Here is Tom's web page - well worth a look - Windward Woodworks
Tom set us up to make two saws, a 15 point dovetail saw and a 13 point tenon saw. He provided us with the blanks for an open and a closed tote (handle), the brass backing, the steal for the blade and the brass screws. He actually milled the two smaller screws himself out of brass stock in his shop - rather impressive, I thought.
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| This is the "kit" as it was presented to us. |
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| Here are the nuts/bolts Tom milled for us - they are brass and very nice. |
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| The Closed Tote Blank for the tenon saw |
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| The blank after some shaping and the brass and blade blank for the tenon saw The start of each saw was finding a center line in order to cut a slot for the blade to fit into the tote.  |
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| Next step was to cut the mortise for the brass backing to fit into. |
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| This is the dovetail saw |
Then it was on to shaping the tote using rasps, files, sandpaper, emory paper, muscle and a lot of patience. Tom put some adhesive backed sandpaper on the insides of the tips of the clamps to better grip the tote....shhhh, don't tell Roy. The clamps were held in the bench vise. This was a rather nice set up for doing this part. I found that clamping my light directly to the tote and using the good neck to position it worked very well......to bad I did not figure that out until half way through the second tote.
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| Drawing a center line all the way around helped guide the shaping. |
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| It's a start but there's more work to be done. |
We needed to make holes for the screws. Since no power tools are allowed, we used a manual drill press and a brace. This was a multi step drilling process and required two people. A pilot hole followed by wider holes and counter sinking for the neck of the screws.
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| One person turns the crank while you hold down your tote and spin the wheel on top to lower the bit into the wood. It took some getting used to with regards to coordinating our team efforts. |
We had to square out the top of the hole on one side for the square shoulder of the screws used in the dovetail saw.
The blade was fitted into the tote so we could use a punch to mark where the holes needed to go.
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| Punching the holes through the steel was not as easy as you may think. |
Once we were happy with the shape of the totes and the fit of the blade blank, it was time to give our attention to the blade. Tom has an old teeth cutter. Load up the blank in the carrier and turn the crank and out the other side comes a blank with saw teeth cut into it.
The next step was to shape the teeth, set them and then sharpen them. This was slow tedious work and a job for younger eyes......or a lot of magnification and some tricks. I did mark every other tooth with a sharpie so I could keep track of where I was. This is one step where you do not want to be interrupted......now which tooth was I working on?????
This is the blade vise I used and the the Stanley tooth set
Once your were happy with the sharpness of your saw and it could cut a straight line, the brass backing was crimped a bit so the fit to the blade was very tight. Then the blade assembly was fixed to the tote with the screws.
The brass screws on the dovetail saw were sanded flush with the tote.
Here they are, waiting for some finishing touch ups with some sandpaper, some buffing compound and some stain.
It will be a little while before I can get these stained and buffed/polished. I'll have to post the pictures when I'm done with the finishing process.
I'd like to thank Tom for a great weekend and I would highly recommend taking Tom's class. This was my first class at the Woodwright School - located in Pitsboro, NC.
