Manual of Purpose-Made Woodworking Joinery

154 Traditional saw sharpening of non- hardpoint saws

fully- housed into the legs and fixed with 65mm

round- head wire nails or minimum 45mm × 10

gauge countersunk screws. Their position, to act

as foot- and knee- rails to keep the sharpening-

frame pinned against the bench, is an important

ergonomics feature which enables the operative’s

hands to be free for the sharpening operation – thus

avoiding the awkward uprightness of being held in a

bench vice.

Tapered housings in saw- chops

Figure 9.8: After fixing the rails, the saw- chops can

be prepared to fit the legs and must be of sufficient

length to accommodate the longest saw. The tapered,

vee- shaped housings are marked and cut to fit the vee-

cuts already established and cut in the legs (as detailed

in Figure 9.6). As detailed, these housings must be of

unequal distances from the ends to allow for a greater

projection of the saw- chops from the leg that was

slotted to take the back- saws.

Allowance for saw handles

As illustrated in Figures 9.6 and 9.8, the handle- end

of the projecting saw- chops are cut to a shape that

will house the handles of the various types of saws

that might require sharpening. This shape can vary,

or be varied, according to the range of saws that need

attention.

jaws (saw- chops), which hold the saw in the frame, are
made from ex 75mm × 25mm material (preferably of
redwood or hardwood). The frame is made up of two
ex 100mm × 50mm legs, four ex 75mm × 25mm cross
rails, two on each side, acting as foot- and knee- rails,
optional top rails above the knee rails and an optional
diagonal brace.

Joinery- shop or site- made sharpening

frames

A diagonal brace was usually used on site- made
sharpening frames to strengthen the simple construc-
tion of the surface- nailed rails. On workshop- made
frames, the rails were usually housed and screwed into
the legs and so there was no need for a brace. Also, the
saw- chops were often made of hardwood and a coach
bolt was inserted through the edge of each leg, near
the top as illustrated, to offset the tendency for the
legs to split when the saw- chops were driven in to the
vee- cuts to hold the saw.

Preparing the legs

Figure 9.6: The logical first step in making a
joinery- shop sharpening frame is to prepare the
legs. Because it is important that a person takes up
the correct posture at the sharpening- frame, the
height is critical and ideally should be to suit the
individual. The total height of 1.050m given here
would be suitable for a tall person of about 1.830m
(6ft).

Provision for saw- chops

Figure 9.6: The vee- cuts made in the legs to receive
the saw- chops should be marked out in relation to
the vee- shaped housings to be cut in the sides of the
saw- chops. As illustrated in Figure 9.6, the vee- shape
should promote a slow (gradual) wedge action, as
opposed to a less acute angle that would not take such
a good grip on wedge shapes driven into it. At the
base of the vee- cuts, a saw cut is made to the depths
shown, to house the upturned blade of the saws being
sharpened. One leg, on the side chosen to take the
heel of the saws, must have a further slot of about
12mm width to accommodate back- saws such as
tenon saws.

Alternative rail fixings

Figure 9.7: Next, the rails are cut to length and,
as illustrated, can be surface- fixed, part- housed or

Surface-

fixed

Fully-

housed

Part-

housed

Figure 9.7 Alternative rail fixings to legs.

Figure 9.8 Tapered housings and end- shaping to saw-

chops.