Now that there are so many sawmakers out there, it's no surprise that they are all trying to offer something a little different than the rock-solid Independence dovetail saw that kicked off this revolution in Western sawmaking.

In the last decade, toolmakers have again begun experimenting with different:

• Tooth filings, including changing the rake, pitch and fleam.
• Hang angles (how the grip is angled compared to the toothline)
• Different backs – traditional bent backs, slotted solid backs, backs that taper in width
• Different widths of sawplate, including those that get narrower at the toe.
• Different thicknesses of the sawplate.

All of these differences change how the saw cuts. And little things add up to significant changes. For example: relax the rake a tad, lower the hang angle a few degrees and add some fleam and you'll get a saw that is remarkably smooth-cutting but is fairly slow. The important point here is that I think saws are subtle and personal tools, much more so than handplanes.

So it's difficult for me to talk about one of these factors in isolation. But I'm going to try.

I get a lot of questions about sawplate thickness and if it's better to have a plate that is really thin (such as .015") or fairly thick (I have one on my desk that is .027"). The answer is, as Mike Dunbar at The Windsor Institute is wont to say: It depends.

Let's take a look at the Lie-Nielsen line of dovetail saws because the company has three saws, each with different characteristics. There is the company's standard line, which has 15 points per inch (ppi) and a plate that is .020" thick – fairly standard stuff among many sawmakers. The company makes a progressive-pitch dovetail saw with a .020" plate – the saw starts at 16 ppi at the toe and ends at 9 ppi at the heel. And the company offers a thin-plate dovetail saw with 15 ppi and a .015"-thick plate.

If you were in the showroom in Warren, Maine, and were trying to choose a saw, which tool should you buy? It depends on your work and your level of experience.

The standard dovetail saw is an excellent tool for all-around work. The plate is robust and hard to kink. The tooth configuration makes it a fine saw for dovetailing carcases and drawers.

The progressive-pitch saw is just as easy to start as the standard saw, but it is swifter, especially in thick stock. If most of your work is dovetailing carcases or you work in stock that is thicker than 3/4", this saw makes a lot of sense. The big teeth at the heel are a little big for dovetailing thin drawer sides. Sometimes the heel will catch in stock thinner than 1/2".

Then there is the thin-kerf saw. It is swift like the progressive-pitch saw (because it removes less wood). And its tooth configuration make it ideal for 3/4" carcases or 1/2" drawer sides. The trade-off is that the plate is more easily kinked.

When I teach sawing, I let students use all of my saws (except one) during a class. And in May, I had a student kink my Lie-Nielsen thin-kerf saw at the heel. I've been too embarrassed to send it back, though I guess I'll have to get over that.

But the experience taught me a good lesson: Thin plates are not for beginners.

So if you are a beginner, I recommend a saw with a more robust plate. Get the standard saw if you plan to do drawers and carcases. Get the progressive pitch if you tend to work in thicker stock or plan to do more carcases than drawers.

And get the thin kerf if you are an experienced sawyer.

Once you choose your saw, you might need to change another tool in your shop as well. If you remove the waste between your pins and tails with a saw (I do), then plate thickness comes into play.

A jeweler's saw equipped with scrollsaw blades will work with any dovetail saw. The downside to jeweler's saws is that the blades tend to break easily. Too easily in my book.

A coping saw has blades that almost never break, but they are thicker. My Olson sawblades (available from Tools for Working Wood) make a kerf about .024" in width. They fit fine in a kerf left by a standard .020" dovetail saw, but it's a squeeze for them to get into a kerf left by a thin plate. Note that home center coping saw blades are even thicker than the Olsons, and they are over-set. So they may not work at all.

— Christopher Schwarz

Other Sawing Resources

• Lie-Nielsen has just released my DVD "Sawing Fundamentals" – it discusses how to choose the right saw for your work and how to use it with precision. All my proceeds from the DVD are donated to help restore the White Water Shaker Village.

• Need a saw education? One good place to get lost is the Disstonian Institute. disstonianinstitute.com.

One of the world's biggest tool collectors is bringing his brand-new traveling tool museum to Northern Kentucky on Oct. 1-2 to show it off to the public at the Woodworking in America event at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center.

John Sindelar of Edwardsburg, Mich., has spent his entire adult life amassing some of the world's rarest, most expensive and beautiful tools. And this year Sindelar built a traveling tool museum that will travel the country to share some of the highlights of his collection at festivals and fairs.

Even if you got shut out of the classes at Woodworking in America this year, the Marketplace itself is well worth the trip (and it's only $7 for two days).

Sindelar's traveling collection includes more than 500 items (valued at $300,000) from all the trades, from woodworking to blacksmithing to household tools. Visitors can see one of the first axes ever made in the New World, according to archaeologists (it's copper!), specialized plow planes made entirely of ivory, antique levels from Asia and much more.

"You name it, we have it," Sindelar says. "From the beginning of time to the present day."

The traveling collection is housed in a custom-built trailer that Sindelar's woodworking business outfitted to look like the inside of a vintage luxury locomotive car. The interior is constructed entirely with antiqued frame-and-panel in cherry – and features a tool in the center of each panel.

The 30'-long, 220-square-foot traveling museum is Sindelar's effort to build support for a permanent tool museum for his enormous tool collection now housed in his shop in Michigan.

The traveling tool museum will be parked on the floor of the Marketplace at Woodworking in America at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center. Admission to the Marketplace (just $7) gets you in to see the traveling tool museum, plus more than 70 woodworking vendors and demonstrators showing off all aspects of woodworking with both hand and power tools.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. I'll have photos of the traveling tool museum later this week.

More Links to Obscenely Gorgeous Tools

• For more information on Sindelar's collection, visit his web site at: sindelartoolmuseum.com

• Read (for free) a story I wrote where I test-drove some of the world's most expensive planes.

• "Tools Rare and Ingenious" by Sandor Nagyszalanczy has some serious brass and steel.

• My book, "Handplane Essentials," has a lot of stories about modern makers, including Konrad Sauer, Ron Brese, Karl Holtey, Bill Carter, Wayne Anderson, D.L. Barrett & Sons and more. It's available from our bookstore.

• View a free slideshow of my trip to Sindelar's tool museum a few years ago.

This morning we were messing around with the band saw blades and got into a discussion of how to fold and unfold them properly. I was taught to use my foot to fold it.

Robert Lang uses just his hands.

To release a band saw blade, I was taught to cast it to the ground, roughly, on one of our floor mats. It makes a great noise and people will jump a bit.

Robert Lang uses just his hands.

Megan shot this short video of the two techniques. The little dance at the end is free.

— Christopher Schwarz

Cuss It, I Need to Write More About Band Saws

• The best band saw book I know of is from Mark Duginske: "New Complete Guide to the Band Saw," which we now carry in our store. Hurrah! I bought the first version of this book years ago and still use it today when tweaking my band saw.

• Also good: Lonnie Bird's: "The Band Saw Book."

• Our best-selling book involving band saws is Lois Ventura's crazy (but cool) "Sculpted Band Saw Boxes." So many woodworkers have made these boxes from this book that they have even ended up in the reader's gallery of a competing magazine. That's flattery!

Soon I will sell my Makita LS1013 miter saw. Not because it's junk – far from it. It's still the best miter saw I've ever used. But I don't need it anymore. During the last five years, I've started using miter boxes a lot more. And my Makita is just taking up space in my shop.

In an upcoming issue we're featuring an article by Ron Herman on how to select a miter box, so I don't want to steal his thunder here on the blog. But there is an important bit of miter box news that I wanted to share with you.

If you've tried to buy a miter box you've probably discovered the following:

1. The boxes are cheap and plentiful.
2. Many times the boxes are missing their saws.
3. A fair number of the saws are rusted, bent or have been sharpened too many times to work in the box.

My first miter box was a small Langdon model that I use for mitering mouldings and cutting rails and stiles to length. However, last year I sharpened the saw to the point where the teeth wouldn't cut through the work.

To temporarily remedy this, I installed a new bed on the miter box, which raises the work up. But that diminished the depth of cut of the saw.

So I asked Thomas Lie-Nielsen if his company ever made custom saws for miter boxes. He said they had made a few and were considering making more. I ordered one and have been using it since January. Boy is it sweet.

This week Lie-Nielsen announced the company would take orders for custom miter saws. So if you have a good miter box with a crappy or AWOL saw, now is your chance to remedy that.

Lie-Nielsen said the custom saws should cost $185, regardless of their length or depth (within reason). Eventually the company may adopt a price list based on a sliding scale, he said.

The saws can be customized to fit your box, including the plate thickness (which is critical) and the depth below the spine (very critical). So you'll need to take some careful measurements when discussing your order with the company.

A custom saw should take about a month to make, though that could be longer if the company has to order oddball materials for your saw.

This is great news for those of us who use miter boxes. And for those of you who don't, this eliminates one of your major excuses.

To order a custom saw, call Lie-Nielsen Toolworks at 800-327-2520 or send an email via toolworks@lie-nielsen.com.

— Christopher Schwarz

Thirsty for More Information on Saws? Me, too.

• The Norse Woodsmith is a great place to learn about sharpening and making your own saws. norsewoodsmith.com.

• Vintage Saws is a great place to learn about restoring and sharpening saws. Plus you can buy sharpening equipment there. vintagesaws.com.

• Andrew Lunn at Eccentric Toolworks chronicles his sawmaking operation (and the occasional pizza fire). eccentrictoolworks.com.

• Our book "Handtool Essentials" has a lot of good information on saws and is dirt cheap. Get if here from our store at the WoodworkersBookshop.com.

Router planes are the Starsky. Handsaws are the Hutch.

These two tools work together all the time in my shop. In fact, all the sawing classes I teach are actually classes on the router plane in disguise. So I have seen a lot of woodworkers struggle with sharpening the router plane's L-shaped iron.

Some woodworkers use slipstones, little pieces of sandpaper stuck to blocks of wood, emery boards or even buffing wheels. ("Ya just jam the edge into the wheel and go," they told me. I forgot to mention that this was preceded by: "Hold my beer for a second while I sharpen this.")

Here's how I do it: I sharpen the entire bevel to make it easier to maintain the correct angle. First I prop up my sharpening stone on a 2x4 so I can hang the iron's post off the stone. I press the bevel to the stone, angle the iron and drag it toward me. Then I angle it the other way and push it away.

This morning we shot this short video that shows how to deal with the bevel. It's better than words.

Once I pull up a slight burr on the bevel I flip the iron over and sharpen the flat area on the stone, too. This is a key part of the procedure, and I do it on both my shaping stone (#1,000) and my polishing stone (#4,000). Here's why: It's hard to remove metal on the bevel without a lot of strokes. By sharpening the flat area of the iron on my shaping stone, I can more easily chew away the dull steel and get a fresh edge.

Once I am happy with the sharpness of the iron at #1,000 grit, I switch to #4,000 grit and repeat both procedures.

Once last piece of advice: Keep your router plane's irons sharp and touch them up often. You don't want to grind the iron unless you absolutely have to because that's a difficult operation. And that's another great reason to sharpen the entire bevel on this tool instead of using a micro-bevel.

— Christopher Schwarz

Other Resources on Handplanes and Sharpening

• We have two good books in our store that should set you straight on the tricky topics of handplanes and sharpening. "The Perfect Edge" by Ron Hock is a great text that really explains the sometimes-confusing world of sharp and dull. Also, my book, "Handplane Essentials," talks quite a bit about router planes and other joinery planes.

• Have you visited Ron Hock's Sharpening Blog? You should. It always has some good stuff for beginners and experts.

• Another excellent sharpener is David Charlesworth. His DVD on sharpening plane irons changed the way that thousands of woodworkers prepare their plane irons.

So we shot two 25-minute episodes of "The Woodwright's Shop" today. So you are probably wondering what the heck I did with the other 23 hours of my day.

Manicure? Pedicure? Facial? Crystal Meth bender?

Nyet.

I woke up this morning at 6 a.m. at Roy's place – he lives in an old mill, and the guest bedroom sits right on the water. We slugged down some coffee. Roy sat in a rocking chair and quietly looked out over the dam next to his mill. I was poring over one of his books on Virginia shore furniture (I could spend a month here just browsing this man's library).

Then we headed off to the UNC-TV PBS station, which is an awesome facility as far as PBS stations go. Then it was a few hours of getting our microphones attached (they bored holes through my pants), rehearsing and working out all the camera moves for the first episode.

We started actually shooting the first episode (on sawing) sometime before noon and we botched the beginning over and over and over again. After four or five false starts, Roy and I finally got loopy enough to make it through the episode. But I have to say that the 25 minutes of tape felt like a lifetime.
Then we shot a couple short promotional spots for that episode (when you see them please do not make fun of my sawing – it's a long story). Then it was time for fried chicken.

Ask my co-workers – I usually eat an apple for lunch. But when someone dangles the promise of fried chicken and biscuits before my Southern-fried eyeballs, I cannot resist. And sweet tea. Dear me, I miss sweet tea.

The fried chicken, however, turned out to be a technical gastro-intestinal error.

The deliciously greasy fried chicken made Roy and me burp like an overheated Louisiana swamp. As we rehearsed the second episode after lunch, our belches and intestinal discomfort grew.

We burped our way through the second episode, which is about the toolkit of a typical 1839 joiner in England. It's interesting stuff, if you can ignore the occasional eruction from us.

We finished up sometime about 6:30 p.m. (I think). Roy and I are both so tired from the whole day that we drive back to his mill in near silence, with just a few comments about ecology, old cars and our days ahead together.

When we arrived back at the mill, Roy's wife, Jane, was out on the edge of the mill's dam. She's sweeping the duckweed over the edge and into the stream bed below. Roy and I perch ourselves on the edge of the dam and drink some Eagle Rare bourbon I've brought along. We watch Jane work, we breath slowly, and we let the humidity of the North Carolina night soak into our skin.

Jane has made an incredible meal of fried chicken, corn pudding, chicken gravy, broccoli and fresh bread. It's ready for us. So we finish our bourbon in the proper manner (very slowly), stand up and head to the house for a beautiful meal.

Oh, in case you were wondering – yes, I have the best job in the world.

— Christopher Schwarz

All photos are courtesy of Mike Oniffrey

I'm packing up all the tools I'll need in North Carolina for the coming week, and I was a bit shocked this morning as I went through my checklist.

One of the "Woodwright's Shop" television programs Roy Underhill and I are shooting this weekend will deal with the typical toolkit of a joiner circa 1839. I compiled my list based on an old book, "The Joiner & Cabinet Maker," which detailed the fictional life of a young apprentice.

During the book, the apprentice builds three projects – a packing box, a dovetailed schoolbox and a full-scale chest of drawers. Last year I built all three of these projects using only hand tools (the school box was featured in the Autumn 2009 issue of Woodworking Magazine).

Today I made up a list of the 41 tools mentioned in the construction of the three projects in the book. This includes everything from pencils to chalk and plow planes to bowsaws. What was surprising was how few tools there were. I fit them all easily on my 20"-wide x 6'-long workbench. To be sure, there would be several tools that I would have liked to have had in that toolkit, such as a sliding bevel square, but they are all tools of convenience instead of necessity.

Here's the list (and yes, I know that some people think a dozen chisels are not one item. I do. Just ask my wife. If I have 100 cans of tomato soup I'll go through the express lane at the grocery store and say: It's one item. So there).

2' rule
Try square
Chalk
Chalk line
Handsaw
Ripsaw
Bench brush
Two sawbenches
Pencil
Striking knife (a joiner's marker)
Jack plane
Trying plane
Smoothing plane
Rubstone
Wooden straightedge
Marking gauge
Panel gauge
Brad awl
Hammer
Piece of iron or steel for clenching/straightening nails
Nail set
Broad chisel, dullish (for scraping glue)
Sash saw
Shooting board
Bench hook
Dovetail saw
Chisels (a dozen, 1/16" up to 1"; then two or three wider than that)
Rattail file
Turnscrews
Brace
Countersink
Rasp
File
Sandpaper
Mallet
Name stamp
Rebate plane
Plow plane
Mortise chisel
Mortise gauge
Frame saw (bowsaw)

— Christopher Schwarz

Want More on Early Tools and Technology?

• Visit Gary Roberts's excellent Toolemera.com. No, I'm not sure how to pronounce it, either. It combines "tool" with "ephemera." In any case, Gary's site is chock full of catalogs and early books that you can download or order.

• Jeff Gorman's web site is back up! Neanderthals rejoice. www.amgron.clara.net. There is lots of good stuff there on traditional technique from a British perspective.

• The Evenfall Woodworks Library is another free repository of great old books. Stop in when you have some bandwidth you want to suck up with some great downloads.

I leave for North Carolina this week to shoot two episodes of "The Woodwright's Shop" with Roy Underhill then teach a three-day class on handsawing at Underhill's little Utopia of a woodworking school in Pittsboro, N.C.

One of the shows will be on English handsawing (no on-screen French-sawing DIY vasectomies are planned) and the other show will be about the simple toolkit of a joiner, circa 1839.

To prepare for the class and show, I built a new sawbench this weekend and improved the design a bit to use less material, I used a wood species that is easier to deal with when working with hand tools and I tweaked the design to make the sawbench ideal for those who do a lot of ripping on their sawbenches.

Here's why I made these changes:

1. Less Material: Previous generations of my sawbenches used 2x8 material. This allowed me to have the top fairly wide (just under 7") and to rip all the components out of the 2x8 and increase the chances that I'd end up with quartersawn stock. I switched to 2x6 material for this new generation, which reduces the cost of the project a bit (always a good thing). It also makes the top a little narrower, which hasn't been a problem yet. But it does mean I need to be more careful in selecting my stock because there's little waste when ripping up the 2x6.

2. New Species: By switching to 2x6 material, that meant I could use Canadian white pine instead of Douglas fir or Southern Yellow pine. I usually prefer yellow pine for this project because the stuff is durable. But when I teach students about sawing and we're cutting yellow pine, they struggle. The different densities of the earlywood and latewood give them fits. By switching to white pine, I can further reduce the cost of the bench and make all the joints easier to cut. And white pine is plenty durable for a sawbench.

3. Design Change: I now have one long stretcher down the middle of the sawbench instead of two long stretchers attached to the outside of the legs. This does a few things. It reduces cost and weight. It gives us another type of joint to cut. And it makes the sawbench easier to use for ripping. On previous generations of sawbenches, students would sometimes score the long stretchers with their ripsaws, especially when sawing with the tool vertical. With this new design, you can't nick the lower stretcher unless you are sawing wrong.

And one last change: The parts are fastened together using 6d cut nails instead of screws. The cut nails just look cooler.

After I get back from The Woodwright's School, I'll have a four weeks in the office and the shop before my next trip. That means I'll finally be able to give you the answer to the e-mail you sent me in May.

— Christopher Schwarz

Other Interesting Links on Hand Tools for You

• Read an interview with Roy Underhill about his most recent book. http://blog.woodworking-magazine.com/blog/An+Interview+With+Roy+Underhill.aspx

• Read my review of Roy's book "The Woodwright's Guide." http://blog.woodworking-magazine.com/blog/Review+New+Book+From+Roy+Underhill.aspx

• Have you heard about our reprint of the book "Exercises in Wood-Working"? It's a great lesson-by-lesson way to get familiar with hand tools. And I host some short videos actually performing the exercises. Fun! Read about it in our store.

• Like the PBS show "The Woodwright's Shop"? You can watch episodes for free here. http://www.pbs.org/woodwrightsshop/

• Got a drool bib handy? Go here: www.maison-de-l-outil.com.

Note to self: Do not drink coffee whilst reading e-mail. A note this morning from Emily (you may remember her from the Norm Abram lookalike contest) made me spit coffee onto my keyboard. You'll have to click through to see why (I just can't bring myself to post a page from Maxim "above the fold").

Here's the (excerpted) caption from the magazine:
" A true master has zero tolerance for coarse, crude cuts made by inferior instruments....That's why we're enamored of the Wenzloff & Sons Disston Panel Saw, a fine crosscutting confection....Use it to fell your neighbor's view-killing trees, and instead of taking offense, they may just compliment your strikingly beautiful instrument" (from the August 2010 issue of Maxim).

And here's Emily's note:
"Inquiring minds want to know...
• Do the Wenzloffs know about this?
• Why on earth would anyone use their beautiful crosscut panel saw to cut down a tree?
• What editor allowed them to use "perfectly ripped" as a tagline on a crosscut saw?
• What is wrong with that girl's dangly arm?  It looks like she's suffered a stroke.
• On a related note, why didn't they ask one of the Women of WIA to pose for this picture? (Editor's note: No. Not gonna happen.)
 
Emily
 
P.S. I don't subscribe to Maxim, I swear – I got it from a friend.

Mike Wenzloff, we're waiting to hear from you!

— Megan Fitzpatrick

Update: Kari Hultman (who, in addition to her woodworking and blogging excellence, is a talented graphic designer), just sent me this (here's hoping Chris isn't checking his blog from across the pond):

Mark Harrell at Bad Axe Tool Works has always taken a different path than other modern sawmakers. Instead of imitating the look of classic British saws, Harrell has always favored American styles, with their steel backs and distinct tote profile. And he launched his sawmaking business by making the biggest backsaws first – most sawmakers have started by introducing a dovetail saw.

This summer Harrell has introduced two new backsaws that are going to make your buying decisions far more difficult. We still have a bunch of carcase saws here from our recent review of the category and spent a morning evaluating where these saws fit in the very competitive carcase saw category.

About the Saws
I'm going to call these new Bad Axe saws "carcase" saws, though Harrell calls the big one a "sash/tenon saw" and the small one a "carcase/sash." The saws from Bad Axe don't really fit into any one distinct category, according to Charles Holtzapffel's seminal chart. But the Bad Axe saws we tested are filed for crosscut and are 12" to 14" long. So they will likely be used for carcase work. At least in my shop they would. Whew, explanation over.

I'm not a nationalist, but one thing I really like about the Bad Axe saws is their unapologetic American-ness. Before I started selling drugs in school zones and could afford fancy new saws, my favorite saw was a Wheeler, Madden & Clemson carcase saw. I like everything about the saw, from the way it looks to the way it hangs. And the Bad Axe tools are like that.

In fact, Harrell has taken this one step further by making the back available in gunsmith-blued steel or in stainless steel (for a small upcharge). You also have eight different options for your sawnuts, from traditional split nuts in brass to stainless slotted nuts, blued nuts and more.

For this fact alone, Harrell deserves a high-five. Though I like the way brass split-nuts look, I have munged far too many of them over the years as I tightened my nuts each season (this blog post will never make it through a parental dirty-word filter).

Offering steel nuts – slotted or split – is a great move in my book. Earlier this year a machinist made some stainless split nuts for my backsaws and I could not be happier. I am mung-free.

So they look good and feel good in your hand, but how do they cut? Dang fast.

I brought the entire staff into the shop one morning to work with all of the carcase saws we had sitting around. We all have different preferences, especially where the tote is concerned. But one thing was clear from our testing: the Bad Axe saws blazed through the material. They weren't as smooth as the Gramercy, which cuts like silk. But they went toe-to-toe with the other fast saws, such as the Adria and the Medallion. And the Bad Axe saws left an acceptably smooth surface behind.

"That saw," Megan said, "is a monster."

Of course, a major reason the Bad Axe saws are so fast is because of their materials and teeth. The small Bad Axe we used is 13 ppi, 12" long with a .025"-thick sawplate. The larger Bad Axe is 12 ppi, 14" long with a .025"-thick sawplate. So these two saws are coarser and use a thicker sawplate than any of the other carcase saws we own, which are 14 ppi or 15 ppi.

The Bad Axe saws left a bigger kerf behind than the other saws, mostly due to the thickness of the sawplate. Sawplate thickness is a matter of taste. Some sawyers prefer thinner saws with a thinner kerf, which are easier to push. Others prefer thicker saws with a wider kerf, which are less likely to kink. It's your call.

Bottom line: These saws are worth serious consideration; and they should be at the top of your list if overall durability is an issue. The thicker sawplate and the steel nuts (get the steel nuts) means you are less likely to cam out your nuts or kink your plate. You also can order these saws with a variety of filings. The 14" saw filed rip would make a nice small tenon saw.

We're happy to hang these saws up on the pegs above our benches and look forward to the Harrell's next batch of saws.

— Christopher Schwarz

Like Saws? Want to Know More? Check these Links

• The Norse Woodsmith site is one of my favorite saw sites. Learn to make and sharpen your own saws.

• Pete Taran's VintageSaws.com is a great place to learn about saws, how to restore them and how to sharpen them. Taran also sells refurbished vintage saws and sharpening equipment.

• When you start combing the DisstonianInstitute.com then you are official a saw geek. Learn about every saw that Disston made for woodworkers. An awesome and deep site.

• If you want to get started in sawing, I recommend our "Handtool Essentials" book, which features great articles from all of our contributors about all aspects of hand craft. Heck, that sucker is on sale right now for $15.

For many years I was happy with my Olson coping saw, which I bought from the now-vanished Aufdenkamp Hardware in 1996. The saw locked tight. It held the blade without rotating. And when armed with Olson-brand blades, the thing cut smoothly and quickly.

A few years ago, the saw began to tick me off. I couldn't get it tight enough (even after stretching the frame). The blade holders would rotate in the middle of the cut. It was as bad as my junky Craftsman coping saw from elementary school, which has never worked.

I switched to fretsaws for a while, but I snapped a lot of blades (more on fretsaws coming soon).

This week I took a close look at my Olson, plus a second new old stock Olson that woodworker Carl Bilderback had given me. It was considerably older than mine and seemed to hold blades better than mine. Why did mine stink so bad? I took the saws apart to investigate.

It was the wave washers. The Olson saws come equipped with two wave washers – wavy discs of metal – that help the saw keep its setting when you apply tension. The wave washers on my saw were now lake washers (meaning they were completely flat). So they weren't doing Jack buddy to tighten up the blade mechanism.

So it was off to Home Depot to pick up some different washers. I tried some 5/16" toothed washers, but those things did as much as the flattened washers. Then I tried the traditional split lock washer. That did the trick. I put one lock washer between the handle and the frame, and a second lock washer between the frame and the blade holder at the toe.

Now it is better than new. And souping up both saws was about 50 cents.

If you have an Olson saw, this is a great little upgrade. And if you don't have an Olson saw or blades, you can remedy that at ToolsForWorkingWood.com.

— Christopher Schwarz

Other Coping Saw Resources to Investigate

• Read about the history of the coping saw and its relation to fretsaws and Morris saws in this blog post.

• Buy a Olson coping saw and blades from ToolsforWorkingWood.com.

• Read the book "Coping Saw Work" free on GoogleBooks.com.

This week we received a visit from James Travis, who built what could be the most ornate sawbench.

Travis, who is in his early 20s, was traveling through Cincinnati on his way from Boston to San Antonio, Texas, and dropped by the shop. Travis recently completed the "Three-month Furniture Making Intensive" program at the North Bennet Street School in Boston and was headed back to Texas to set up shop as a furniture designer and craftsman.

After showing Travis our shop, he asked me to step outside to his Budget rent-a-truck to see his sawbench.

He built the bench entirely by hand using simple tools and home center red oak. The sawbench is, in every way, completely over the top. There are wedged through tenons at every corner. The pegs that attach the leg go entirely through the top and are capped with carved oak.

"I will never carve red oak again," Travis said of the project.

And like every woodworker, Travis immediately began pointing out the errors he made in building the sawbench, including the patches he had to make when the base didn't quite fit the notches he'd cut in the top.

He said he's thought about rebuilding the sawbench now that he has even more hand skills. But instead, he decided to keep using the shop appliance to remind him of all the lessons he's learned in the craft so far.

And Travis has quite an adventure ahead of him. His desire is to be a furniture designer and specialize in re-imagining 18th-century styles. His sawbench is one example of how his brain works. The carvings and shapes are not taken from any single piece of furniture or period but are instead they way he remembers some pieces of early American furniture he saw when he was young.

Once he gets home to Texas, his plans are to set up shop, buy a table saw and get to work with the help of his sawbench and a second day job.

"Target or anything, really," he said.

— Christopher Schwarz

Other Hand-tool Resources You Might Like

• Download a free plan for the simpler sawbench I built for Woodworking Magazine.

• "Handplane Essentials" is a compilation of my best writing about planes.

• "The Arts & Mysteries of Hand Tools" CD contains all of Adam Cherubini's columns on 18th-century woodworking and furniture.
 
• "Forgotten Hand Tools" DVD from Lie-Nielsen Toolworks.

John Sindelar, who owns the most jaw-dropping, drool-inducing tool collection I've ever seen, is bringing a big chunk of it to our Woodworking in America show Oct. 1-3 in Cincinnati.

And here's the best part: The collection will be displayed (in a traveling trailer) that will be on the floor of the Marketplace. If you are registered for our event, then you will get to tour the collection. No extra charge. Nothing else to register for.

And if you aren't registered, you can fix that here: WoodworkingInAmerica.com. We have about 50 slots left for the classes, and some slots still available for the Toolmakers' Dinner on the Thursday evening before the show opens. The event costs $335 for three full days of classes (more than 80) plus a Marketplace show floor that makes some other woodworking shows look like discarded freight sale (not that there's anything wrong with that).

If you don't know who John Sindelar is, you can catch up by reading this article I wrote about his collection for Popular Woodworking. Sindelar is a cabinetmaker in Michigan who has spent a good deal of his adult life – and his personal wealth – building a tool collection that is filled with the rarest of the rare. And he owns some of the most beautiful tools ever made, both ancient and modern.

We'll have more details soon.

One other cool update: I've been informed that Matt Hodgson from Gabardi & Son planes will be displaying his tools in the Marketplace. This is troubling news for the wallets of America.

— Christopher Schwarz

Tool Books You Should Hide From Your Spouse

• "Art of Fine Tools"by Sandor Nagyszalanczy. Yup, Sindelar owns some of these.

• "Tools Rare and Ingenious: Celebrating the World's Most Amazing Tools"by Sandor Nagyszalanczy. And some of these, too.

• "Classic Hand Tools" by Garrett Hack. Ditto.

• "Handplane Essentials" by Christopher Schwarz. He doesn't own the plane on the cover. I do. Neener neener!

This summer Lie-Nielsen Toolworks will release a DVD on the basic principles of using handsaws and backsaws. During the video, I quote the Bible, cut all sorts of joints and am constantly menaced by flies.

We shot the DVD in Tom Lie-Nielsen's barn in February, which is most definitely not fly season in Maine. However, once the lights we were using during the shoot started to heat up, the flies came back to life, like in a zombie film. No lie: There were thousands of flies.

We smashed them with our feet. Swatted them with tools. I even threatened to cut the head off their leader and put it on a toothpick to serve as an example for all the other flies.

So by the end of the week-long shoot, we were exhausted and punchy from filming and slaying. So I tried to cut a dovetail with the saw-shaped object on a Leatherman tool.

It did not go well.

When the DVD is released I'll let you know. In the meantime, don't try this at home. (And by the way, as always all my proceeds from this DVD will go to a woodworking-related charity or non-profit educational organization. I'll let you know which organization when the DVD is released.)

— Christopher Schwarz

My Other Favorite Lie-Nielsen DVDs.

• Traditional Molding Techniques: The Basics DVD with Don McConnell

• Unlocking the Secrets of Traditional Design DVD with George Walker

• Precision Shooting Simplified DVD with David Charlesworth

For me, this is like the day I first saw my name in the phone book. I am somebody.

This summer I'm teaching a three-day class at Roy Underhill's school, The Woodwright's School, in Pittsboro, N.C., conveniently located next to the City Tap room. The class will run Aug. 2-4 and will be on sawing.

During the three days, we'll work on everyone's sawing skills using all the old tricks I've picked up through the years. Everyone will also build a traditional sawbench (me included; I need another one). We'll start with the big handsaws, learning how to rip and crosscut. Then we'll move into the joinery saws and learn to cut all sorts of odd angles and traditional joints, including dovetails.

The class is $405 (plus a small materials fee) and the class is limited to 10 students.

If you haven't taken a class there, you are in for a treat. Underhill's school is like stepping back in time about 80 years. There are no power tools. No dust collection system. Just benches, lots of natural light and a nice wooden floor.

If you'd like to read about my visit to his school last year, check out these blog entries:

• A Visit to The Woodwright's School

• Roy Underhill's New School

• One Schwarzpower. Fail.

For more details and information on registering, visit the school's web site.

— Christopher Schwarz

Other Traditional Hand Tool Resources I Like

• An interview with Roy Underhill

• A review of Underhill's new book "The Woodwright's Guide: Working Wood with Wedge & Edge" (UNC Press)

• DVD: "Handplane Basics: A Better Way to Use Handplanes"

Most American woodworkers struggle with bowsaws. Now before you think that bowsaws are tools for beret-wearing, Gitano-smoking woodworkers who eat espresso and croissants when on a break, think again.

Michael Dunbar at The Windsor Institute has used bowsaws for many years while making Windsor chairs and teaching thousands of others how to do it. I'm taking a sack-back class this week with Dunbar (plus my father and my friend John Hoffman). The class starts on Monday, but today Dunbar and I spent a few hours taking some photographs for three upcoming articles in Popular Woodworking Magazine.

One of the articles is all about bowsaws. And Dunbar contends that one of the reasons Americans struggle with the tool is because we're just doing it all wrong.

To help augment the article, I shot this short video, which covers just a small part of his article. And because the video is ready, and I am sitting near the beach and feeling magnanimous (no, I haven't had a beer yet), I decided to upload this video now. I think it might prompt a healthy discussion. Take a look.

Tonight, I'm headed to the Portsmouth Brewery for dinner. Then a stroll down the boardwalk to smell the fried dough. I better not eat any – I didn't bring any Lipitor.

— Christopher Schwarz

Other Sawing Resources I Recommend

• Vintage Saws, Pete Taran's site on Western handsaws (vintagesaws.com)

• Bugbear's plans for a bowsaw

• WoodJoy Tools, which makes bowsaws that Dunbar likes (woodjoytools.com)

• "Hand Tool Essentials" from Popular Woodworking

The hardest part of ripping (besides the exertion) is making a square cut through the thickness of the work. It's fairly easy to follow your line when ripping, but it's also easy to make that cut at an angle, especially in thick stock.

One common trick to remedy this problem is to mark your cutline on both faces of your board. Then you flip the board over every so often and correct any wandering. Then flip the board over again and again.

Carpenter Carl Bilderback of LaPorte, Ind., has developed a sawbench that is designed to train you to rip vertically. It works on the same principle as a wooden miter box. The top of the sawbench is pierced by a narrow kerf. Below the top of the sawbench are two big softwood chunks. The chunks are fastened close together -- just far enough apart to let the saw pass.

The result is pretty cool. I tried it out on Thursday, as did my friend John Hoffman. It was a cakewalk to rip square.

We made a short video to show the riphorse in action.

Of course, you really need two sawhorses, and when you put the second sawhorse into the equation you can rip longer boards, and you can use the ripping slot for crosscutting, too.

Speaking of ripping, I showed Bilderback my French method of ripping. He wasn't buying it. He called it slower and equated it to a personal activity that cannot be mentioned on a family blog (well, maybe the Manson Family blog).

In any case, I still like my French ripping method and think (and Carl agrees) that the method does result in nice square cuts.

We'll likely offer plans in a future issue of the magazine for this riphorse (which will include gussets on the ends. Bilderback left them off so we could see the guiding blocks better).

But most woodworkers should be able to build one or modify their current sawbench from these photos.

— Christopher Schwarz

Andrew Lunn at Eccentric Toolworks has resumed taking orders for his custom saws.

Let the whuppings and hand-wringing commence!

Last year Lunn stopped taking new orders so he could concentrate on eliminating his backlog of orders and figure out a pricing structure that would allow the former paramedic to make a living. This week, Lunn resumed taking orders and raised his base prices. A dovetail saw starts at $500.

Now before you get your panties in a twist and post something nasty in the comments section below, rest assured that plenty of panties have already been twisted on your behalf. Take a gander at all the comments posted on earlier blog entries I've written about Lunn. Here's a Google search that will take you to all the juicy stuff.

I've always been amused by the controversy that Lunn attracts. He is probably the most introverted, unassuming and quiet toolmaker I know. Really, all he wants to do is make saws and other things for a living. He wants to use hand processes. And he wants to tune the tools to as a high a level as he can.

You can read a little bit about his processes on his web site. Lunn says he plans to post more photos and blog entries that show how he makes a saw in his one-car-sized shop in central Ohio.

For my part, here's my simple take on Lunn's saws. I have purchased two (both at full price at the time): a dovetail saw and a carcase saw. Those of you who have been to our shop know that I have a lot of saws and that I encourage visitors and students to try all of them – except the Eccentric saws.

These two saws don't travel. They are the only tools I own that I've asked my co-workers to refrain from using. I guard them jealously.

Why? Because they are so damn personal. I cannot explain it any better than that. Loaning out one of those saws would feel like loaning out some underwear (sorry about the underwear theme here -- I don't know where that's coming from).

In any case, I'm glad that Lunn has re-opened ordering because that means I can get in line to get a couple more saws. I might have to scrimp a bit more, but so be it.

— Christopher Schwarz

I'm sad to announce that the world has lost another good saw sharpener.

Steve Cooke, 61, of York, Pa., died on March 17. Cooke was the founder of Cooke's Sharpening Service, which specialized in sharpening all forms of edge tools. But Cooke had a special place in his heart for saws, and he had an impressive collection.

I sent a lot of readers to Cooke because he always had an excellent selection of working saws that he had (lightly) restored, sharpened and priced them to sell to people who were interested in using them – instead of hanging them on the wall.

Personally I have about four or five saws that Cooke restored, including a nice 12-point saw I use for fine crosscuts and a very large Disston D7 with a thumbhole rip handle. Dealing with him was always a pleasure, and I know a lot of readers who became quite fond of him as well.

To read his full obituary, you can read this story from the York Daily Record.

— Christopher Schwarz

All week I've been itching to saw these joints that connect the legs to the benchtop. I've never cut a 5"-deep dovetail joint in a 6x6, so I wasn't sure what to expect.

It was easy going until my enormous saw suddenly stopped cutting. Had the flesh-detecting technology in my tenon saw kicked in? (Ye Olde Saw Astyntan?) But I'm getting ahead of myself here.

Let's back up to Tuesday when I was laying out these joints. I spent a long time staring at the original plate from Roubo's "L'Art du Menuisier," and it wasn't making sense to me. Robert Lang and I tried sketching the joint (electronically and on paper) to reconcile the odd perspective of the joint (I believe it's supposed to be in parallel projection instead of in perspective, but even that doesn't really explain it).

Oh, and there was the fact that the original text's dimensions don't really jibe with the drawings.

So I set forth to create a joint that resembled the drawings of workbenches shown throughout the four volumes of Roubo – and that obeyed some of the basic rules of wood-to-wood joinery set down by Joesph Moxon. And it would split my top like a muffin.

The first question was proportioning the thickness of the sliding dovetail and the tenon. These legs are finishing out a little bigger than 5" x 5". So I went for a 1-1/2"-thick dovetail, a 1-1/2" thick tenon and 1-1/2" space between the two. The remainder (a bit more than 1/2") was the shoulder at the back.

About that angle on the dovetail. It looks a lot steeper than is typical in a drawer or carcase. Roy Underhill suggested in "The Woodwright's Shop" to use a dovetail that has a slope of 2-1/2" to 1" when he built his bench with a rising dovetail.

That sloped looked too shallow. After fussing around, we settled on a slope that was 1-3/4" to 1". That is one steep slope (about 30°), but it looks right. So be it.

I laid out the joints last night before I left work and started in on the sawing this morning with a honking enormous 11-point tenon saw that's 16" long.

I needed a bigger saw. I couldn't reach the baseline because the brass back hit the top of the leg. That was a new sensation.

So I got out my full-size ripsaw. And that's when the fun began. Even with the big saw, it took some time to rip those cheeks. I could have written a couple blog entries while sawing one joint. But it's going well.

Soon I'll get to make the female part of the joint and give my mortise chisel and brace a workout.

— Christopher Schwarz

When I am deep into a sawcut, you could walk into the shop totally naked, on fire and covered with leprous monkeys, and I probably wouldn't notice.

Accurate sawing is tantric. It's a rhythm. It is meditation.

Today I was sawing the legs to length for this Roubo workbench and I was surrounded by mahem. We had a photographer in the shop shooting photos. All the overhead lights were out and there were wild flashes and beeps every minute or so. We had a guest in the shop learning woodworking. Router. Circ saw. Benchtop table saw. Jigsaw. Animated conversation. And we're trying to close the June 2010 issue of the magazine and there is a lot of torn hair on the floor.

I finished cutting a 5" x 5" leg to 33" with a handsaw. I split the line on all four faces. I was feeling no pain, and I was hearing the sound of one hand clapping. But then I heard this:

"What are you doing working so hard?"

I looked over at our guest, who was learning all the hand-held power tools today. I opened my mouth to explain, and then I knew what it must feel like to wear a saffron robe and live in a cave without speaking for a decade. I couldn't explain it.

But for you, dear reader, I can explain a couple things.

1. My block plane was not cleaved in thrain by epoxy yesterday. That staged photo was my sick sense of humor leaching through my training as a journalist. I'd apologize for the misunderstanding, but we Midwesterners apologize for anything at the drop of a hat. So it would be meaningless.

2. Here's how to saw a 6x6. Start sawing on a corner as per usual. Immediately lay down the saw to cut at a low angle across the uppermost face. Saw until you have traversed the face. Rotate the stock 90° away from you. Put the saw in the kerf and advance on the face that is now uppermost. After a few strokes, lay down the saw again and traverse the line facing up. A low sawing angle is less aggressive, but it is more accurate.

Flip the work 90° away from you again. Do the same routine. Start at the corner. Lay down the saw. Traverse the face. When you finish that face, move the saw to 45° and saw like crazy. Throw the handle like you would a baseball pitch. Don't use much downward pressure. Let the tool do the work.

When you have sawn from corner to corner, flip the leg 90° away from you one last time. Connect the saw kerfs by laying down the saw. Then return to 45° and finish the cut.

If you take your time, I think you'll find this technique crazily accurate and weirdly fast.

— Christopher Schwarz

For me, ripping boards on low sawhorses is a quick trip to a sore back. It's a balancing act done while bending over and pushing hard. So I'm always on the lookout for ways to do the same work with less effort.

Some might call this "lazy." I prefer the term "American!"

Last month I wrote a blog entry about a style of ripping that was common in France and Germany (and, as I later found out, lots of other countries as well). The reaction from the people was mostly that of concern – that I would rip myself in two and do it by starting in the softest place possible.

So I wanted to post a short video that shows this in action and also points out that the saw's teeth face away from the user. This method of ripping is tons easier than crouching on sawhorses. And I actually found that the saw was easier for me to control.

I did a fair amount of ripping like this while I was up in Maine last week. We didn't have any power equipment around. Check it out above. First: I usually use a full-size ripsaw for this operation, but mine is in the mail, so I used a rip-filed panel saw instead. It's fine for this operation – just slower.

And here's a quick tip: If the saw starts to jam, lean the saw's tote forward (away from you), which will make the teeth engage more sweetly.

Also, here's another form of ripping I like better than crouching: overhand ripping at the bench. You actually have to stand up for this, but it does have one distinct advantage compared to ripping while sitting: The saw is unlikely to hit the floor or your bench.

Give these a try before you scoff.

— Christopher Schwarz

I'm think I'm a decent dovetailer. My joints are tight and I get things done. Heck, I can even teach dovetailing to others when pressed.

So why don't I post a video of how quickly I can cut a dovetail joint? Because we'd likely run out of videotape.

Truth is, I think I'm a bit slow. When I was a wee lad my parents took me to a doctor because they thought I was, ahem, mentally challenged. Praise Jebus that I beat that rap. But yet, I admit I am still a bit slow with some things.

When I build a drawer for a piece of casework, it takes me about two hours. That includes dimensioning the stock, planing it flat, plowing the groove for the bottom and dovetailing all the corners.

Is this too slow? Should I reserve a spot on the short bus of dovetailers? Truth is, I don't care. I love cutting dovetails so much that even if it took four hours I wouldn't buy a dovetailing jig. I enjoy the process of building things with this joint because it's straightforward, mechanical and a bit physical.

So you are probably wondering if I've knit a little cozy for my marking gauge. Or if I pare every joint to perfection using feeler gauges as a guide.

Neither is the case. I work with joints where the walls are cut with the saw and the floors are bashed out with a chisel. I don't find myself tweaking every surface with a chisel or a paring guide. So I cut my dovetails like the big boys, I just do it at my own pace.

Perhaps I should be ashamed. I cut my first dovetails in 1993 – that's 17 years ago. I should be better, right?

— Christopher Schwarz

"I know what you're thinking, punk. You're thinking, 'Did he fire six shots or only five?' Now to tell you the truth I forgot myself in all this excitement. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world and will blow you head clean off, you've gotta ask yourself a question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?"

— Harry Callahan, "Dirty Harry" (1971)

I'm taking off on Sunday for a week-long trip for work and really wanted to get this Old-school Roubo workbench project underway. While the air-dried cherry stock is surprisingly dry, I still wanted to cut the legs to length so they will (I hope) finish drying while I'm away.

The only real problem with the stock is it's fairly punky in places, so I needed to make my cuts carefully.

Whenever possible, I like to start a project with an ax. I fetched my carpenter's hatchet from my toolchest and began hacking away at the spongy stuff. This, I might add, is more satisfying than a marketing meeting.

Once I removed the bad stuff and hit the good wood, I started hunting and pecking around the planks for a half-decent 36" length of wood. The legs will finish out at 4" x 6" x 34", but I want a little extra length at this point in case I get some checking while the legs finish acclimating.

Then I started cutting the legs to length with my Disston 6-point D-8 – the coarsest crosscut handsaw I own. Senior Editor Glen D. Huey took some video of the work in case we decided to make a DVD of the process.

The first three legs gave me no problems. I was able to do a fairly good punk-ectomy on the legs, which will require only a little rot-fixing epoxy. But the fourth leg was sounder on the outside than it was on the inside. After about a dozen strokes with the handsaw it felt like I was slicing through wet toilet paper.

Chunks of red spongy stuff began jumping to their doom from the end grain of the leg. When the waste finally let go, the end grain looked like Mother Nature had made a mortise in the end.

Looks like I'll need a lot more epoxy stuff.

Today the legs are reading at between 12 percent to 15 percent moisture content. We'll see how they look on Monday.

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. I won't be able to check e-mail much next week. So if you send me a message, you probably won't get a response until the week after.

Roy Underhill has asked me to appear on "The Woodwright's Shop" during the show's upcoming 30th season. (Note to self: You can now stop squealing like a little girl.)

Between now and the time we tape the show sometime this summer or fall, there's lots I have to do to prepare. Shave my back, attempt to stop looking like a frightened lab animal while appearing on television and – oh yes – decide on something to talk about.

That's where you come in.

Underhill thought it would be fun to have the unwashed (yes, I can smell you from here) readers of this blog help decide on the show's topic. Underhill and I kicked around a few ideas this week. Read them through and then vote for the one you like best using the polling widget below.

I cannot guarantee that the most popular topic will win. I'm still hoping we can do something on hand skills that even the CNC jockeys need (wiping, picking, flicking).

"The Evolution (and De-evolution) of Workbenches"
I'll track the workbench form through history with the help of six cool miniature scale models of my favorite benches, starting with Egypt, moving through Rome and then Paris, with side trips to Scandinavia, England and America!

Then I'll show how civilization reached the summit of workbench design in the 18th century and was then plunged back into the abyss by the Industrial Revolution and the dreaded "Euro-Bench." Plus, details on what's so awesome about ancient workbenches and how you can modify your modern bench to make it work like an old one.

"The 1839 Tool Kit"
We'll take a trip back to explore the toolkit of young Thomas, the hero of the 1839 book "The Joiner and Cabinet Maker." We'll go over his complete tool kit – it's tiny – and show how he was able to stretch this basic kit of tools to build some impressive casework. We'll cut dados, tenons and dovetails using this simple set.

"Sawing With an English Accent"
We explore the "three classes" of sawcuts laid down by English craftsman Robert Wearing. For third-class sawcuts we'll rip wood English-style and compare it to the French and Third-world styles. We'll cut tenon cheeks using the second-class sawcut and show how the chisel is a saw's best friend. And we'll show how to saw your tenon shoulders without using a saw – the tricky first-class sawcut. Plus we'll show how the French cheat on this joint.

— Christopher Schwarz

Years ago Don McConnell (now with Clark & Williams plane makers) shamed me into sharpening my own saws.

He was down for a photo shoot and I mentioned that I had sent a saw out to be sharpened with some odd filing. Don stopped whatever it was he was doing and looked up at me.

"I can't believe you don't sharpen your own saws."

Tail tucked between legs, I went home that night and bought saw files from Pete Taran, read his entire saw filing primer and started searching for a good saw vise on the eBay. I ended up with a Wentworth No. 8 with 10-5/8" jaws.

Since then, I've progressed slowly as a saw filer. Saws don't need as much work as planes and chisels, so my skills have been poky in coming. But I do know this: My Wentworth kinda blows chunks. It closes up tight on the left side, but not on the right. I filed the jaws a bit, tried a little leather, etc. etc. But I've not been able to get it right.

I've considered buying another vise, but I want to be able to inspect it in person and I haven't been to a tool meet in ages. So I've made do with my Wentworth.

Then I saw the new Gramercy saw vise from Tools for Working Wood at the Woodworking in America conference. The sucker locked as tight as a mutant clam. I was sold.

For the last couple weeks I've been filing saws at home – working through my entire collection (there, I said the "c" word). The Gramercy saw vise turned my Wentworth into a bass boat anchor. The Gramercy has 14" jaws that grip the saw so tightly that the vise and saw seem as one entity. As a result, filing with it is quieter and smoother.

I was so thrilled with it that I wore out all the saw files I had on hand.

Now let's talk about the math. The Gramercy is $119.95, which is pricier than I've ever seen a vintage saw vise (my Wentworth was $25 plus about that much in shipping). And I am sure that I could find a decent working vise at the next tool swap I attended.

But I decided to buy the Gramercy and be done with it. Leif Hanson, who has more of a saw problem than I do, has also done the calculus on his blog. And he knows a lot more about saw vises than do I.

Bottom line: We all should be sharpening our own saws. And if you want to buy one lifetime saw vise that will work perfectly out of the box, the Gramercy is the way to go. Highly recommended.

— Christopher Schwarz

I swore a blood oath I would never write about the "nib" on a saw – the ornamental protrusion found at the toe of some old saws. And I won't break that oath.

I will, however, attempt to amuse you with some scribbling about a saw's "nipple."

Now I'm not just using the word "nipple" to see what amusing advertisements Google will place around this blog entry. No, I would never use the word "nipple" that lightly. Instead, I will delve deeply into history and quote a 1933 children's book that discusses "the little nipple that we see on top of our saws."

Thomas Hibben gets into nipples in "The Carpenter's Tool Chest" when he discusses Japanese tools in his chapter on tools of the Renaissance (page 202, for those who want to follow along). Tools in Japan, he explains, are used on the pull stroke instead of the push.

It may well be that the little nipple that we see on top of our saws has survived from the days when saws were pulled. Such a mark would serve to catch the carpenter's eye as he pulled back on the saw so that he stopped his pull before the blade came out of the cut.

In short, stop your stroke when you see the nipple.

All puerile prose aside, I am charmed by this suggestion. Could the nib – I mean nipple – have been a visual cue to cease your return stroke and then engage the teeth of a Western saw in your cut? Dang, the little thing is in the right place to do just that. It could just be the greatest hair-brained explanation for the thing that I've heard.

Come morning, I'm going to make some cuts with my nippled saws and see if keeping a sharp eye out for the nipple really works.

— Christopher Schwarz, who is certain he will be hearing from the Human Resources department any minute now.

What's this? It's a lovely mountain scene that would make Bob Ross proud. Happy little trees. Oh look, the big gymnosperm is reflected in the water. I can almost taste the wood smoke and feel the cold nip of the mountain air blowing off the snow-capped peaks.

But what is this work of art doing in my e-mail's inbox? Why, it's from eBay. But I didn't set up a search for oil paintings.

Dear god. The dreaded cult of saw painters has moved on to coping saws, after having depleted our supply of Woodrow & McParlin panther saws. What's next? Geishas painted on dozukis? French bread painted on frame saws?

At least it wasn't a Millers Falls No. 42.

— Christopher Schwarz

Perhaps I'm the oddball here, but I've always found cutting tenons by hand to be more challenging than any sort of dovetailing.

Tenons require a lot of precision sawing if you want to avoid farting around with a shoulder plane, chisel or float. And teaching others to cut perfect shoulders is a challenge. I usually show them Robert Wearing's trick called a "first-class sawcut." Basically, you create a quick V-groove at the shoulder line and drop the saw into that.

It works great, but you still have to keep the saw vertical. And you have to keep it from jumping out of the kerf and marring your work.

Today I was cutting some tenons and was clamping my work down to my bench hook to hold it immobile while I focused on cutting the 4-1/2"-long shoulders. Like always, I clamped a piece of waste between my hold-down and my work to keep the hold-down from marring the walnut.

I looked at the waste. Its straight edge whispered: "Use me, Seymour."

I shifted the waste right onto my shoulder line and clamped down the waste. I picked up my flush-cutting saw and used the waste as a fence to guide the saw – just like I do when I cut the walls of dados.

It worked brilliantly, even without a chiseled v-groove. This tenon shoulder won't need any work.

If you struggle cutting long shoulders, it's worth trying.

— Christopher Schwarz

This thing is a work of art, and if you have an extra $375 it can be yours. Sadly, I have already sold my share of plasma this month or I'd buy it myself.

What's really cool about the saw is that you tension the blade by turning the knob at the end of the handle – just like the marquetry saw shown in Andre Roubo's book. Visit Jim Bode's web site at JimBodeTools.com to see more photos and to buy it. Sniff.

— Christopher Schwarz

Ripping boards by hand is a lot like working. And so I'm always looking for different techniques (other than buying a Bowflex machine and steroids) to do it with less effort.

This weekend I was re-reading Fred T. Hodgson's amazingly opinionated book on saws: "Hand Saws: Their Use, Care and Abuse." You can download the 1909 version for free from Gary Roberts's excellent archive at Toolemera.com. Have you been to that site? I highly recommend it.

Back to the point, I stumbled onto a passage on ripping by hand on page 31 that I had forgotten. Here it is:

The French workman sometimes places his plank on the sawhorses and starts his saw in the usual way, and then he gets behind the saw and sits astride the stuff, and cuts the plank with the saw-teeth pointing away from him. He grasps the saw with both hands, and follows up his work by keeping moving forward after the saw. I have seen Germans use the rip-saw this way with success, and have tried it myself with satisfaction.

Let's see, I get to sit down while ripping? What could be better? (Aside from someone feeding me Ho-Hos during the operation.) This morning I gave it a try. You need to get the saw fairly far into the plank before you get to sit down. I went about 12" and then assumed the French position. Steering the saw is a little different, but you catch on after a few strokes.

All in all, I quite like the technique.

However, I wasn't too fond of ramming my soft bits into the wedge shown in the photo above. I wonder if Lee Valley Tools sells athletic supporters.

— Christopher Schwarz

My search for a coping saw that will hold its blade setting is starting to feel a little like an episode of "In Search of..." with Leonard Nimoy. The solution might be as elusive as the Louisiana swamp monster.

This morning I restored a Millers Falls coping saw that uses a locking mechanism that was patented Nov. 10, 1908 (saw nerds can click here). Tool collector and woodworker John Walkowiak turned me onto this form and I picked one up on eBay for almost nothing.

While many collectors are nuts for Stanley stuff, you shouldn't kick the Millers Falls stuff out of bed for eating crackers. The company made some amazing tools, exceeding Stanley quality in some cases. (Would you care to mainline some Millers Falls? Cancel your appointments for the day and visit OldToolHeaven.com).

The Millers Falls No. 42 coping saw is a real precision tool. The workmanship on the tool far exceeds what you'll find on a modern coping saw. The frame is a rigid bent wire that you can tension incredibly high. The wooden handle is a great fit in the the hand. It's lightweight – less than half a pound.

But the real reason to take a look at this saw is the blade mechanism. It is a piece of work. The heart of the system is what the company calls a "threaded draw bolt," which holds the blade at the heel. This drawbolt threads into the handle of the saw. There's also a nut threaded onto the drawbolt. And this nut moves a "finger piece" – that flat nubby thing you can see in the photos.

Here's how it works: You tension the blade by turning the handle – this pulls the drawbolt back into the handle. Then you advance the nut on the drawbolt until it engages some notches that are filed into the handle and the frame of the saw.

It locks well.

What about the toe of the blade? You can opt to have it locked in one position or have it swing free. A threaded nut on the end controls that.

The only problem with the saw (besides about 75 years of rust) was that there were no notches to lock the blade at 45°. A file remedied that problem and now the blade locks right where I want it. I took it for a test drive in some white oak and the tool didn't lose its setting after 20 or 30 cuts.

This saw is a keeper. I don't know if this mechanism would be something to imitate today – there is a lot of machining and knurling on this tool. It would be an expensive item. But if you see one at a flea market, I'd snatch it up.

— Christopher Schwarz

My co-workers branded me with a nickname in the 1990s after I took apart our shop's Bosch plunge router and replaced the brushes on its commutator.

After reassembling the Bosch and putting it back in the tool cabinet, I returned to my desk for an exciting day of editing comma errors. The next day a fellow editor grabbed the Bosch. When he pulled the trigger, a shower of sparks (and he claims, flames) spit from the router's vents.

As a result, I was referred to as "Sparky" whenever my power-tool acumen came up in conversation.

Last week, I earned my nickname anew when messing with the Dremel Moto-Saw I bought off eBay. I plugged the saw in to the power strip in my office during a staff meeting to demonstrate its vibro-massage function. I pulled the trigger. The saw shorted, my desk light flickered and the saw scorched my hands and jeans.

Hilarity ensued.

Today I vowed to fix the saw. I purchased short, pin-ended blades for the saw from Sears that fit quite well once I bent the saw's spring back to its original position (thank you, patent drawings).

The short was caused by frayed wires at the end of the handle. So I disassembled the handle to replace the cord. It was going smoothly until I got to the place where the power entered the saw's electromagnet. Like lots of 50-year-old tools, the insulation around all the components had turned to dust. I gingerly lifted one of the wires to blow out the insulation and the wire's connection to the magnet disintegrated.

In fact, the connection was so far gone I couldn't even tell how the wire was originally connected. I inspected the wire on the other side of the magnet. It was almost kaput as well. I pinched it and wiggled it. It popped off.

The Moto-Saw was now like all my other coping saws – cordless. I installed the blade anyway and decided to cut some 1/2" cherry.

Hilarity ensued.

— Christopher Schwarz

Here in America we will put a motor on just about anything. Picnic tables. Ice cream cones. Scissors.

And yet, it was still a surprise when I stumbled on a motorized coping saw for sale on eBay. And no thanks to the two beers inside me at the time, I ended up buying the saw. It arrived yesterday. It is a curious creature.

Patented in 1941 by Albert J. Dremel (yes, the namesake of Dremel), the Dremel Moto-Saw is a remarkable if commercially unsuccessful piece of engineering. After reading the patent application (check it out on Google Patents), I was impressed by its ingenuity.

Like a traditional coping saw, the blade is held in tension with a spring action. The heel of the blade (the part by the handle) is on an armature that looks and works like a diving board at the swimming pool. The armature is attached to the frame of the saw at one end and juts out over a big electromagnet in the handle.

Plug the saw in and pull the trigger and the armature moves quickly back and forth as it is attracted to and repulsed by the electromagnet.

You can even vary the stroke of the saw by turning a knob that adjusts the position of the armature, just like you would adjust the springiness of a diving board.

How does it work? Well I plugged it in, pulled the trigger and the Moto-Saw made a noise like a gaggle of angry bees being shorn by an electric razor. This is normal.

The armature indeed moved rapidly in and out. I was ready to be impressed.

The only thing stopping me was the fact that this saw came with no blade. And standard coping saw blades won't work. I'm guessing that this saw uses pin blades that have about 2-1/4" to 2-3/8" of blade between the pins.

I started making my own blades this morning, but I'm going to need a 3/64" drill bit and some punches first. So I'll put that on the list for my next trip to the hardware store.

Now before you dismiss this saw as a piece of war-era lunacy, take a look at this 2007 patent from the Robert Bosch corporation (yes, that Robert Bosch).

— Christopher Schwarz

Of all the power tools I own, I think my scariest, oops-I-crapped-my-pants moments have been with a power miter saw.

When knocking down rough stock, miter saws have a tendency to "armadillo" – or leap straight out of the cut, sometimes kicking your work around. This happens when the stock pinches on the blade, which can occur for a variety of reasons (some of which are impossible to control).

Also, when mitering small pieces, the waste piece can be shot around like a bullet, even with all the safety equipment engaged.

While I still use my Makita miter saw, I do so sparingly. Nowadays I rough out my stock using handsaws and sawbenches. I have yet to have a handsaw kick back at me.

And for mitering, I turn to my No. 16-1/2 Langdon Mitre Box, which I bought about five years ago for $125. I overpaid, but I don't care. This saw in some cases replaces even my table saw to crosscut small parts.

The box cuts more than 4"-wide at 90°. And it will miter a 3"-wide piece. As a result, making face frames and doors is a snap with this tool. And the quality of its cut is tremendous. It's not as glass smooth as that from a table saw, but it's good enough for a tight joint.

I also like the saw because it's safe enough for my daughter Katy to use it.

In fact, I've used this tool so much that the 16" backsaw that came with it (made by Simonds) is now filed too short to work with the miter box. It's used up. (Right now I have a 14" English carcase saw in the box. I need to replace that because 14" is too short.)

The good news is that you can replace the saw with another vintage saw, or even a new one from Lie-Nielsen or Adria or another manufacturer. As long as the saw's back is no thicker than 3/8" you'll be OK.

These mitre boxes can be tough to buy on eBay. Essential parts are missing. They might be ragged out. They cost a bunch to ship. I've found the best place to buy them is at tool swaps, such as those run by the Mid-West Tool Collector's Association. Or from tool dealers.

— Christopher Schwarz

Before you buy one of the FatMax coping saws that I praised this week, take note. Take apart the saw and examine the blade connectors before you plunk down the $10.

Yesterday I received a 4" FatMax saw that I ordered online. I promptly took it to the shop to replace its blade and make some test cuts. The sucker wouldn't lock. At the toe of the saw the blade locked well at eight angles. But the at the heel the blade connector rotated like a top.

I took the saw apart. The blade connector at the heel was junk. The little nibs that lock the connector to the saw's frame weren't there. No nibs equals no lock. This saw has to go back. Of course, shipping will be more expensive than the tool itself.

So look for nibs before you buy.

— Christopher Schwarz

I never knew how lame my cordless Skil drill was until I used a Makita. With a clutch. And the distinct absence of flames. So these last few weeks I've become frustrated and obsessed (frusessed?) with my coping saws – their blades just don't hold their angle.

Luckily, there are already a lot of patented mechanisms out there (patents that have long expired, by the way), plus lots of antique examples of coping saws that have blades that really lock tight.

This week I got my hands on one of the Stanley FatMax coping saws that has a pretty good blade-locking mechanism. You'd think this new saw would calm my locking lust, but it has only inflamed it. That's because I've been using the FatMax quite a bit to clear dovetail waste and it works brilliantly.

After a couple sets of dovetails I found that I could saw even closer to the baseline because:

1. I wasn't afraid of the blade twisting and me sawing off line.

2. I knew the exact angle of the blade (45°) and as I got used to that angle I knew exactly how to twist the saw to skim the baseline. In other words, I'm hooked.

So why am I blogging about this today? While I think the FatMax is great (skip three lattes and buy one), I think the form could be improved a bit. Here's what I would do:

1. Make the locking mechanism tighter – perhaps by copying the early 20th-century Simonds coping saw or one of the other expired patents out there.

2. Improve the machining on the blade connectors that grab the pin-end blades. Have you seen the connectors on the Gramercy bowsaw? They're excellent. I'd like something like that.

3. Please give me a wooden handle. The FatMax handle is surprisingly comfortable, but industrial-looking squishy handles just don't do it for me.

What would they look like? Well thanks to Joel Moskowitz at Tools for Working Wood, I fell for some 18th-century forms shown in "A Catalogue of Tools for Watch and Clock Makers by John Wyke of Liverpool" (1758-1770). This catalog, reprinted by the Winterthur Museum, contains a lot of tools used by cabinetmakers to build the cases.

Plates 27 and 28 have what are called "Morris Saw Frames." These frame saws come in a variety of sizes (some are coping saw sized) and have elegant handles. And the cool saws for jewelers on plate 27 have a nice ornamental scroll at the midpoint of the frame (which seems to serve no purpose, according to the book – another "nib").

The origin of the word "Morris" is in doubt, according to the modern text accompanying the catalog. The term might be a bastardization of "Moorish." Or it might be related to a game from the Middle Ages known as "Nine Men's Morris," which used a marquetry gaming board.

The Morris saws for cabinetmakers in plate 28 look a lot like modern coping saws or fretsaws – you'd only need to make the handles plastic and change the blade-holding mechanism to accept pin-ended blades.

What does all this prove? That a small metal frame saw sure was handy in the 18th century and still is today.

If any of you out there have old coping saws with mechanisms that lock the blade tight, I'd sure appreciate a photo. Perhaps the chatter will inspire manufacturers to improve the locking mechanism.

As to the handle, well, I'm sure that most of us can handle that. Take a look at the coping saw handle turned by reader John Borgwardt of Wisconsin, who was inspired by the handle on the marquetry saw shown in Andre Roubo.

— Christopher Schwarz

During my first story on coping saws this week I lamented it was difficult to trace the saw's genealogy. And I cussed the modern form.

Thanks to some readers, I have some more leads on the history of the coping saw (coming soon), and a new coping saw from Stanley that locks down pretty damn good. It's not perfect, but I can help you get it working better than the other junk on the market.

The Stanley FatMax coping saws come in two sizes. They both take standard coping blades but have different throats. The big one has about a 6-1/2"-deep throat. Little buddy has 4-3/4" between the frame and blade. Both have handles with soft plastic grips, like a lot of the FatMax stuff out there.

The ridges on the connector are small and hard to see. But they are there.

Where these saws stand apart is that you can lock the blade in one of eight positions. How does it work? The blade is grabbed by two "connectors" (Stanley's name for the part) that pierce the saw's C-shaped frame. Each connector has four ridges cast into it that nest into eight notches at the toe and the heel. It works like the detents on a miter saw. You loosen the connectors and rotate the blade until the connectors snap into the next detent. Then you retension the frame.

The eight notches on the saw frame. These are at the toe and heel.

I took the saw for a test drive and found that the blade held its setting far better than my Olsen or Craftsman saws, which lacks this feature. However, I've been fooled by pot metal before, especially with some woodworking machinery. I wonder how well these little ridges will hold up. We'll find out.

I think this mechanism could be improved with better machining and deeper notches and ridges. But I'm willing – thrilled really – to have the saw working this well. It's head and shoulders above other coping saws I've used.

Last night I went out and looked at other new coping saws (date night, honey!) to make sure I wasn't missing anything. It was interesting to see that the new coping saws from Craftsman and Pilot/Do-it-Best lacked these notches. But the saw from Kobalt (Lowe's house brand) had the notches at the toe of the saw but not the heel. Huh? Some one please wake up the engineer.

About the Blades
The four 18ppi blades that come with the Stanley FatMax are OK...for cutting soft cheese. Pitch them. Really. OK, give them to a neighbor. Go to Tools for Working Wood and buy yourself a package of the 18 ppi skip-tooth blades (a pack of 12 is $5.95). I have yet to find any better blade.

Both the Stanley and Olsen blades are made using .018"-thick steel. Both have the same ppi. But the Olsen has far less set – only about 3.5 thou per side. The Stanley blades are ridiculously over-set – 10 thou per side.

The stock blade (left) and the Olsen (right).

The difference is dramatic. The Olsen saws cut faster (about three times faster) and splinter a lot less. And they are easier to push. It's no contest.

And the Handle
After the first article on coping saws, several woodworkers fell in love with the handle on Roubo's marquetry saw and turned a handle like it. I have to admit I experienced a bit of lust for the little dongle on the end of the handle.

Yet, I'm not going to replace the handle on the FatMax. It's comfortable, even after 20 or so cuts while dovetailing.

The FatMax saws are available at home centers (I got mine at an Ace hardware for $10.99). Both sizes are also carried by Jamestown Distributors. Nice work Stanley.

— Christopher Schwarz

The coping saw is generally unloved, unheralded and under-appreciated. Yet as far as I'm concerned, I wouldn't enjoy woodworking as much without one.

When I started woodworking about age 11, my father forbade me from using machinery. So the only two saws I had were a panel saw with a blue plastic handle (which would not cut a limp biscuit), and a Craftsman coping saw, which I own and use to this day.

I've used that tool for everything (perhaps things I shouldn't: game, deli meats). And as a result I am attached to the form.

However, I don't know jack crap about the history of the lowly coping saw. And I wonder why no one has ever tried to improve upon the modern, barely usable form of the tool. I have looked through all my resources for the history and true explanation of the coping saw, but my books and downloads and academic sources have mostly failed me.

Now, I'm certain that someone out there will pull my pants down and produce the article titled: "The History of the Heroic Coping Saw." I welcome the cool breeze on my "no-no square."

Until that time comes, here's what I've been able to piece together from my library. I'm at the beginning stages of this journey, but I wanted to share some of the stuff I've found in the hope that it will shake loose the history of this unsung saw.

Roubo's "marquetry saw." Nice handle!

Some Evidence
The coping saw is a D-shaped metal frame saw that is obviously descended from the early Roman forms, which feature a thin blade that is held in tension by a wooden frame and string.

The frame saw came into use for marquetry, and as this art form reached its zenith in the 17th and 18th centuries, all its tools became specialized and refined. Andre Roubo dedicated an entire volume to its practice, "Le Menuisier Ebeniste." And in plate 292, Roubo shows what he calls a "marquetry saw," which is a metal frame saw that tensions the blade without a string or toggle arrangement. At first glance the saw looks a lot like what we call a coping saw, though the blade does not rotate in its frame and the throat of the tool is quite deep.

The other tool development that seems related to the coping saw is the development of similar D-shaped frame saws that were used to cut metal or exotic materials, such as jeweler's saws, the hack saw, the piercing saw and the ivory saw. These saws show up in 18th-century plates (such as Roubo) and become fairly common in the 19th century.

So by the 19th century here's what we have: Marquetry saws with deep throats (sometimes deep enough to warrant an NC17 rating), and frame saws with shallow throats used for cutting dense materials. The coping saw appears to be a tool that bridges these two forms.

First, what's the deal with its name? "Coping" is a 17th-century term (thank you, Oxford English Dictionary) that refers to the top course of bricks or blocks on a wall. If the bricks were beveled to help shed rain, they were called "coping blocks." So the term "coping" was clearly related to a beveled edge.

In modern woodworking, coping can refer to actually removing the bevel from a mitered piece of moulding in order to fit two pieces of moulding in an inside corner. The term coping is also used concerning doors that have their inside edges moulded. The ends of the door's rails are "coped" so they nest against the moulding on the door's stiles. So "coping" is actually the act of cutting the negative shape of the moulding on a piece.

The first references to a "coping saw" appear, as best as I can tell, in the 19th century in books and tool catalogs. The first U.S. patent for a saw that quacks like a modern coping saw is an 1883 application from William Jones – earlier patented frame saws look to me like marquetry saws with deep throats.

That 1883 patent called the tool a "saw frame for a jeweler's saw." The following year, C.A. Fenner patented a mechanism that allowed the blade to rotate in the frame (it's amazing in its gizmosity). He called it (most unhelpfully) a "hand saw."

And in 1887, Christopher Morrow patented a tool called a "coping saw," which ironically tensions its blade more like a wooden bowsaw. After that point, the term "coping saw" crops up regularly in catalogs and patent filings. By 1900, the saw is everywhere.

The inexpensive tool becomes a ubiquitous part of the carpenter's tool kit. It also becomes a tool that is central to the manual training movement of the late 19th century (what we call shop class). The coping saw was used by students to cut out all manner of toys and decorative objects. And many books, manuals and patterns devoted to coping saw work appear in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Used Everywhere, But Not in the Same Way
Though lots of people big and small were using the coping saw, there was (and still is) a major disagreement about it: Should it cut on the push stroke (like most Western saws) or the pull (like most Eastern saws)?

The earliest source I could find that addressed the matter directly was "Trade Foundations," a pre-vocational textbook from 1919 published by the Guy M. Jones Co.

"Most coping saw work is done with the work resting horizontally on the bench and held in place with the left hand. The teeth should point toward the saw handle. When the vise is used to hold the work, the saw teeth should point away from the handle."

When I looked to other writers who were traditionally trained, their opinion seemed to support this early view. Robert Wearing in "The Essential Woodworker" shows a coping saw cutting on the push to remove waste between dovetails (the work is in a vise). He states that coping saws work on the push, except on a horizontal saw table when working with thin material. Then it should cut on the pull.

Charles Hayward in "Tools for Woodwork" states that coping saws are generally used on the push, but there are occasions when the blade should be reversed.

Among the modern writers, many (with the exception of Aldren A. Watson) seem to prefer to use the saw on the pull stoke only.

In "Carpentry & Construction" by Rex Miller and Glenn E. Baker, the authors state that the teeth should point toward the handle. "This means it cuts only on the downward stroke."

In the "Band Saw Handbook," Mark Duginske writes that the coping saw is used only on the pull stroke. "Because the blade is cutting on the pull stroke, the blade tensions itself."

So with all this divided opinion, I think it's best to file this debate under "Kobayashi Maru" along with "pins or tails first" and "bevel-up or bevel down."

A detail of the Lawrence patent locking mechanism.

The Weak Modern Form
So now we come to the real reason I've been digging through all this old paper. Modern coping saws are – for the most part – flawed. But they weren't always this way.

What's wrong with them? Mostly it's the mechanism that allows you to rotate the blade. I've never had a coping saw that could hold its setting – no matter how much I tightened the frame or even how many lock washers I added to the saw.

After a certain number of strokes, the blade goes into wind – meaning the blade rotates more (or less) at the toe than at the heel. This warping makes the saw hard to control and is one of the reasons why dovetail savant Rob Cosman uses a jeweler's saw and tweaks the blades manually with pliers.

Me, I'm done with jeweler's saws, which I suspect are made only to sell the easily snapped blades.

So it sounds like we should get the CAD jockeys to jump on this problem, right? Maybe not. As I was browsing through my old tool catalogs and patent filings, I found all manner of mechanisms for fixing the problem of blades in wind. Some of the solutions were downright silly (see the Fenner patent). Others, including the ones used by Simonds and some other major manufacturers, were simple and robust.

In essence, the saws had eight detents to lock the blade at eight different angles. When you see one of these catalog drawings, you'll start looking for an old saw made like this. I did.

— Christopher Schwarz

There is great debate among the Saw Nerds (I'm a card-carrying member) about when the backsaw came into this world, kicking and screaming and whipping its lamb's tongue to and fro.

Historic documents have been read. Great thoughts have been thinked. The Internet was clicked many times.

But what gets little attention is actually why the backsaw was ever developed.

In the mind of veteran carpenter and tool collector Carl Bilderback, you don't need a backsaw.

"You can cut any joint you want with a 16" panel saw," he said. "It's more than stiff enough for the job. So why do we have backsaws?"

Bilderback didn't have the answer to that rhetorical questions, but he did offer up some other thoughts. The late Cecil Pierce cut his dovetails (beautifully by the way) with a hacksaw. You can read all about that in his short book "The Precision Handcutting of Dovetails" from Astragal Press. And the book "Modern Practical Joinery" by George Ellis shows experienced joiners cutting tenons with handsaws. "Look ma, no back."

"Why do we even have $200 dovetail saws to do something you can do with a $15 hacksaw from Ace Hardware?" Bilderback asks.

Bilderback has cut lots of joints with a panel saw and recommends that if you want to try it yourself that you use a saw with little or no set.

This afternoon I gave it a try and cut dovetails with a crosscut panel saw. I was laughing the whole time I did it because it was extremely easy to switch from a backsaw to a panel saw. The tool leaves a big kerf in its wake, but that actually made it easy for the coping saw to drop in there to remove the waste.

— Christopher Schwarz

Don't let anyone tell you that saws are just a hunk of wood plus a sheet of steel. The more that I work with different saws, the less I know about the tools.

Saws are a remarkable combination of materials and geometry. On the materials side of the equation, you can vary the weight, the balance and the amount of effort required to push the tool. On the geometry side of things, you can change the "hang" of the saw (which is basically the thrust pattern), and the aggressiveness of the teeth.

And you can vary all these characteristics almost infinitely.

This week I've been testing the dovetail saw from Rob Cosman for the April 2010 issue. It is, by far, the heaviest and longest dovetail saw I've ever handled. It tips the scales at 1.16 lbs. By way of comparison, my Gramercy dovetail saw weighs .42 lbs.

However, the saw from Cosman feels balanced, both to me and other members of the staff. But what do we mean by balance?

Some saws are "toe heavy," which means they have a lot of weight at the tip. These saws tend to make me overcut on the far side of my work – something I try to avoid. Other saws have heavy handles, which just feels wrong to me.

This morning I tried to put some numbers to my gut feelings about balance. So I took apart four of the dovetail saws in our shop right now: The Cosman, Lie-Nielsen, Gramercy and Eccentric saws.

Then I weighed the handles separately from the back and blade assembly. I was surprised by how different they were. Here's how the numbers came out.

Rob Cosman saw: This saw has a handle that weighs .5 lbs. and a blade assembly that weighs .66 lbs. That is a 43/57 handle-to-blade weight-distribution ratio. This is a 14-point spread.

Lie-Nielsen saw: This saw weighs .72 lbs. total. The handle is .2 lbs. and the blade assembly is .52 lbs. That's a 28/72 weight-distribution ratio. This is a 44-point spread.

Eccentric saw: This saw weighs .68 lbs. The handle is .28 lbs. and the blade is .4 lbs. That's a 41/59 weight-distribution ratio. This is an 18-point spread.

Gramercy saw: This saw weighs .42 lbs. The handle is .16 lbs. and the blade is .26 lbs. That's a 38/62 weight-distribution ratio. This is a 24-point spread.

What does this mean? What is the ideal weight-distribution ratio? Is there one? Or is it just one factor that's combined with the materials and geometry to produce a saw that cuts well?

None of these saws feels awkward in your hand. However, there are differences when you pick them up one after the other. I asked the staff to try each saw and tell me which one felt the most balanced. The universal answer: Everyone liked the Eccentric.

As one editor put it: "This saw feels so right that it's like my hand grew teeth."

The other major difference with the Eccentric is that the blade is smaller at the toe than at the heel. So its blade weight isn't evenly distributed along the blade and back.

After a morning of fooling around, I now know even less about saws.

— Christopher Schwarz

Some Japanese saws don't play nice with Western hardwoods.

More than a decade ago, my wife bought me a nice Japanese dozuki that cost about $100, a fortune for us at the time. I took it to the shop and started cutting some dovetails for a Stickley mantle clock I was building. The wood was white oak.

After a stroke or two I heard a pinging sound. Each stroke snapped off several teeth. So I called the catalog company to give them grief. At first, they blamed me and said it was my inexperience with the tool that caused it to commit ritual suicide. I argued that I had been using dozukis for many years. I knew the tool needed a light touch.

Then the guy asked: "What wood were you cutting?" I told him.

"Send it back. And don't ever use it on white oak or any other ring-porous wood."

In the years since, I've talked to a lot of experts on Japanese saws and they have told me that the handmade Japanese saws have teeth that are more delicate. Many factory-made Japanese saws have teeth that are induction-hardened (which shows up as a dark discoloration at the toothline). These saws haven't ever given me problems.

I've also been told that – in general – Japanese woods are softer than their Western equivalents.

So the lesson for me was: Be careful when using nice Japanese saws.

Today I forgot that rule. I was using a Japanese nail saw to trim some white oak pegs when I lost 18 teeth. This was a saw we had tested in Woodworking Magazine (don't worry, it wasn't the winner) and its teeth were not induction hardened.

Ugh. Time to call Lee Valley and buy the winning saw.

— Christopher Schwarz

Today most of the magazine's staff spent the day with Ron Herman, a seventh-generation housewright in Columbus, Ohio, who has spent the last 29 years building, remodeling and restoring homes and historic sites – in many cases using only traditional tools.

His small shop north of the city is one of the wonders of the Western world. Amongst the machinery (much of it converted from a line-shaft system) are more hand tools than your eye can possibly take in. If this were a tool collection, it would be stupendous. The fact that Herman sets up all these tools and uses them is mind-blowing.

Herman spoke on handsaws at out last Woodworking in America Conference. But he knows about a lot more than saws.

I'm still trying to process all my notes and photos for a future article. Herman can talk. And his shop is a feast for the camera. In the meantime, I've pulled out a few good quotes from my notebook and some of the photos I took during our visit.

"You have to have good mojo. You don't screw widders and orphans for tools. Some guys will come in here and say, 'I got this saw for $1 and it's worth $500.' I tell them to get it out of here. It's bad mojo. That saw won't cut straight or hold an edge. I believe in that stuff. Bad mojo will follow you around."

"Tools all have life left in them if they fit your hand. Strip the handle. Salvage the parts. Whatever you do, don't s*&tcan a tool."

"We don't own these. We are their stewards for the next generation. We keep them and prepare them for the next generation."

"The more tools you have the more problems you can solve."

"I drive tool collectors nuts. They bring me something mint in the box and I give them the box back. I have no problems using a tool from the 1700s. I say to (the tool), 'How does that feel to have wood in your mouth again?' "

"The earth's gravity is a constant. I haven't seen it change. It doesn't run out of batteries. You can't kick it down a hill by accident. It's doesn't lie. It can't."

— Christopher Schwarz

Mark Harrell of Bad Axe Tool Works just launched his new website this week. And in addition to pretty pictures of his new Bad Axe saws and details of his saw restoration and sharpening services, Harrell does the hand world a solid by offering free tutorials on how he restores vintage saws.

There are stories on removing rust, unlocking a frozen sawnut, restoring a handle (that one is particularly excellent) and even how to pack a saw to ship it.

We're all big fans of Bad Axe here (just read this review), and in case you are just tuning in to this blog, Harrell also offers speed and reasonable resharpening and restoration services. If you have a rusty saw, start the restoration using Harrell's instructions. Then send it to him for sharpening. A sharp saw is a revelation.

Check out the new site at badaxetoolworks.com.

— Christopher Schwarz

In the interest of full disclosure, the following book – "The Perfect Edge" – is being published by my parent company, F+W Media. Also, I consider the author, Ron Hock, a good friend. Oh, and once I got on stage and shook it with a belly dancer in Greece after too many grape leaves and shots of ouzo.

OK, now that all that's on the table, I think I can also say I'm a big fan of the two other big sharpening books out there: "The Complete Guide to Sharpening" by Leonard Lee (Taunton) and "Taunton's Complete Illustrated Guide to Sharpening" by Thomas Lie-Nielsen. I've also sharpened a few tools in the last 15 years using everything from a brick to a $1,000 electric-powered record player.

So let's get the most important question out of the way. If you already own the books by Lee or Lie-Nielsen, do you need "The Perfect Edge?" Well, unless you are a sharpening geek, no. All three books are outstanding works, in my opinion. All three will teach you how to sharpen a wide variety of tools. All three will take you from rank amateur to a zero-radius-intersection connoisseur.

If, however, you don't own a book on sharpening, I think "The Perfect Edge" should be at the top of the list, if only for the fact that it covers the latest innovations in sharpening equipment and is written in a very breezy style that makes the technical information easy to digest.

Hock is one of the founding fathers of the hand-tool renaissance that has been blossoming during the last 20 years. He started out supplying plane irons to James Krenov and his students at the College of the Redwoods. From that modest beginning, Hock Tools grew to sell all sorts of blades, tools and even shellac through his company in Northern California. In fact, the term "Hock blade" is almost becoming the generic term for an aftermarket plane iron.

So Hock knows a good deal about woodworking tools, steel and sharpening. And what is remarkable is that this ironmonger also happens to be a fine writer. Reading about sharpening can be, for the lack of a better expression, a real grind. There's a lot to know about abrasives, steel, ergonomics, lubricants and (if you are lucky) common sense.

As a long-time sharpener, I think Hock did a better job of explaining the abrasive side of the sharpening equation than anyone else. "The Perfect Edge" finally made the light bulb go on in my head on the topic of how different abrasives work the steel.

Hock's book also is strong in other areas. While all three books do a fine job of explaining how to sharpen chisels and plane irons, "The Perfect Edge" really does an excellent job with turning tools, knives and saws as well.

Hock also covers all the new powered sharpening equipment and many of the honing guides on the market today. It's quite up-to-date for a book. Plus, I think the photography is great. It's sharp and gets right up on the action – plus Hock offer pages and pages of microscopic images of edges, which are very helpful for anyone trying to understand how steel becomes sharp and then dull again.

One last point of disclosure is in order here. Though I got to read Hock's book in its entirety before it went to the printer, I had absolutely nothing to do with the effort to get it written, photographed, edited and published.

But I wish I had.

"The Perfect Edge" is now available for pre-order in our store for $29.99. The book is scheduled for general release in December, when it will be available from suppliers nationwide. Oh, and here's a little hint: If you want a copy signed by Hock himself, you can order the book through the Hock Tools web site.

There are some words we get in trouble for using in a woodworking magazine. Here are a few: "foolproof" (fools, we have found, are very clever), "holiday" (don't ask) and "sexy."

Sure, it's OK to put a half-naked woman on the cover of a magazine with "that word" in 42-point type in the checkout line at the market where I get my cheese curds and snack crackers. But put "that word" in a woodworking magazine, and people become rather put out – like you threw a dozen cuddly puppies into the river.

So if you are sensitive to the word sexy, please stop reading. Because I am about to use the word in a sentence.

The Bad Axe saws from TechnoPrimitives are completely and almost impossibly sexy. Now ... exhale.

I recently reviewed these saws in the November 2009 issue of Popular Woodworking, but one full magazine page did not capture all my feelings about these saws (indeed, I have more than one feeling; I'm a modern man). These saws are just perfect in every way. Sure they cut well, but any wizard with a file can turn a putty knife into a surgical instrument.

What is really amazing about these saws is the level of detail with their construction. Photos don't do them justice. The cherry totes feel like they have already been broken in by 100 years of use. There are no hard lines biting into your palms. The medallion and sawnuts are seated perfectly in the tote. The saw's steel back and blade are mortised neatly and crisply.

Even the back itself is something to talk about. TechnoPrimitives uses a folded steel back (you can even get it in a deep black finish), just like the best American saws of the 19th century. Back then the British were partial to brass backs; Americans liked steel. The back also has a nice crisp stamp with the maker's name.

And the coolness extends to the blade. Mark Harrell at TechnoPrimitives went over the top when branding the blade. I don't know what to call it. It's not really an etch, it's more like a fine engraving. In any case, it's sharp and doesn't rub off on your work like on some low-end saws.

As far as the teeth go, I encourage you to check out Harrell's site for all the details on how he files the teeth. The saws cut extremely well right out of their environmentally friendly box.

Last weekend I used two Bad Axe saws for all the joinery on this White Water Shaker bench. And during the summer I used the heck out of them while building three projects for the book "The Joiner and Cabinet Maker."

Every time I picked them up I was reminded of one of the reasons I like modern tools: They are a totem, a reminder that we can still make things in this country that are damn good. While growing up in Fort Smith, Ark., I watched the town (and my next-door neighbor) struggle when the two major manufacturers there moved lines overseas. Some days I wonder if all we make in North America is debt, tool reviews and funny TV shows.

But when I pick up a tool from Veritas, Lie-Nielsen, Wenzloff & Sons, Bad Axe or one of the dozens of other makers we have today, I'm both heartened and inspired to make things with my hands.

Here endeth the sermon (sorry about that).

You can download a pdf of my review of Bad Axe saws from Popular Woodworking by clicking on the link below.

You know, at our Woodworking in America event last week I didn't get to talk to a lot of the toolmakers. In fact, I didn't even get to see some of them. That is what a madhouse it was. So that's why I'm particularly pleased to announce a couple additional toolmakers who are coming to the Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event Oct. 16-17 in Indianapolis.

Jameel Abraham from Benchcrafted (and hopefully his brother Fr. John as well) will be there demonstrating their awesome bench hardware, including their cool tail vise and their Glide face vise. They also sell my favorite scraper called (cleverly) the Skraper. It's a carbide-tipped tool that is great for removing glue, paint and even wood.

If you haven't met Jameel, you owe it to yourself to get to know the guy. He's an amazing craftsman (ask to see one of his ouds). And funny (ask him about Harbor Freight).

I'm also going to take the opportunity during the event to twist his arm about writing some stories for us. (Sheesh, I hope Fine Woodworking doesn't read this blog. I blab too much.)

Also, Andrew Lunn from Eccentric Toolworks is coming to the Indianapolis show to demonstrate his saws. I've spilled so many pixels on Andrew already it's hard to add to my long list of superlatives about his saws. Simply put: Try Andrew's saws. They will make a believer out of you. They are beautiful to look at (photos don't do them justice) and they are tuned to an almost ridiculous level.

And, as I mentioned before, Kevin Drake from Glen-Drake Toolworks will be there, plus design guru George Walker and staff from the Marc Adams School of Woodworking.

One more thing to tempt you that I neglected to mention in my first post about this event: Martin J. Donnelly is holding an auction and tool sale nearby at the Ramada Inn East in Indianapolis those same days (Oct. 16-17) It's a 10-minute car ride from the Lie-Nielsen show and well worth seeing. Click here for details on that.

If you need directions or more information on the event, click here.

— Christopher Schwarz

In my book, there is one rule for buying vintage tools: Buy them from someone who will take them them back if the tool stinks.

That rule keeps me on my toes on eBay, at auctions, flea markets and at garage sales. If I can't completely inspect, disassemble and use a tool before I buy it, I really want a money-back guarantee.

How can you tell in the store if a chisel is too soft to hold a good edge? How can you tell if all the moving parts of a plane and its sole will work together to do good work?

There are lots of really good sellers on the Internet who will take your money back, so don't be afraid to ask about it. Here are my three favorites in the United States:

Brass City Records and Tools: Walt Quadrato runs a Connecticut storefront that sells records and tools. He manages to find tremendous tools as he haunts the markets of New England in the wee hours of the morning. And because he's a woodworker, he knows what makes a tool a user and what makes a tool a plane-shaped doorstop.

Walt also is a prince of a guy and isn't out to make a fast buck. I bought a Stanley Everlasting chisel from him years ago and have become a regular customer. If I ever need a tool, I just call Walt and ask if he's got it. He usually does.

And if you have a scraper plane problem, then you already know Walt. He's in the support group you attend every week.

SYDNAS SLOOT (aka Sanford Moss): Don't let the unusual name fool you (it's actually "Sandys Tools" spelled backward). Sanford sells tools part time, but he always digs up good users at fair prices, and he turns up some occasional collectible gems.

His site is also the single-best source of information on braces on the Internet. Sanford always ships things fast and is just great to deal with.

Olde River Hard Goods: If you like the really old stuff, you need to get to know Tony Seo. He digs up cool stuff (his passion seems to be the 18th-century stuff). And unless it's a real collectible, Tony will restore the tools he finds back to usable condition (removing surface rust, tightening hammer handles and the like). Most of the stuff he sells is on eBay as a "Buy It Now" option.

Let's just say that Tony was very happy to help me out with my hammer problem. And when I needed a real old-school holdfast to examine and use, Tony was the man.

As I said, there are lots of other great sellers on the Internet. This is by no means a comprehensive list – but these are the three guys who get most of my vintage tool dollars.

One of the (10 million) highlights of the Woodworking in America conference last weekend was getting to watch woodworkers participate in the Hand Tool Olympics sponsored by the Society of American Period Furniture Makers and run by Mike Siemsen.

By the way, I got my bottom whipped by Dean Jansa in the ripping contest. Of course, I was using Adam Cherubini's homemade rip saw, the only food I'd eaten that day was a cup of coffee and I'm a terrible ripper.

However, watching me lose wasn't the highlight. If you'd like to know how fast you can rip a board with a handsaw, watch the short video above. Mike Siemsen, who runs Mike Siemsen's School of Woodworking, challenged Ron Herman to a sawing contest.

Both are long-time professional handtool users. Siemsen has been a cabinet maker and teacher his entire life. Ron is a seventh-generation housewright who uses hand tools almost exclusively. These two trials were run with Mike's saws. Later, they jousted again with a variety of different saws. Check it out.