In this video I wanted to address a question that I’ve received about my reason for using a gent’s saw to cut dovetails.
Of course that led me on a few tangents and I wound up sharing a tip that I apply to all of my small joinery saws.
Removing the set.
This might sound odd, and I’d recommend hearing me out in the video before going straight to attacking any of your teeth!
But if you understand what I have to say here it could transform even the roughest of saws into something that cuts with accuracy.
I’ve always considered that set is more important than sharpness when it comes to small joinery saws – in this video I explain why.
Chapter Breakdown:
00:00 Are Gent’s saws any good?
07:07 Improve any small joinery saw with this tip
08:44 The technique
12:20 Test cuts & chat about saw set
20:00 Set is more important than sharpness (for small joinery saws)
31:08 Find more Q&As at the Member’s Website
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I do enjoy your videos. I have your whole collection & have built quite a lot of them. I do have some nice saws as you eluded to I don’t like to over use them but in my case the bigger saws. This is because I haven’t the foggiest on how to touch them up. It would be great if you could address this. Thankd
Comment *Great stuff Richard. Thank you. Keep em coming.
These little vids are so cool Rich. You’re taking it down to deep basics and dispelling so much bollocks that surrounds woodworking (mostly pushed by the manufacturers). A few well chosen tools in the hands of someone who’s taken the time to learn them. Inspiring.
Great video, glad to see you back! My first thought when you stoned the set completely off was “wow, can you really do that?” and the answer is obviously yes. I’ve tried using the Paul Sellers trick of reducing set with a hammer to improve tracking and it it did improve it a bit, but it seemed a little uncontrolled. Looking forward to giving this a try.
Full Disclosure: I’m just a random idiot on the internet. Not a professional woodworker. These are only my obervations.
I call bullshit on “gent saws are garbage”. Why? In German these saws are called Feinsägen – fine saws. They are used for fine work. If look at oldtimers like Frank Klausz who had a continental european education, you’ll see that they cut dovetails with full size frame saws. The Feinsäge was used for rather fine work like little boxes are such. And obviously, they worked perfectly fine (*badumtssdrumroll*) at this job.
I would say, that shite saws are shite. No matter the form factor. I have a small gent saw from Thomas Flinn, which I got new for something like 12€ or so. It saws perfectly fine for my abilities and I particularly like its nimbleness.
Fun fact: there are videos of Rob Cosman on YT in which he cuts dovetails with a gent saw. IIRC, the only gripe he had, was that the pistol grip gives you a haptic feedback about the saw blade’s alignment while the round handle of the gent saw does not. So he filed of some parts of the grip to allow a similar feedback. (For me, the little hobbyist, that’s no factor.)
I worked in Belgium in the late 80s and I remember that gents saws were pretty ubiquitous. The DIY shops often sold them as a package with a small mitre box.
Can’t remember what they called them but the shops probably labeled them with an English term such as “small wooodsaw” to avoid having to label in two languages..
Terence Mc, you can get the same, at bauhaus in germany 🙂
Fantastic topic as usual.
I have experience ironing out the gent saw mess. Never saw one until 10 years ago – hard to come by in the US really they’re not our tradition. Veritas is the only North American maker and their Sash saws fill that void also. Modern 20 TPI gents or dovetail saws are a headache. Filing RIP teeth from 10/11 to 15 TPI covers 90% of my work no problem – I use a knife.
Sadly there are only 2-3 companies really making gents saws and 1 company makes the majority of “brands”. Good and usually fairly inexpensive too (less than $50). It took about a month of solid practice and I’ll NEVER be without a gents saw again!
Sorry this was so long but hope it helps a bit.
A knife?! You shape the teeth with a knife – Please explain
Forgot to mention I’ve yet to find a gents saw or any non-hardpoint western saw really that wasn’t a ‘premium’ brand that didn’t need sharpening. Just a couple of strokes with a needle saw file for fine teeth (16TPI or finer) and they’re much better tools.
I’ve been sitting on an old, thick gent’s saw. I’m gonna give it a whirl.Thanks.
I got mine at a Re-Use store. Came with a wooden miter box. I actually got two, but Rob Cosman said they are hard to steer, so I put a trigger handle on the other one. I need to do this treatment with that one too.
I took my gent’s saw and dovetail saw to the anvil 25 years ago and tapped out most of the set with a light hammer. The saws performed so much better than I was a bit shocked. They still have 2-4 thousandths of set (depending on size of teeth), which is enough to work well in dry wood.
Not saw related, but I would really appreciate some advice on how to set up my new workbench (when I get round to building it).
My problem is that I saw and chisel left handed but plane right handed. This means most of the action is at the left hand end of the bench, which tends to get quite cluttered as a result.
Any insight from other cack-handed folk would be appreciated. I can force myself to plane left handed if I need to but it’s not a good experience.
Cheers
Dropping in here to say Thank You to Richard and Helen. It’s apparent something is going on in your lives. It’s none of our business, but I think I speak for all of us that we wish you the best and appreciate you very much. Thank you for keeping the site going, thank you for keeping user accounts in good order, thank you for tracking the videos we purchased and keeping them available. It costs something to keep a web site up and operating correctly, even when you’re not adding much new content. My original downloads were the lo-fi versions because I had such wretched Internet. Now I have good Internet and I was able to re-download everything I purchased in high definition.
I love your teaching, your generosity, and the piano music in the videos is perfect. Y’all done good.