Q:

My handsaw leaves a wide kerf and tends to wander. How can I get it to track straighter and make a finer cut?

Sid Morton, Moorhead, MN

A:

Too much set in the teeth can cause this, so you’ll need to remove some of it. First, wrap the blade in one thickness of brown kraft paper (about 0.003 in. thick), and press the teeth between the jaws of a machinist’s vise to flatten out some of the set. The jaws of my vise aren’t very long, so it takes several overlapping pressings along the length of the saw plate to remove the set on the whole blade. The points of the teeth will cut through the paper and retain some angle, and the paper acts as a spacer between the saw plate and the vise, giving the teeth a very fine and even amount of set.

Now try it out. It should have a smaller kerf now, but still slide easily. If you find that it cuts slightly to one side, hone that side one time on a fine sharpening stone and try it again, repeating until you get a perfectly straight kerf (for more on this and on sharpening your dovetail saw, check out Master Class: “Resharpen, restore a dovetail saw,” FWW #183).

The proof. This saw went from producing a jagged and curved kerf to smooth and straight in a matter of minutes.

Photos: staff

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