How to Sharpen Hand Saws for Woodworking with Tom Calisto 

Good detail. Thank you

I have filed and sharpened hundreds of handsaws and let me tell you folks, this guy really knows how to file a saw. I think this is the best video I've seen. The only thing I do differently is that I do not flip the saw to file the other side. I do all the filing from the same side.

One trick I transferred from my fretworking to saw sharpening. When cutting fine fretwork, on thin material, even with 50 or 60 point jeweller's piercing saw blades, they were breaking with monotonous and expensive regularity, till someone suggested attaching some thin masonite board [hardboard] to the metal first, and cutting them both together. This means there are more teeth supported by material and therefore spreading the stresses over several teeth rather than point loading one or two teeth. It is a little slower, not much by as much as you'd think, but it certainly gives a much cleaner cut and the blades last significantly longer, being less prone to chipping or wear. /it also reduces the unpleasant sound ans avoids the tool destroying 'chatter'. I decided to give this a try on a fine saw blade. When I cut new teeth to make a 24 point fine dovetail saw using small and delicate Vallorbe three square needle files. I attached a 1/32 x 1/2 inch strip of brass to each side of the plate using double sided tape and got working. Filing went smoothly and despite having to cut much more material, the filing was not a great deal slower and the expensive file stood up extremely well giving excellent crisp teeth from start to finish. I have kept the brass strips to re-attach for future sharpening of that saw

I have watched more than 1 video of how to sharpen saws and this one is the one that actually taught me WHAT I am doing and not just HOW to do it. Thank you, sir!

Thanks guys. Well explained and informative.

Fantastic video

Excellent lesson, thanks for sharing it with us.

iLike that good work thank you andre

Great video!

Master craftsperson.

This was really helpful! If you were was just recently telling me that I needed to sharpen my hand saw. So I guess it's time to do that. And thanks to your video man I'll be able to!

perfect, thank you

Very useful video!

Thank you very much 👌👌👋👋

52x IS THE ONE FOR ME LIKE ALL THIS SHARPING AND STRAIGHTENING ALL THE SAW TEETH what a cool school thank you Tom for your expertise we could sit in your class with sharpened teeth.

good vedio.

Suggest you paint the teeth with lay out die or a felt tip pen. This helps you know where you have filed and where you need to file. Cheap and easy Guide is a small rectangle of wood with the file inserted at the angle you want to cut. I agree that saw sharpening is intimidating at first but a little practice yields good results. Nice video.

Very useful video,thanks.I have a question about the process.When a saw should be reshaped,setted or jointed?Every sharpening requires this processes?

Thank you for the informative video 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 Do you have one where you show us how to make the saw nut and bolt and the split screwdriver?

When selecting the file size should it be such that both the face and the back of the tooth are at less than half the file face?

When he files the ripsaw (closeup) the file is being pulled backwards. The handle of the file is moving away from the blade and the file is then lifted and placed back in the groove. Unless the file teeth are reversed , the tang of the file must be at the back end of the file .

Is that a version of Maybelle Carter’s “Wildwood Flower” playing in the intro?

Good coverage of saw sharpening. I'll be referring again to your blog post in the future. You covered this topic very thoroughly in that post! Great job Joshua. --Wm. Brown Fine Furniture www.LineAndBerry.com

You have a nice workshop, and nice tools.. and you know how to do it.. and you know how it´s done... but your video was not very good (i´m sorry)... because you talk all the time explaining how it´s done.. but you show very few how it´s done. The tools and hands .. they explain the drill by themself !

But why did he bleach his hair??