Atkins Great American Saw

[PATCsawyer]

The saw had a variety of filings over its lifetime and needed a lot of work. I wasn't sure about putting a double bevel on the outside cutters like the lumberman's handbook showed, and as it wasn't my saw, I decided not to experiment. I filed a couple teeth like the Handbook's drawing but went with the original profile for the others. I filed the center cutters like the Handbook's picture and then set them the same 0.010". I think the important thing is to keep the gullet side as straight as possible and not curve it over. When working up to the point, it's easy to overfile that tip. John Starling 's pics of his racing saws show the gullet side bevel being filed with a negative slope such that the cutter point overhangs the base of the tooth.

[dayle1960]

Which files did you use? Did you start with a big 'ole 12" flat file then progressively step down to finer files? What did you use for your finishing file? A regular file or a diamond hone?

[PATCsawyer]

I used several 10" crosscut saw files. As a finish I used a strip of 1000grit autobody sandpaper glued to a paint stirrer and stropped that last little bit of edge to a fine dot. That last step doesn't take very long.