Simple fixture for flattening teeth on hand saw

[bobgroh]

I've been building up my skills by learning how to sharpen my hand saws. Part of that process is getting the necessary tools (and we all love to buy tools!) - essentially to sharpen hand saws, you need a vise to hold the saw, a tool for 'setting' the teeth (called, of course, a saw set), some small triangular files and a simple file jig to 'flatten' the teeth in preparation for filing them. And, for us whose eyesight is a bit weak, a magnifying glass and a nice bright light.

I purchased some saw set's (Stanley) at various antique stores over the last couple of months and just picked up a antique saw vise (it is easy to build one also) at an outside antique sale and bought some new files at my hardware store. The last thing I needed was a simple file fixture to 'flatten' the teeth at the start ('flattening' means making sure that the tips of all the teeth are on the same level).

The pictures show my simple fixture for holding a regular flat file and insuring that the file is at right angles to the teeth. It is simply a hunk of fir (from a piece of 2x material) with a saw kerf to slide the file into and a 1/4-20 nylon screw as a holding screw for the file. The bottom corner of the kerf is relieved a bit to accommodate the saw teeth set.
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[curiousgeorge]

Nice little tool, Bob. The one I have is aluminum, but yours is cheaper and works just as well.

[WmZiggy]

I have that same saw vice and a metal jointer. I like the looks of yours and the nylon clamp screw and may have to make one. I recently used my Stanley saw vice to hold my chain saw blade for sharpening. It is a nice tool to have!