KEEPING THE CUTTING EDGE - SETTING AND SHARPENING HAND AND POWE SAWS - Harold H. PAYSONR

KEEPING THE CUTTING EDGE: SETTING AND SHARPENING HAND AND POWER SAWS - Harold H. PAYSON

Saw filing is certainly an art, but it's no mystery. Saws still cut the same today as they did when they were invented back in the dim past. Take a little time with me, and I will pass on the few basics of what you can do to make your saw cut properly - how to start and when to start, the skills you'll need to make your saw saw, and what to look for when it does not.

I was about 20 years old before I decided to learn to file my own saws. I had got into the habit of lugging them to my father, who did them as uncomplainingly along with the ones who got paid for doing a professional filer. It occurred to me that I was going to feel pretty guilty when I got to 50 if I was still dumping dul saws on my 80-year-old Father. 

It takes time to develop the coordination of hand and eye needed for saw sharpening work, so don't be disappointed if you don't learn overnight. It took me a year of filing, off and on, before my father and teacher, H.W. PAYSON, finally squinted along the edge of my handsaw masterpiece and said: "That is as good as I can do" - words I never thought I'd hear. My nephew Ashley POST, on the other hand, did a fine job the first time around.

ABOUT THE AUTOR

Harold H. "Dynamite" PAYSON is a professional boatbuilder who specializes in light plywood construction, though in the past he built traditional plank-on-frame craft. Most of his boats  - among them the famed Gloucester Light Dory and the Instant Boats series - are from the board of Phillip C. BOLGER. Many of the prototypes of Bolger's small boats have been built by Payson as part of their continuing association.

Dynamite is a retired lobster fisherman, a saw sharpener, and the proprietor of H.H. PAYSON & CO., which offers boatbuilding plans for sale to average boatbuilders.

He is the author of Instant Boats. How to build the Gloucester Light Dory, Go Build Your Own Boat! Build the New Instant Boats and a number of magazine articles. He lives and works in South Thomaston, Maine.