Logan Cabinet Shoppe

With all of the rain we've been getting here on the East coast, I had some time to finish up my saws this weekend; well, except for filing the teeth. We left off the last pst with the backs finished and the plates cut to size and the bluing sanded off. Now I needed to insert the plates into the backs. I used a method described in the Grammercy saw kits by using a softwood "bat" to tap the plat into the back. I started at one corner and worked it down gradually.

This isn't as easy as it sounds. You have to tap and pivot and tap some more trying to keep one end in while you tap the other end down. The back holds the plate very tightly so you need to get it in exactly the right spot when you start it. It's too tight to slide the plate down after it's started without buckling the plate. It's sort of like West Side Story...fighting and dancing at the same time.

I did finally manage to get both done. The second one was slightly easier than the first, but not by much.

With the saw plates and back assembled, I turned my attention to the handles. I glued the templates I made to a piece of straight grained walnut with liquid hide glue.

I bored holes to locate the concave curves and finished cutting the blanks out with a turning saw. I cleaned up to the template lines with carving gouges, bench chisels and spokeshave. I also bored the holes for the split nuts and cut the kerf and mortsie for the saw plate while the stock was still flat. It's much easier to do this now.

With all the holes bored and the kerfs cut, all that was left to do was finish the shaping. I used a rasp, file and several grits of sandpaper to do this. This is the fun part. The best thing about making your own saw handles is that you can make them fit your hand perfectly. No sharp corners or pinch points, just a perfect smooth fit to your hand. I finished with a coat of linseed oil and I'll add several more over the next few days.

I didn't take any pics of making the split nuts, however, the Norse Woodsmith has a good writeup on that and I used his method. The only difference in my split nuts is that I used lock washers in place of the square nut, ala the Grammercy saws. It's easier in my opinion and they aren't seen anyway.

Now I just need to file the teeth.