Loading…
26
DAE remember the day you figured out your dovetail saw was dull, not you?
About 6 months ago I was cutting dovetails for a cedar chest and every pin board came out gappy, so I kept blaming my layout and my eyes. I must have re-marked and re-cut the same corner 4 times before my buddy Dale picked up my saw, ran it over a scrap of pine, and said it was skating instead of cutting. He was right, the teeth were so dull the saw was riding on top of the wood instead of biting in, and I had been pushing harder to make up for it, which is why my lines wandered. I grabbed a fresh saw off the wall and the very next set of tails fit snug on the first try, no re-cutting. Six months of cursing my own hands when all it needed was a sharpening. Now I keep a scrap of pine by the bench and run 3 strokes before I start any joint, takes 10 seconds. Any of you got a tell like that for when a tool is the problem and not you?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
mark_green7h ago
Check that pine scrap tells you about sharpness, but the real test is how the saw tracks in the cut, not just whether it bites. A dull saw can still grab pine and cut okay-ish, so try the same 3 strokes on a scrap of oak or maple where the teeth have to actually work, your mileage may vary with softer stock. Take it with a grain of salt, but that harder scrap has saved me from a few "sharp enough" saws that weren't.
0