Hello everyone,

This is more just a thought really. A few years ago I bought the saw above. I am including the description to take the description point by point. Before I start I want to say that this saw is made from good, solid beech wood, good thick brass and quality high-carbon steel. In other words it’s a workable saw.

Here is the quote from the Traditional Woodworker tool catalogue in the USA. This has always been an excellent company to deal with.

“Spear & Jackson is one of the oldest saw manufacturers in the world having started production in 1760. We are proud to be the exclusive US distributor of these legendary Saws that are still being made the old fashioned way in Sheffield, England after over 240 years of production. This Traditional Tenon Saw represents an excellent choice for a quality crafted mid-priced tenon saw.

The following features distinguish this saw:

• Hand-crafted from the finest high carbon steel with resharpenable teeth.
• Solid brass back for maximum rigidity.
• Precision ground teeth for extra sharpness.
• Universal teeth pattern for versatility. Cuts equally well along and across the grain.
• Handles crafted from Beech and securely attached to the blade with Brass rivets.

This saw has the following key features:

• 10″ Length of Blade
• 15″ Overall Length
• 15 tpi
• 3″ Depth of Cut
• 0.025″ Thick Blade
• 0.042″ Kerf

These are very good saws for general joint cutting and for sawing other small pieces of wood. Made in England.”

”

This description says several things but there are some issues that need looking into

1.The name S&J is indeed one of the oldest UK saw makers, but today’s standards of production reflect nothing of the care and quality of the old makers and so it’s not the “quality crafted” product of old at all.

2. Spear and Jackson told me on the telephone that, “these saws were now made in China, along with most of their other products because it’s more cost effective that way.” So, according to the person I spoke to at S&J that they are not made in Sheffield although I suppose they could possibly be assembled, packed or shipped from there and it does say on the saw in the image that it is made in Sheffield.

3. There is nothing old fashioned about mass manufactured saws today that compares to a man shaping a handle with his own hands as was the case at one time with S&J. These handles are routed by CNC machine and they look and feel that way too.

Now what my point is in this is to say that the steel, brass and plate are indeed good materials, so see this saw as an assembled kit for redefining and improving. The first problem that can be resolved in a minute is that they are always overset, so you have seen or can see my previous blog on correcting that. Dead simple. Secondly, these saws will not arrive as well sharpened as as they should and no where near some of the finer saws costing a hundred plus dollars or pounds, but that is a simple corrective procedure and that too can be found in a previous blog. Filing a saw takes only a few minutes too. Thirdly, it states in the description that the saw has brass rivets, but they are actually brass-coloured rivets in that they are plated alloy. That doesn’t really matter, they do secure the handle to the plate but they won’t polish or look like real brass. I suppose you could replace them with retrofits but that can add more expense.

I don’t have mine here with me to show you so I cannot post a picture of how it looks, but all of my posts show how you can redefine a saw handle and personalise it into a pristine beauty. I have done that with this specific saw and it will come out stunning when you do. Work first on the plate and upgrade the finish with wet and dry abrasive till it glistens. Do the same to the brass back until that polished brass reflects your face; only a few minute’s work and elbow grease. Leave the rivets alone. Unless something has changed they are alloy of some kind and not brass or derivative of brass alloys.

Have fun!

Winding my way along the coast road the sea reflects the lights of Llandudno and then Colwyn Bay further along. It’s almost 5am as I look ahead and behind but see no other vehicles on the road. This is the first leg on the conveyor belt we call life. Some people do this every day and at one time so did I. yesterday I was walking through woodlands with snowdrops carpeting my walk. Hard to imagine.

I parked my car on the remote park and climb onto the shuttle bus that takes me to terminal 2. They call it terminal because this is where life ends I think. More conveyor belts that make you into a passenger so you can be poked and prodded like cattle into and through the chutes to be branded or check that you have a brand. Security has its part and the chutes narrow even further. You give up all of your possessions into plastic trays and then stand in a cubicle with your hands in the air. The man with the turban in front of me has a harder time with his flowing garb and his headgear.

In the airport lounges the food lines are jammed. More conveyor belts. Next one is the air traffic conveyor belt, another motorway in the sky really. Not the same as working at my bench in  the workshop is it?

I have a new agenda for the presentation that will build from one Masterclass to the next and on to the next in the same day. In the past I have tended to repeat the same demo because I thought that the crowds would be different, but I found that half of the attendees kept returning for more. This is an ideal opportunity for me to share about woodworking in all of its many dimensions.

One thing I like about demonstrating at the shows is it gives me the opportunity to help woodworkers expand their horizons and investigate the possibilities of entering the wonderful world of working wood by hand. People love the idea of traditional woodworking even though they may not altogether understand or even consider that many of the methods are much faster than machine methods and so freeing in many ways.

I leave on Monday morning for the USA and the following weekend we have the shows. In between the shows we will have more training as we conclude our tool boxes all being well and then I return to the UK.

If you will be at either of The Woodworking Shows in the next two weeks, please stop by the Masterclass stands and visit for a while. I love to hear from other woodworkers when I am away.

Not too many people know this so I will tell you. Tom Lie Nielsen knows this and so too Veritas and Bob Wenzlof. Too much set makes a saw most useless. It makes it grossly inaccurate and hard in the cut – sometimes twice as hard. I have one hammer in the vise. It becomes my anvil. With a second hammer the set yields and I temper its aggression with equal taps from both sides. My saws need minimal set. The right set is equal in importance to sharpness. No saw needs too much set. It’s an enemy to all good work.

My saw is lovely now, after 47 years, I at last appreciate its loveliness. It rests beside my 4 ½ and my 5 ½. I still polish its brass now and then. Bit of a luxury look I suppose.

Something I have wanted to post on for a while. Next week I will be using a Stanley #4 at the Springfield New Jersey Show and the Fredericksburg Virginia Show Masterclasses I will be teaching for The Woodworking Shows show. It’s an eBay find for £8 – $12. This plane is and always was an amazing tool in and of itself with no retrofits of metal components at all.

Prepping your plane

Here is my technique for prepping a number four and other Bailey-pattern planes you may own. I hope that this knocks your socks off. No body’s done it before so watch carefully.

First off, how many of you know that you can easily bend most metal-cast planes by merely flexing the handles? This then changes the shape of the sole and many craftsmen I grew up with did this all the time when they were jointing the edges of boards. None of the planes were straight just as many new models made with heavy castings may not remain flat even though factory tested before being shipped. Truth is steel changes according to exchanges of heat and exposure to extreme temperatures is when the greatest change takes shape. Pun intended.

What we aim for is a general goal of flatness and then we work with our planes at a personal and relational level. That’s why it is a rare occurrence to pick up someone else’s plane and feel comfortable with it straight off. Now all of that should help you understand your own plane and the need to develop a thorough and insightful relationship directly through working it.

Following are the steps guaranteed to flatten the sole based on the fact that soles flex with even hand pressure. That is why, when Clifton flattens the soles of their planes they never apply more than 12 pounds of pressure to any part of the plane.

Flattening the sole needs to be done from time to time because they wear in different parts of the sole depending on use and user. This must be

Testing your plane for flex

If you want to test your planes flex, here is simple enough test I put together simply to show that they do. Suspend the extreme ends of the plane on two hard, non-compressing surfaces. Here, I am using two steel-stocked squares.

Cut a wedge that tapers shallowly and is wide enough to engage the under edge of the plane as shown. With no pressure, slide the wedge under the plane until you feel engagement and with a sharp pencil make a mark.

Now, having removed the wedge, press the plane in the centre and slide in the wedge. Now you can see that it doesn’t take a lot of pressure to alter you sole and you will understand why I am emphasizing this key point in both sole flattening and plane use.

 Actual flattening or lapping

The plane must be fully loaded with the cutting iron assembly and under the same general pressure you use in daily use. This varies from craftsman to craftsman so there is no torque-wrench test to govern you.

If necessary, clean off the surface of the sole using abrasive paper on a flat plate of thick, float glass or a dead flat tile. Here, I am using 120-grit paper, which is enough for flattening. I also use my diamond plates for this and they work well too as long as they are truly flat.

Mark the sole across its width and intermittently along the length with a sharpie and return to the abrasive.

Instead of gripping the fore-knob and the rear tote in a bulldog grip like this…

…hold it firmly at the fore part and rear of the sole. You can use the handles, but this must be done sensitively as the extra leverage from the extended handles will readily flex the sole. I learned this years ago when after flattening soles they all somehow seemed to be slightly hollow after checking with a straightedge.

Continue until the lines become so feint you can scarcely see them over the whole width.

Feathering the sole edges

Now if you read my earlier post you will know that older planes and new planes work best if the perimeter edge is well worn so that it feathers in to the flat face of the sole. This allows smooth transition over the surfaces of boards being trued and also where two or more adjacent surfaces intersect. The rim of a box or a framed door are good examples.

Here is the new step that gives the Paul Sellers’ ‘glide-slide’ you want in a plane sole.

Having flattened the sole as directed, tape a steel rule to the surface of the plate so that the plane’s sole glides on the duck tape and the plane sole is slightly angled into the abrasive paper. Keep the sole corner parallel to the ruler and simply move back and forth about twenty or so times. It’s also handy to remark the sole with the sharpie just to make certain you are working evenly.

Do the same to the fore end of the sole; Following the arc.

See now how the edges are gently chamfered uniformly.

File off the heel of the plane if this has not been done previously. This heel is notorious for damaging the corner edges of work on the reverse stroke of the plane in use. Sand off any unevenness from the file.

If you want to you can use finer grit of #240 to give an overall smoother finish, but this doesn’t add anything to the sole’s flatness.

I use furniture wax after abrading. When the surface is newly opened by abrasion it is highly prone to rusting.

 This particular dovetail saw is one of my favourites.

The man who sent this saw took great trouble to bubble wrap it, double box it and then wrap the cardboard box in brown paper.

Thats true of the plane also. I really like that in dealing with people. For any faults people have buying or selling on eBay, I am amazed that the items I have always received have had pristine packaging. I am sure others have had bad experiences, but I love to see how people care for shipping woodworking tools.

The Stanley #4 smoothing plane

The plane is obviously a Stanley #4. Another favourite plane of mine and one I have been espousing as one of the best. With this plane in its most basic form I can do almost anything I need in the workshop where planing is the issue; no matter the wood.

Working with wood can do strange things with your mind. You reject merely looking at pictures of wood because the substitute can’t come close to the real thing. There is no sap, no hard annual ring, texture is missing and of course there is no smell. That’s also true of films. On the other hand there are no allergies and no splinters, no stresses and strainings.

I took my usual walk into the woods for an hour, to renew my mind and my energy levels and these images convey aspects of my walk.

The crocus colour seems different than I saw in the woods, but this is closer than I can draw or paint. In the woodshop, life somehow becomes as real as my walk. I work hard there yet find my greatest rest.

Closing business in a working lunch break at the Teras Restaurant developed progress before my departure for the USA on Monday.

A week away

For those of you in the USA – just a reminder – I will be at The Woodworking Shows to teach Masterclasses in Somerset, NJ, Garden State Exhibit Center Exhibit Hall 50 Atrium Dr. Somerset, NJ 08873Show Times: Friday 12-6; Saturday 10-6; Sunday 10-4. The following weekend, March 2-4, I will be repeating the same Masterclasses at the same scheduled times in Fredericksburg, VA. I hope to see many of you there at the show.

Hi Paul,

I have a question about harvesting wood from a tree. I live in Wimberley Texas, and my neighbor and I were going to be cutting two cedar trees down soon due to pollen allergy reasons and they are right by our AC units. Anyways, I do own a new Bandsaw with a resaw blade. As far as cutting rough lumber, do you recommend waxing or painting the ends of the boards to control moisture release, or just leaving them as is after cutting them?  I’ve never harvested wood from a tree before, so any info is appreciated.

Thanks.

Answer:

There are few experiences as rewarding as slabbing a tree for wood, even when it’s small scale on a small bandsaw. I have done this for two decades on and off. In Texas you have a couple of “cedar” trees that can be difficult to distinguish from one another but I think that you are talking about the Ashe Juniper, which is the one that gives the miserable allergies people get when they puff out their pollen in bursts and everyone walks around with their eyes watering, sneezing and much worse. Ashe Juniper is what the old ranchers used for “Cedar fence posts” and “blocking” for the underside of the old post and beam ranch houses throughout Texas. It’s not a true cedar but called cedar by everyone.

Ashe Juniper is very resistant to rot, extremely hard and brittle and quite difficult to work, especially with hand tools. It splits and checks readily and rarely yields much working material without sizeable cracks running along the grain.

No matter the wood, sealing the ends with paraffin wax or painting the first 6” will drastically reduce wastage cause by uneven release of moisture from the open ends of the newly cut wood. What happens with new boards is that the ends release moisture more quickly than lock moisture in the mid sections and it’s this inconsistent release that causes the problems. Slowing this release from the end areas is the best way to do this and so we apply paint or wax to even out the disparity and this is especially important when wind is present. Seal the ends as soon as possible after cutting and in any case within 24 hours when possible. I like the surface areas to dry before applying the paint or I use a latex paint of the wood is wet. I think it’s a matter of choice but oil-based paint seems to work better than latex and paraffin wax works best. I have bought wax at a good price from places like the Candle Factory. Warm it gently in a double burner or an old electric crock-pot from the flea market. Dip the ends or paint it on.

The other wood in the area is the very different species Eastern Red Cedar. This is an incredible wood in that it releases moisture from the main body of wood very rapidly and degrade is much less than with the Ashe Juniper. In fact, it’s so rapid you can use the wood within a month of cutting. This is the cedar they also call Aromatic Cedar. This wood has the solid purple heartwood or indeed purple streaks that run throughout the core wood. People use it for cedar chests and lining closets and chests to repel insects and moths. Cutting into Ashe Juniper or Eastern Red Cedar releases the strongest cedar aroma you’ve ever experienced. Both can cause highly allergic reactions in anyone so where a dust mask throughout milling and subsequent processes.

You are about to enter the very rewarding world or Real Woodworking so enjoy the challenges and experience life.

I fixed up a couple of Spear and Jackson saws from the 60′s this week and finished them off today. You can buy these on eBay for around £25 (sometimes less) and at first glance you may discard the option to buy. Taking stock of the overall qualities of these dead ugly looking saws may well lead to a fine saw that will serve you for a lifetime. I own one of these saws from my apprenticeship days and bought it new in 1967. That makes it 45 years old. Now mine, in storage in the USA, is 1 1/2″ narrower than these I have fixed up because I have used it every day throughout my working life and I have sharpened every other week throughout that time. It has indeed been a good saw and I see them all the time on eBay. In fact I just bought another for £3.99 Buy it Now plus £3.00 shipping alongside a number 4 for £5 plus £3.80 shipping.

Before above and after below

I began with the plate and polished the steel taking it from 250-grit through 2500-grit. I repeated this  on the brass back and then polished it on a cotton wheel. The brass nuts polished up quickly too. Now mine were solid brass and typical of that era of cheapening materials when subsequent to that they ended up plated instead of solid. Pathetic really.

Use them as a kit

Note here that I have not replaced either handle but simply shaped and refined the designs. These saws are quite lovely now that I have sharpened them. I will likely sell one of them to my students over the weeks when I return.

I fixed up a couple of Spear and Jackson saws from the 60′s this week and finished them off today. You can buy these on eBay for around £25 (sometimes less) and at first glance you may discard the option to buy. Taking stock of the overall qualities of these dead ugly looking saws may well lead to a fine saw that will serve you for a lifetime. I own one of these saws from my apprenticeship days and bought it new in 1967. That makes it 45 years old. Now mine, in storage in the USA, is 1 1/2″ narrower than these I have fixed up because I have used it every day throughout my working life and I have sharpened every other week throughout that time. It has indeed been a good saw and I see them all the time on eBay. In fact I just bought another for £3.99 Buy it Now plus £3.00 shipping alongside a number 4 for £5 plus £3.80 shipping.

Before above and after below

I began with the plate and polished the steel taking it from 250-grit through 2500-grit. I repeated this  on the brass back and then polished it on a cotton wheel. The brass nuts polished up quickly too. Now mine were solid brass and typical of that era of cheapening materials when subsequent to that they ended up plated instead of solid. Pathetic really.

Use them as a kit

Note here that I have not replaced either handle but simply shaped and refined the designs. These saws are quite lovely now that I have sharpened them. I will likely sell one of them to my students over the weeks when I return.