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Camp saw

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I wanted a rugged little camp saw so I made one from the front 21" of an unused crosscut saw.
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Sharpening instructions were found in Harry Walton's "Home and Workshop Guide to Sharpening" and the guard was glued up from three thin pieces of pine.
 
Oh my, all bite and no bark, :D

Seriously though, it's very nice, but how does it cut ?
 
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Cut? Uh, well..... see, I haven't tried it. But I will. The handle/grip geometry is copied from the original and these cut on both push and pull, yes, "back and forth." An upright handle attaches using the hole in the front of the blade for a realistic "I thought I came here to shoot, not cut wood" experience.
 
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Cut? Uh, well..... see, I haven't tried it. But I will. The handle/grip geometry is copied from the original and these cut on both push and pull, yes, "back and forth." An upright handle attaches using the hole in the front of the blade for a realistic "I thought I came here to shoot, not cut wood" experience.

Looks like whoever sharpened it knew what he was doing. :thumb:
Hoping to see that first cord of wood cut. :D
 
C6, I always appreciate your compliments and discussion. I used a chainsaw file for the gullets and a small flat file for the teeth. And a setting tool, unfortunately a must for saw sharpening. Walton's "Guide" is indispensable. Here's the guard cross-section.
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Here's with the extra handle I warned about.
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Boy you sure fooled me, the gullets and precision of your sharpening made me think it was done on a machine.
Well done.:thumb:
 
As always, thank you C6. The uniformity begins by precisely "jointing" the tops of the teeth with a mill file, creating tiny triangle shaped flat new tops. The setting tool registers on the now-uniform tops and alternate tips are bent outward, then the gullets are deepened enough to provide clearance for filing both sides of the teeth until the tiny flats are gone. The unset "rakers" are kept .01" below the teeth and serve only to remove cuttings. The whole process makes me nervous as a cat.
 
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I was at an event near Cuba Mo. Four of us went in to the woods and found a downed sycamore tree that we carried back to camp as fire wood. The tree turned out to be a little too heavy for the four of us to carry, so we grabbed a camp saw and cut it in half. Now two of us could carry the ends.... buck skinner logic.
Now it is easier for two men to stay together with a log on shoulder then four with a longer log.
We had a two man saw in camp and demonstrated using it on this log and made short work of it. Not as fast as a chainsaw but pretty quick.
 
Those old antique saws come in handy, never thought about making a camp saw, I thought the teeth would be too aggressive.
Going to give this a try. They make great knives too.
 
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