How to sharpen a fine tooth hacksaw

Technical characteristics of a hacksaw for wood

The information on what the hacksaw consists of is already above. The characteristics of the working area depend on a number of parameters:

• width and length of the canvas;
• the configuration of the teeth;
• metal strength;
• density of cutting hooks.

The saw should be made of steel, the grade of which is specified in GOST 5950-73. When cutting a tree (log) with a large diameter, it is more convenient to work with a long saw (45-50 cm), since a large number of elements pass through the material in one movement. A hacksaw up to 35 cm is used for small work, suitable for solving household tasks.

The standard blade width is 10-20 cm. In some cases, a narrow saw is recommended, but the blade is easily damaged. Therefore, the GOST indicates the requirement for working with a medium width canvas.

The parameters of the work are influenced by the characteristics of the teeth, therefore, to increase the speed of the carpenter, it is necessary to pay attention to their appearance. It is more convenient to saw fresh wood with a tool with triangular elements located in 2 parallel rows

Having a medium-sized tooth, it quickly copes with the task without clogging the working area with sawdust during work.

You can also get an accurate cut by combining round elements with triangular ones. The accuracy of the seam depends on the size of the angle between them.

Teeth Per Inch (TPI) is also important. This is the performance parameter of the work area. If we take the same length of the saw, then with an index of 3-6 the elements are large, the speed of work is high, but the accuracy of the seam is low.

It will take more time to cut wood with a TPI 6-9 saw, but the line will be more accurate due to the fine teeth.

FIT IT Profi 40474

• 40 cm blade with plastic handle for cross-cutting wood.
• Small hardened teeth (11 pcs per inch length) are highly resistant to working loads.

STAYER MASTER 1506-45_z01

• Reliable and stable tool.
• Blade length is 45 cm, slitting and cross cutting available.
• Large hardened teeth designed for high performance and speed.

ENKOR 9858

• Instrument of a domestic manufacturer, belongs to the “Wolf” series.
• 40 cm blade with hardened trapezoidal teeth made of high quality steel.
• Notch size. 4.5 mm.

Sturm 1060-53-400

• German brand, but made in China.
• 40 cm long blade with permanently soldered teeth.
• Purpose. longitudinal sawing of wood.

How to choose a good wood hacksaw

Both in everyday life and in production, the purpose of a hacksaw for wood is to work with wood. It can be a bar, and a board, and a wooden lining, or maybe work on caring for a garden, where a sharp saw is also needed. However, there may be other works, for example, harvesting firewood or making artistic frames for paintings, saws are also needed here, but different in characteristics and purpose.

• General purpose for uncomplicated work;
• Saw for rough work;
• Saw for precise cutting;
• Saw for cross-cutting wood;
• Hacksaw for longitudinal dissolution;
• Garden saw;
• Tourist or special saw.

Length and dimensions. Saw blade size classification is considered to be one of the most informative for choosing a hacksaw. When working with this tool in one pass, the length of the blade should at least twice overlap the size of the part being cut. And if so, the length of 30 cm is suitable for simple housework and gardening. Standard blades of 450-500 mm are more suitable for universal models, since they are able to work with most lumber, from lining to rafter.

For cutting material with a thickness of more than 300 mm, it is better to have not a hacksaw, but a two-handed saw. Most carpentry work is done with saws 450-500mm long. For high-precision carpentry work, you will already need a whole arsenal, starting from a shallow saw with a backing and ending with a thin bow saw.

The size and shape of the teeth. Sawing wood with a hacksaw is carried out while the saw is moving. the teeth passing along the surface of the tree, bite into it and choose the cut over and over again. The effectiveness of this work depends on several factors:

• Tooth shape;
• Number of teeth;
• Their sharpness and quality of sharpening;
• Divorce step width.

For coarse material where precision is not so important, large teeth are needed to increase cutting speed. For work in construction, hacksaws with a triangular tooth are usually used. they give an even and neat cut. For longitudinal sawing, the angle of inclination of the tooth is shifted forward, and for accurate cutting, hacksaws have very small teeth without divorce.

The number of teeth is determined by a special coefficient “TPI”. This is a characteristic of the number of teeth per inch of cutting surface.

How to Sharpen a Hand Saw | Ripsaws

Tip: In a home workshop, it is better to choose saws with large, medium and small teeth. This will cover almost the entire range of farm work.

Most of the models on the market today have classic isosceles triangle teeth. They provide an easy and even cut. The so-called “American” tooth of complex shape is mainly found on professional versions of the instrument. The fact is that to sharpen it, you need to have certain skills and you cannot do with an ordinary file here.

Varieties of hacksaws for wood

Hacksaws are presented in a wide range, they can be divided into three large groups, which have their own classification:

• with a butt;
• to create a curved cut;
• japanese.

If you plan to perform delicate work, then it is worth using a tool with a backing, in which a brass or steel strip is additionally installed on the upper edge of the canvas, which prevents bending. These hacksaws are classified as follows:

• tenon;
• with a dovetail;
• with an offset handle;
• edging;
• model.

The first on the list are the largest, since their main purpose is to work with thick boards and firewood. Equipped with a closed handle, which is ideal for comfortable fixation of the instrument in the hand. A smaller version of this model. dovetail. used for working with hard wood species.

If you have to work with through thorns, then you should use a hacksaw with an offset handle. The user can adjust the element, while it is convenient to work with both right and left handed.

When you need to make a thin cut, there is no better tool than an edge saw, which has a compact size. But the smallest of all the presented options for this tool is a model file.

If it is necessary to cut out a curved part, a completely different tool is used. This category also has its own classification:

• onion;
• openwork;
• jigsaw;
• narrow.

A bow hacksaw is usually 20-30 centimeters long, with 9 to 17 teeth of the same size per inch on the cutting blade. It is possible to turn the canvas in the required direction so that the frame does not interfere with the view. There are folding travel models on sale that take up little space.

In the case of an openwork file, the working surface reaches a length of 150 mm, and the frame is made in the form of an arc. Main area of ​​use is artificial material and solid wood.

As for the jigsaw, its frame is also made in the form of an arc, but deep, since the tool is necessary to create strong bends in a thin material, for example, veneer.

A narrow hacksaw is also known in the professional world as a circular hacksaw, since it is used in the middle of a wooden blank. The cutting element is very thin and tapers towards the end. It is thanks to this shape that it is possible to create curves with a large angle. The design provides a pistol-type handle, on which you can attach the desired blade.

Professionals know that the range of hacksaws is not limited to this, since there are also Japanese edged saws, which not every beginner could have heard of. Their classification includes:

• kataba;
• dosages;
• rioba;
• mawashibiki.

The main distinguishing feature of all these hacksaws is that their blades work for themselves. The teeth on the blade are very close to each other, so the cut is narrow, without serious breaks in the wood fibers.

In a kataba, the cutting elements are located on one side. The tool can be used for both longitudinal and cross cutting, therefore it is considered universal. In comparison with the described model, the rioba has a cutting blade for cross-cutting on one side, and for longitudinal cutting on the other. When working with such a tool, it is worth keeping it at a slight slope.

The tooth pitch of hacksaws can be anywhere from 14 to 32 teeth per inch. With the development of technical progress, this instrument passed from the category of manual classics and began to be made electric. In the design of electric hacksaws, there is a powerful motor that provides the necessary power for cutting branches.

Stationary silent vertical machines have the greatest power, but some portable models are also not inferior. The power depends on the type of power supply. Rechargeable batteries are inferior to stationary electric ones, but they can be used even where there is no way to connect to the network.

Also, separately in the category of the described tool, there is an award. a product with a thin blade of no more than 0.7 mm. The cutting part fits very tightly into the last made of wood. Used with one or two hands for small cuts or cuts.

General requirements for sharpening

There is not a special machine for sharpening hacksaws in every garage or workshop, but it does not hurt to tweak the tool with your own hands.

There are, of course, exceptions. hardened teeth cannot be sharpened.

Diamond drills and other tricks won’t help.

Such a saw has an increased resource and cannot be repaired, but replaced with a new one.

How To Sharpen A Crosscut Hand Saw

It is easy to identify hardened steel. it is black with a blue tint.

A grinder or a file and file is usually used as a hacksaw sharpener.

A prerequisite is to first perform the correct setting of the teeth, because the thickness of the hacksaw blade affects the cutting width, so the edges must be bent to the required width.

Crosscut saw teeth sharpening

When sharpening such teeth, a fine-cut triangular file is used. The direction of movement of the tool is an angle of 60 degrees. The hacksaw is fixed in the device at an angle of 45-50 degrees to the workbench. The file / file should be driven strictly horizontally (keeping an angle of 60–75 degrees to the hacksaw), starting from the first left tooth. You need to start with “setting the movement of the hand with the tool”, for which they are held along each left edge of the odd row of distant teeth, which will give the hand movements the necessary automatism. After that, the same thing is repeated, sharpening the right edges of the odd teeth to complete the sharpening of the cutting edge and sharpening the tips. Having finished sharpening the teeth of the odd row, the hacksaw is turned over in the fixing device and the same actions are repeated for the even row, which is the farthest row in this position.

How to sharpen a hacksaw with a file

The use of a file is still relevant today, so let’s try to figure out how to properly sharpen a hacksaw at home.

It must be fixed, as already mentioned above, in a clamp or vice.

The vise cheeks must be made of wood, with a jaw width of at least 200 mm.

The movement of the file should be uniform, and the pressure on the teeth is made only when moving “forward”.

It is necessary to move the hand with the tool to the starting point freely, without effort on the incisors.

In one working pass, an even layer of metal is removed, this will preserve the step, height and profile of the edge.

The sharpness of the cutter can be reduced by the formation of burrs on the surface and irregularities after the passage of the abrasive.

A file cannot perfectly sharpen a hacksaw, but you can get high quality. after sharpening, the smallest file or a file and a touchstone will come in handy.

Burrs are removed by selective cleaning with a fine abrasive, and the edges are smoothed with a wet donor along the side base of the blade.

Having set a goal to sharpen the hacksaw correctly. pay attention to the preservation of the tops of the teeth.

The same cutter height, correct setting affect tool wear resistance and cut quality.

Saw set

When setting the saw, one should not forget about the uniform bending of all teeth at the same angle, so that there is no increase in drag resistance and high metal wear. It is necessary to start bending the teeth from the middle. If you try to bend them at the very base, you can damage the blade. The teeth deviate from the blade through one, that is, every even tooth to the left, every odd tooth to the right. Visually and without the use of tools, only an experienced carpenter can determine the layout. Such skills come only after breeding the teeth of dozens of hacksaws.

In the absence of such experience, a special tool comes to the rescue. The most affordable option is a regular flat steel plate. A slot is made in it, into which the hacksaw blade should enter with practically no gap. The routing process is as follows:

• the hacksaw is clamped so that the teeth are slightly visible above the clamp;
• each prong is clamped with a wiring groove and bent to the middle;
• the angle of dilution must be constantly monitored;
• each even tooth in a row is bent to the left, then each odd tooth. to the right or in reverse order.

With different heights of the teeth, cutting wood will not be effective, since the teeth of a higher height will wear out more due to the greater load, and teeth of a lower height will not take part in the work at all. The web broaches will be uneven, twitchy. There will also be complaints about the accuracy of sawing and the quality of the cut surfaces. It is necessary to align the teeth in height before sharpening. The height is checked as follows:

• the prongs are pressed against the paper that lies on a flat surface;
• the canvas is imprinted on it;
• the height of the teeth is determined by the profile of the impression.

To align the teeth with the difference in height, the blade must be clamped in a locksmith’s vice and the excess metal must be grinded off. If the teeth have a large difference in height, it is necessary to choose an average value and try to trim the maximum possible number of teeth to it.

How to sharpen a fine tooth hacksaw

The question “How to sharpen a hacksaw with your own hands?” does not lose its relevance, despite the presence of a modern power tool in every home.

The saw is needed on the farm, irreplaceable on vacation, used for cutting boards, logs, chipboard.

It is also necessary for construction, carpentry and installation work; in the garden and workshop.

In the city, in the country or in the garage. everyone has this time-tested tool.

Why and when you need to sharpen?

Qualified specialists know the following signs indicating an imminent saw failure:

• when sawing wood, the hacksaw starts to sound different;
• visually it becomes noticeable that the tips of the teeth are rounded, have lost their sharpness;
• the color of the teeth changes;
• sawing force increases;
• the direction of the saw is poorly maintained;
• there are frequent jamming of the teeth in the wood.

Breeding the teeth must always precede the sharpening process. When breeding, a deviation of the teeth from the plane of the hacksaw to the left and right at a certain angle must be achieved. Too small a tooth deflection angle will cause the teeth to “plant” in the tree. Conversely, a too large angle of deflection of the teeth makes the cut too wide, increases the amount of waste (sawdust) and requires too much muscle energy to pull the hacksaw. The purpose of sharpening teeth is to restore the following tooth geometry:

• step;
• height;
• profile angle;
• bevel angle of cutting edges.

Important! Hardened teeth cannot be sharpened. They are black with a bluish tint.

How to check the quality of a sharpened hacksaw?

Except in a practical way, the smoothness of the metal can be assessed visually. the sharp edge does not give glare when reflecting light, and tactilely gently touching the edges of the teeth with your hand.

For a novice master, the first attempt may seem difficult, but a serviceable tool is worth it.

A little practice, and you can offer your own options for how to sharpen a hacksaw with your own hands.

Wood is a unique natural material that is widely used in various spheres of the national economy. It is easy to handle and environmentally friendly. For processing, a hacksaw for wood is very often used. an easy-to-use tool that does not require special skills. Electric saws, jigsaws and other power tools are more widely used today than hacksaws for wood.

Nevertheless, traditional hacksaws are found in all workshops, in every household, as they are used for quick sawing without much preparation. They cut not only wood, but also use chipboard, plastic, various types of flooring and so on in the processing. If you need to do work that does not require the connection of powerful equipment, or if the access of the power tool to the object is difficult, there is no alternative to a hand saw-hacksaw. Of course, to achieve high results, any saw needs to be sharpened on time.