopher Schwarz
P.S. You can download a full-size scan of the saw in pdf format by clicking on the link below.
Kenyon_DT.pdf (3.8 MB)
If you ask me, the first backsaw you should buy should be a carcase saw. It's handy for all manner of crosscuts when building furniture. But you never see reviews in woodworking magazines that compare the different brands. Why?
Well, there is of course the vast conspiracy that all the woodworking magazine editors have sworn a blood oath to uphold (right Asa?). But aside from that, there weren't a lot of brands of carcase saws to compare until recently.
This summer I got to test the prototypes for the newest carcase saws from Gramercy Tools in Brooklyn, N.Y. These were functioning saws that had poplar handles, and I used them to build a sawbench (what else?) for a class I taught in Portland, Ore.
The Gramercy saws were impressive and different than the saws offered by other top-notch makers, including Lie-Nielsen, Adria and Wenzloff & Sons. Within the next two weeks, Joel Moskowitz of Gramercy Tools says they will start shipping out the production versions of the carcase saws. This news will make saw shopping a bit tougher this year because the Gramercy Tools carcase saws are extremely good.
The Gramercy carcase saws come with either a rip or crosscut tooth and are $179.95 each (kits and sets are also available at ToolsforWorkingWood.com). The rip version has 12 points per inch, zero rake and is intended for cutting tenon cheeks or larger dovetails. I prefer a larger tenon saw for these tasks, so I didn't spend a lot of time testing this prototype.
The crosscut version of the carcase saw is a real sweetheart, and I've been testing a production version of that tool for the last few weeks in our shop. Here are some details of the tool and my initial impressions.
The Gramercy crosscut carcase saw has 14 points per inch. The teeth are filed with 14° rake and about 20° to 22° of fleam. What does this mean? The rake angle (which is how far forward or back each tooth leans) controls how easy the saw is to start and how aggressively the tool cuts. The Gramercy's rake isn't all that different than other carcase saws I've tried – 14° to 15° is a common rake.
The Gramercy seems to have a bit more fleam than other saws I've tried. The fleam is the bevel on the front of each tooth. The angle you choose for your fleam trades off a smooth cut vs. a durable edge. Another important detail: The Gramercy saws are both filed and set by hand with a hammer.
This additional hand work and the fleam make the Gramercy the smoothest-cutting carcase saw I've tried. And a smooth cut is important when cutting tenon shoulders, a common task for a carcase saw.
Other details of the Gramercy that I like include its delicate folded brass back, which makes the tool lightweight at 12.6 ounces. Plus I also like the fact that the blade is canted – there is 2" of blade depth under the brass back at the toe and 2-1/4" of blade depth at the handle. This was a feature on early saws and has some real advantages. Here's my favorite: When sawing you reach your final depth on the front side of the board (which you can see) before you reach your final depth on the back side of the board (which you can't).
The handle is walnut and has the details you would expect from a fine 18th- or 19th-century saw. While I found the handle of Gramercy's dovetail saw to be a little small for my hand, the carcase saw's handle suits me very well.
So which brand of carcase saw should you buy? I think this is a question that's akin to which smoothing plane you should buy. Functionally, all the premium saws are excellent – embarrassingly better than the junk that was foisted on us before Pete Taran and Patrick Leach changed the world of backsaws.
Though all the manufacturers would likely disagree with me, I think the biggest differences among the saws are the aesthetics and how each handle fits your hand. And those are points on which I cannot help you.
— Christopher Schwarz
Without fail, every week readers ask me where to get their saws sharpened. I’ve run into some great saw sharpeners in my day, and I’m always happy to recommend their services. Today I’d like to tell you about Mark Harrell, who has taken saw sharpening service into the digital age.
Harrell, a 28-year veteran of the U.S. Army and a long-time hand-tool enthusiast, recently opened his business and web site, called TechnoPrimitives. Harrell offers everything from filing your slightly dull saw all the way up to a complete restoration of the sawplate, teeth and tote.
He also sells vintage saws that he has restored and sharpened. You can see his current auctions (and feedback) on eBay.
I recently sent Harrell an R. Groves & Sons carcase saw that has been sitting on the bookshelf in my office for several years. I bought the saw for a very small sum online because I really liked the shape of the 19th-century handle, and I really have a thing for carcase saws.
However, like many online transactions, this one was a disappointment. The split saw nuts were stripped and unsalvageable. The sawplate was crooked like a hockey player’s nose. And the teeth were all kinds of irregular ugly, perhaps like those belonging to its 19th-century English owner. (Note to self: I seem to be beating up on the orthodonture of our British ancestors a bit too much lately.)
I liked the handle too much to simply pitch the saw. So I replaced the sawnuts with some extras we had lying around the shop and put the saw on my shelf of hopeless tools (some day I’ll offer you a tour of this sad corner of my office).
So after finding out about Harrell’s new business, I fetched the saw and shipped it off to him directly to his shop in LaCrosse, Wis. I figured that this sickly saw would be a good test of Harrell’s restoration skills. Or it would make him rethink his business plan.
The saw arrived back today, beautifully packed. The whole process from start to finish took less than a week. Though we are up against two impossible deadlines this week in the office, I sneaked off to the shop on my lunch hour to make some crosscuts.
Sweet mother of mystery. Harrell brought this hopeless saw completely back from the dead. I was expecting Harrell to declare the saw DOA and ship me back the parts, mob-style. Or that he would give it a try but the saw would end up good for rough work only.
Instead, this saw graduated from the shelf of the dammed to a prized position above my workbench. The sawplate is near-perfect. The teeth are razor sharp, perfectly formed and set. It cuts fast and tracks straight. I doubt this saw has been in this good of condition for 100 years.
If you want to see the steps he took (and some before and after photos), he set up a page here that shows the restoration process.
So how much does the service cost? Here’s the price list:
• Base cost for just jointing/setting/sharpening: $35
• Retoothing, and jointing/setting/sharpening $45
• Sawplate straightening: $25
• Handle restoration: $25
• Total Rehabilitation / The Works (all of the above): $85
Harrell did “the works” on the R. Groves & Son, but cut me a break because he didn’t repair the upper horn on the handle. My total cost: $60. I consider that price to be more than fair for the results.
If you have a dull saw that’s not earning its keep in your shop, I recommend you give Harrell’s services a try. Like me, I think you’ll be convinced. If you’ve used his services, feel free to post a comment about them below.
— Christopher Schwarz
This year I've taught a lot of people to saw by hand during woodworking classes, shows, seminars and club meetings. Here's what I've found: People struggle when starting a cut to make a tenon cheek.
That makes sense. Good tenon saws are fairly coarse – 10 points per inch is typical. The saw is quite large, so you're focusing on balancing it. And the kerf begins on a corner, which further complicates things.
(And if you have a brand new tenon saw, it needs to be broken in a bit before it will cut smoothly.)
When Mike Wenzloff built a large-scale 18th-century-style tenon saw for me, he relaxed the "rake" of the teeth at the toe of the saw to make it easier to begin the cut. The rake is how far forward or back the teeth of the saw lean. The more the teeth lean backwards toward the handle, the easier the saw is to start.
Mike's solution works great, and I've found that this 19"-long beast of a saw starts like my grandfather's Mercedes 240D: real smooth.
However, several weeks ago, Thomas Lie-Nielsen sent me his solution to tenon saws that typically start like a 1970 AMC Gremlin: a progressive-pitch tenon saw. The "pitch" of a saw is how many teeth are in an inch of the saw's blade. The more teeth you have, the easier the saw is to start (but the slower the saw cuts).
Progressive-pitch saws have small teeth at the toe that get bigger all the way to the heel. The Lie-Nielsen has 13 points in the first inch of its toe. At the heel, there are seven points in the last inch of the blade. This is the same technology that the company has employed on its successful progressive-pitch dovetail saws. After some fumbling with the dovetail saw at first, I've switched permanently to this style of dovetail saw and couldn't be happier.
Here you can see the small teeth at the toe of the progressive-pitch tenon saw.
And here you can see the coarse teeth at the heel (same magnification).
For the last few weeks, I've been using the new Lie-Nielsen progressive-pitch tenon saw here at work and at home, and I like it. It is the easiest-starting tenon saw that I've ever used. And the coarse teeth at its heel make it just as fast as my Wenzloff saw.
I do think the Wenzloff is a bit easier to push (despite its size) because it uses a thinner sawplate. The plate on the Wenzloff measures .025" thick. The Lie-Nielsen is .031" thick (according to my calipers). The difference in thickness is also a factor in durability. A thicker sawplate is less likely to get kinked by its user, though I haven't had a problem with my Wenzloff.
I've been testing the larger version of the Lie-Nielsen tenon saw, which has a 14"-long blade and about 3-5/8" of blade under the brass back. I prefer larger-size tenon saws because the extra length helps you saw straighter.
The progressive-pitch tenon saw should be available soon, according to Thomas Lie-Nielsen, and will add an extra $10 to the regular price of $155 for the 12" rip tenon saw and $165 for the 14" rip tenon saw. I think it's $10 well spent.
— Christopher Schwarz
It’s funny how the most exquisite things in life come from the simplest surroundings.
It’s Thursday night in a small scratch of a town called Cornelius about 40 miles out from Portland, Ore. We pull into a small industrial park that’s right on the railroad tracks. It’s the kind of place where at least one of the tenants customizes cars (a fact that is confirmed later in the evening with a primordial muffler blast). 
Mike Wenzloff, sawmaker, has worked that entire day building saws, but he has cheerfully agreed to give me and some woodworking students an evening tour of his new sawmaking facility. He’s also been smoking a mess of barbecue for us.
Wenzloff leads us through a couple small rooms at the front of his unit that are stuffed with boxes. The first one is filled with boxes of vintage tools. The second one is stacked with cardboard boxes for his saws. The third room is the production floor.
I’ve seen a lot of factories filled with robots, CNC lathes and machines that can make 1,000 nails a minute. But that didn’t prepare me for the 19th-century sight behind door No. 3. For the operation that is Wenzloff & Sons uses basic equipment found in home workshops, small vintage saw-making machines and a few custom-built motorized jigs to turn out work of immense utility and beauty.
The brass backs are slotted on a small heavily modified machine you could find at Harbor Freight. The wood is cut and milled on Jet machines intended for a small hobby shop. And the steel is processed using an astonishing amount of handwork – from the hand-cranked retoother to the sanding bench, where each handsaw gets an hour of sanding to remove the marks left by the taper-grinding process.
Scattered around these small machines are the bits and pieces that make up a Wenzloff & Sons saw. There’s a box of beech handles for panel saws. A pile of folded brass backs for immense 18th-century-style tenon saws. A wall of expensive and wildly figured boards propped up like suspects in a line-up against the 1970s-looking paneling in the garage bay.
And then there’s Wenzloff and two of his three sons, who are furiously trying to beat down a waiting list that is more than 4,000 saws long. They refuse to raise their prices. They refuse to cut corners. And Wenzloff is surprisingly open about that fact that he is behind and how much he hates that fact.
He walks us through the factory and explains how everything is done. No secrets (except for the taper-grinding machine in his shed by his house). He even gives a quick saw-filing demonstration to one of the students who is interested in learning it.
Making a saw begins with Swedish steel that is toothed and filed on vintage Foley equipment, which is no longer made. The teeth are then hand-set and hand-filed.
If the saw has a brass back it is either folded over for the old-school 18th-century saws or it’s slotted on a machine with a plywood jig that Wenzloff built himself. The backs are then chamfered on a small attachment to a Wilton sanding station and then sanded smooth on a belt sander.
The handles are cut to shape on a band saw, shaped using router bits and then rasped and sanded by hand. The brass nuts and bolts that hold everything together are added after all the holes have been pierced with a drill press. Then the handles are sanded and finished and the whole package is shipped out the door.
Despite the immense backlog of orders, Wenzloff and his sons seem relaxed, even jovial as they show us around their facility. Maybe they’re just good-natured folks. Or maybe they know that they are doing excellent work that just cannot be rushed.
Wenzloff poses for some photos from the students, shakes everyone’s hand and packs us up for our drive back to Portland under the most astonishing moon I’ve seen in a decade. Wenzloff waves good-bye and then heads back into his shop to clean up and prepare for another day of saw-making.
— Christopher Schwarz, with all photos by Narayan Nayar 
Between bites of salad, Kevin Drake pauses to take a close look at the common chair sitting in our local Panera.
When I look at the chair, all I see is your typical bent-lamination, factory-made, comfortable-for-about-32-minutes padded chair.
But Kevin, the founder of Glen-Drake Toolworks, sees a lesson in Japanese aesthetics and composition by Japanese arts teacher Shozo Sato. What is the dominant focus for the viewer? What is the sub-dominant; the subordinate?
I was chewing my food at the beginning of the explanation, but by the end I was listening so intently that I forgot about the baguette soaking in my own mouth juices as I finally "saw" the chair.
Nothing makes me happier than to have lunch with someone whose brain is on fire with ideas different than mine. Someone who sees the same world with different eyes.
Which brings us to handsaws.
It's a common thing to read in woodworking texts that the ripping teeth in a Western saw (power- or hand-driven) are shaped like chisels. And that crosscutting teeth are shaped like knives.
But when Kevin sees sawteeth, he sees something different. He sees the function of the teeth relating more to its "rake," which is how forward or backwards each sawtooth leans. On a handsaw, teeth with the cutting face straight up have "zero rake." Teeth that lean forward into the cut have a more aggressive rake. And teeth that lean backward have a relaxed rake. (Whether the rake is "postive" or "negative" depends on whether it's a power tool or hand tool user describing it.)
To Kevin, Western ripping teeth don't look like chisels; they look like scrapers. Scrapers attack the work in an almost vertical position – like a zero-rake sawtooth. I can see this (see the photo at the top of this entry of a wooden model of Western sawteeth).
And to Kevin, it's the Japanese-style sawteeth (shown above right) that look like chisels. They lean forward like a chisel being used for paring. And I can see this, too.
So Kevin then asks three questions:
1. What type of wood scrapes better, hardwoods or softwoods? Easy. The harder the wood, the easier it scrapes.
2. In general, which woods are harder, Japanese woods or Western woods? Again, it's an easy question. Western woods are harder.
3. When you scrape a wood, is it easier to push the tool or pull it? You can do it both ways, but I definitely prefer to push the tool.
"That," Kevin says, "is why I prefer Western push-style saws."
That statement was like a Zen Buddhist riddle (called a koan) for me. Thanks Kevin. Now I'll never look at my saws (or the Panera chairs) in the same way ever again.
— Christopher Schwarz P.S. This coming week (May 19 to 23) I'll be teaching at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking, so there won't be many (if any) updates to the blog. Enjoy your vacation!
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
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