I have spoken a lot about the custom filing that Mark Harrell does to make his Bad Axe tenon saws so incredible to work with. Here is an example of what I’m talking about. Ash is very hard and when you are cutting a 3.5″ thick piece like this one it can wear you out. I was cutting a tenon on top of the sliding leg vise assembly that rides in the groove on the underside of my workbench top.
First of all the cut started easily and powered through the hard Ash with little effort and in no time at all. The cut was dead square and really clean considering the 10 ppi pitch. There is no tear out on the back of the cut because of that relaxed rake on the front and rear teeth.
This will be a visible piece every time I remove the vise assembly but I made no attempt to clean it up because I like the reminder that I cut this by hand with a beautiful saw.
Call me a fanboy if you like, but I am sold on Bad Axe Toolworks! The beauty of this cut is merely another testament to a great tool.
3 responses so far ↓
1 BedrockBob // Feb 19, 2010 at 6:59 am
These Bad Axe saws sound awesome and I would like to put them on my tool wish list but one thing concerns me and this may not be an issue. It sounds like the tooth pattern is complicated and may be difficult to reproduce or resharpen.
Do you resharpen your own saws?
Do you plan on resharpening these saws or send them back to Bad Axe to resharpen?
2 Shannon // Feb 19, 2010 at 10:49 am
Bob, I do sharpen my own saws but I am far from an expert on it. This is certainly a concern for a rank novice filer. However in my limited experience I feel pretty good about being able to follow a pattern already in place as opposed to started with a blank canvas. We’ll see how it goes when it comes time to sharpen these saws. Great point and I’ll be sure to report on it when I do sharpen them.
3 Rick // Mar 8, 2010 at 12:55 pm
Shannon, great site. I just stumbled across it and have watched all of the Roubo series. Regarding the saws – I have to say I agree with you. I own two of his saws (a 16″ xcut and an 18″ rip) and absolutely love them both. In terms of sharpening – I will most likely just send mine back to Mark (unless I learn the skill before then).