Make Your Own Dovetail Saw

This course is intense, but very satisfying. In six days you will not only have a saw to be proud of, you will have a whole new set of skills.

You will take with you the knowledge and skills needed to sharpen and maintain your new saw (and any other western style back saws you might have).

This is not an assembly process. You will make the saw from scratch using brass, wood and spring steel. The only pre-made parts are the two saw screws that attach the handle to the blade (I have these custom made).

The saws are designed for fine work and, as such, are a great compliment to your larger dovetail and joinery saws.

A few things that set these saws apart from mass produced saws:

You will shape the grip to suit your own hand using a series of hand stitched rasps. Mass produced saws invariably have handles sized for the biggest hands. That leaves the rest of us with a sloppy, ill-fitting handle that does nothing to assist us in using the saw effectively. Don’t underestimate the benefit you will get from the tactile feedback provided by a custom fitted grip.

Tooth design. The teeth are designed for accurate starting and tracking of the cut, with a very fine pitch (24 tpi), minimal set and a lot of negative rake. For fine work, control is more important than the speed. Most mass produced saws tend to favour an aggressive, fast cutting tooth design. This, along with too much set, results in a saw that is more difficult to start and control.
The ergonomics of the handle are designed to assist with correct posture and arm position for cutting dovetails. The grip is set low and angled closer to the vertical so that your arm and wrist are kept straight and elbow closer to ninety degrees.

Materials:

Brass flat bar.
Brass round bar.
1095 spring steel 0.0016” thick.
Variety of figured timbers for the handle.
You can provide your own wood for the handle if you wish, but call me to check its suitability
Custom made split nut saw screws.

Dimensions:

Blade length: 225mm
Depth of cut: 30mm
Blade thickness: 0.016” (0.41mm)
Overall length:
Weight:

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for the course but the skills you will need are perseverance, patience and an eye for detail. Good near vision is handy, but if you have old eyes like me, you will need some magnification. We will talk about this in the first session.

Processes

The processes used to make the saw include (not limited to) the following:

Cutting brass with a hacksaw.
Drilling using a floor standing drill press.
Riveting the blade assembly with an anvil and ball peen hammer.
Cutting the blade slot and mortise to house the blade in the handle, using a saw and chisels.
Shaping the handle with a series of hand stitched rasps.
Indexing, shaping and sharpening the teeth from scratch using a three square needle file. Filing the tiny teeth might seem daunting but I will provide you with a detailed method and lots of guidance.
We will also devote some of the time to learning how to cut dovetails with your new saw.