How to sharpen a hacksaw at home

12th November 2021

Sharpening your garden saw

A garden saw has a specific shape of teeth, they are small and numerous. I use the saw a lot and prefer to simply change it before each pruning season. Therefore, I sharpened the saw only a couple of times. it is long and laborious.

If it becomes necessary to sharpen the saw, it is better to use a diamond-coated file with a diamond-shaped section of the working part for this. The requirements for the technique of sharpening the saw teeth, in my opinion, are somewhat lower than when sharpening the secateurs. You just need not to rush and not to spoil (not change) the geometry of these very teeth.

We sharpen the teeth of the garden saw along the edges indicated by the green arrows. Where there are red crosses. do not sharpen. In total, we get one tooth sharpening in 3 steps. It is better to clamp the saw in a vice with the teeth up. We sharpen by applying the plane of the file to the plane of the face of the tooth with a uniform forward movement, with slight pressure and back, without pressure. When moving the file, you should try not to “fill up” the edges of the teeth. They are located at angles that the manufacturer considers optimal and there is no need to change them without a good reason.

From personal experience: the result obtained during sharpening is directly proportional to the effort and time spent. Do not rush and try to do everything “on your knees”.

Sharpening the secateurs

A short article written under the influence of outrage as a result of reading materials on the net. While browsing garden sites, I saw a recommendation to sharpen the pruner with electric emery! Imagining how much a good tool can die as a result of following this harmful advice, I decided to write myself!

This article is for informational purposes only. I sharpen the tool only for myself. I just share my theory and personal experience here.

I’ll start with the main thing: you can not sharpen anything with an electric grinder except shovels, hoes and carpentry staples for logs. Its revolutions are too high, and the angular velocity of the stone is too high. the emery overheats the metal, causing its local release, spoiling the factory heat treatment.

The pruner blade, like any other garden tool, has a certain cutting edge geometry: it is either uniformly curved or perfectly straight. Imagine that when sharpening on emery, you applied a little more effort and made a hole in it. the blade is damaged, regrinding is required (again emery?)

How do you get the edge of the blade out? It will turn blue from overheating after the first pass, it is so thin!

The exception is special devices for sharpening. A conventional electric grinder has a rotational speed of about 2900 rpm. Special machines have 800. 1200. In addition, their stone passes through a bath of water, and already wet and cooled, it touches the blade. There are quite budget options on sale.

Further, I will touch on the fact that when sharpening you cannot use one single abrasive. You need at least 4 grit sizes:

Rough. for the initial roughing of the metal. Granularity Р180. Р240. You can do without it if the tool is not very blunt.
Medium. for grinding traces of coarse abrasive and removing the burr that appears after it on the cutting edge. Its grain size is P600. P800.
Fine. for sanding clean, deburring medium abrasives and micro-leveling cutting edges. Grit P2000. P2500 (a touchstone for straightening dangerous razors or a special ceramic block is suitable).
Very fine (sanding paste on a leather belt). for removing micro-burrs and creating a micro-feed. Any type of GOI (green) paste or other polishing paste is suitable.

When sharpening the secateurs, it is required to return the sharpness of the cutting blade and restore the geometry of the thrust blade.

We move the cutting blade “to the grain”, pressing first the rear part of the cutting edge (the one that is closer to the handle). Moving the blade along the abrasive, simultaneously with the forward movement, we shift the point of contact to the edge of the blade and raise the handle, following the bend of the blade. At the same time, we turn the handle towards ourselves so that the blade continues to move perpendicular to the stone.

We sharpen only “for the grain” This means that we will move the blade with the cutting edge forward, as if trying to cut thin shavings from the stone. It is necessary to move the blade over the stone by placing it across the stone. Movements along the cutting edge (as well as rotational) are not allowed! If the abrasive moves (rotates), then the cutting edge should be located across the direction of rotation. This is due to the formation of a burr and bending of the cutting edge when moving “from the grain” (see figure)

When working with paste on a belt, on the contrary (!) We work “from grain”, otherwise the blade will crash into the belt. And we always work without pressure!

This is more difficult to describe than to do. After a little training, all four components of the movement of the blade over the stone should be obtained as one movement. The blade travels over the entire stone with its entire cutting edge in one stroke. To do this, you need a stone 18. 20 cm long.If the stone is short, then you can grind the entire cutting edge in two movements, returning the blade to the beginning of the stone in the place where the previous movement ended.

Keep the corner! We must try to maintain the same angle of the blade in relation to the stone in the process. For pruning shears and garden knives the sharpening angle is 30. 35º, for grafting knives. 25. 30º.

When changing a stone, the angle remains either the same, or it can increase by a couple of degrees. But don’t diminish!

We only sharpen the outer side of the blade, the one that is not flat! First, sharpen with a coarse abrasive until a burr appears on the opposite side of the cutting edge.
Then, we take the smallest stone, turn the blade over to the other side, and, applying plane to the stone, remove the burr with a few light movements.
Then, take the middle stone and repeat the operation until a burr appears.
Remove the burr again with a small stone.
Take a small stone and repeat the previous step. We get a micro-burr, which you may not see, but the pad of the finger should feel.
Once again we remove the burr with a small stone, turning the knife over and pressing it against the stone with a plane.
We pass to the grinding paste on the belt (without pressure!) We pass first the side that is being sharpened, then the flat one. We make the flat side, holding the blade at a very small angle to the belt. only so that the butt does not cling.

By the way! Pressing on abrasive (especially diamond) when sharpening is not only harmful, but also useless! The wear of the abrasive increases and a huge burr forms on the blade, while the speed of work does not increase in proportion to the pressure force, but much less.

And further! It is advisable to wipe or wash the blade before changing the stone so that the particles of the previous, larger abrasive do not fall on the next, smaller one.

The thrust (or support) blade needs to be sharpened much less often, but it is much more difficult. It has an angle of 70. 80º and its working surface is concave. You can’t get close to this surface with a flat stone. I am using an engraving machine (Dremel), into which I insert a nozzle in the form of a cylindrical stone. You can use sandpaper wrapped around a hard cylindrical object (a piece of pipe or rod).

How to Sharpen a Hand Saw | Ripsaws

The physics of the sharpening process is quite complicated, but it is well described, for example, in the section “Sharpening of a cutting tool” on the gun portal Guns.ru. https://forum.guns.ru/forumtopics/224.html The technique of its implementation is available to everyone, without exception Seriously, try something simpler first and don’t mind, such as a table knife.

What should turn out

When sharpening, you need to ensure that the teeth of the hacksaw are sharp and resemble a shark’s tooth in shape. Only such a tooth saws well. the hacksaw will not slide on the tree, but will “bite” into it. And then it will become clear why the “correct” saw saws itself.

Hacksaw teeth shape

According to GOST 26215, adopted in the USSR back in 1984, the teeth of a hacksaw have a configuration depending on the type of blade:

Each type has its own secrets and rules on how to sharpen the cutting edge.

How to determine when it’s time to sharpen a hacksaw?

How to tell if it’s time to sharpen your tool teeth.

An experienced owner knows when and how to sharpen a hacksaw, but it is not difficult for a simple layman to determine this moment on his own. Typically, the operating sound and the color uniformity of the cutting edge change.

Sharp cutters feature even cutting edge wear.

The following signs indicate the need to “tweak” the saw:

In addition, a blunt hacksaw often gets stuck and requires a lot of effort to complete the process.

How to sharpen a hacksaw on wood

To sharpen a hacksaw on wood, the blade should be fixed in a vice in the same way. Needle files or triangular files with a fine cut are used to sharpen the saw links. Not many people know how to properly sharpen a file on wood, so you should pay as much attention as possible to this process.

Initially, you need to pick up a file. A file with a fine cut should be used, which should be held with one hand by the handle and the other by the tip of the instrument.
The sharpening angle is determined, which usually ranges from 15 to 30 degrees. The angle is usually determined by eye, but if this is difficult to do, then you can use special home-made devices, for example, a wooden block. To do this, the bar is turned until it has the shape of a right-angled triangle with angles of 30 and 60 degrees.
The most important thing when working with a file is pressure on it. To ensure uniform sharpening, the same number of file passes on each tooth must be performed. With experience, you will learn how to remove the top layer of metal evenly.
With the help of the prepared device, the sharpening angles are controlled. The process is carried out in the same way on the back of the web.

Now you know how to properly sharpen the teeth of a hacksaw blade for wood. But the process does not end there yet, as it will be necessary to align the teeth in height. If they have different heights, then the uniformity of the cut will be disturbed. If there are links that are higher than the others, then they are shortened using the same file. Checking is carried out using a sheet of paper, to which the blade should be applied with the teeth down. After that, the sizes are compared, and the shortening procedure is repeated.

Height leveling

After the setting has been made, the hacksaw must be checked for the same height of the teeth. Since the force could be applied unevenly to it, there is a chance of the appearance of teeth with less wear, which will protrude above the rest.

To identify these teeth on a hacksaw, you can use a simple method. It will need thick paper or cardboard along the length of the cutting blade. The sheet must be laid on a flat surface, for example a table, well leveled, and then forcefully press the cutting part of the blade against it. Prongs that are knocked out of the general row will make deeper dents in the surface.

This makes them easy to spot and correct before sharpening. To remove excess height, various files are used. During this work, you should strive to preserve the shape of each hacksaw tooth as much as possible.

What to Consider: Professional Tips

When buying a new saw, many craftsmen make a template on cardboard, which later helps to sharpen the hacksaw with high quality and correctly.
When sharpening, the file should cling tightly to the metal and remove the chips. If it slips, then the tool does not fit and must be changed to another.
Do not route with pliers, as the tool will not provide an even angle of inclination.
To prevent the hacksaw from losing its sharpness quickly, it is necessary to store it correctly. The saw is hung on the wall on a hook, during transportation it is placed in a case.

Purpose and device of the saw

The hand saw is used for sawing various wood materials. It is a blade with teeth at the bottom. On one side, the tool is equipped with a handle, with which the master holds it during sawing work. The convenience and comfort of working with the saw depends on the quality of the handle.

The number of manufacturers of hacksaws for wood is quite large, but they all differ not only in names, but also in quality. All of them are intended for sawing wood, chipboard, logs, laminate, as well as tree trunks. Hacksaws are subdivided into such types as: classic, circular, bow, as well as with butt and reward. The thickness of the blade plays an important role in the selection of the tool. After all, a thin blade can break during sawing wood, and it is quite difficult for a thick one to work.

Important! Wood hacksaws should be sharpened periodically. Sharpened saw blades include those that have not gone through the hardening stage. If the links of the canvas are hardened, then it is impossible to sharpen them.

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.

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 Crosscut Hand Saw

Rip saw

The teeth of hacksaws for longitudinal sawing have an angle of less than 60 degrees, therefore they use files with large notches or a fine-cut file with a rhombic section. In this case, it is strongly discouraged to use triangular files. For sharpening, the hacksaw is vertically fixed in the device. There are two methods for sharpening a hacksaw, which differ in giving different sharpening angles.

Straight. The file / file is placed at a 90 degree angle. It is given a direction parallel to the hacksaw, sharpening both the rear and front cutting surfaces of each tooth. This is repeated for the entire distal row of teeth. Then the hacksaw is turned over in the clamping device 180 degrees and the same operation is repeated for the other teeth, which will make up the far row.

Oblique. This method differs from the straight one only in the angle of the direction of the tool movement to the plane of the blade. the sharpening angle decreases from straight to 80 degrees. The process is exactly the same, but the teeth after sharpening resemble the teeth of a bow saw.

General requirements for sharpening

Two rectangular isosceles triangles and a steel plate 20 × 3 mm are attached on a base of wood measuring 2 × 5 cm from a bar with a thickness of 2 cm or more. A support plate-support made of plywood or OSB with a thickness of one and a half centimeters with dimensions of 15 × 40 cm is attached to the triangles and the same clamp plate is fixed to it from below on hinges. The plates are tightened with screws or studs with wing nuts. If installation at an angle of 45 ° is required, the plates are fixed to the hypotenuses of the support triangles, and if 90 °, then to the legs.

To sharpen the saw, you will also need several files that differ in section and pitch of the notch. All of them must be serviceable, without knocked down or clogged with dust lines of the notch. To sharpen a saw on wood, the file must be moved smoothly, with constant pressure and at a constant angle. The working movement of the file is carried out “from oneself”. It should be easily pulled onto itself, practically without touching the metal surface.

Height leveling

With different heights of the cutting teeth, the efficiency of woodworking is greatly reduced. The higher ones take on a greater load and are subject to accelerated wear, while the lower ones do not participate in cutting. The broach becomes uneven, jerky. Both the accuracy of the cut and the quality of the cut surface are reduced. Alignment of the height of the teeth should be carried out before sharpening the blade. The height is checked as follows: the canvas is pressed against a sheet of paper lying on the table. The profile is printed on the sheet, and the height of a particular tooth can be determined from the print. To align teeth of different heights, the blade must be clamped in a locksmith vice. Prongs protruding above others must be filed down.

Tool for leveling the height of the teeth

How to sharpen a hacksaw on wood with a file

For sharpening, the hand saw blade must be clamped between the plates of the equipment in such a way that the teeth rise above them by one and a half to two centimeters. For various types of canvases, sharpening a hacksaw on wood is carried out in its own way.

To properly sharpen the cross hacksaw, the blade should be set at 45 °, The file should be selected with a triangular cross-sectional profile. To ensure the proper sharpening quality, the following sequence of steps must be followed:

sharpen the left edges of the even (farthest from the master) teeth;
turn the canvas over;
sharpen the left edges of the even teeth;
form sharp cutting edges and sharpened tops of teeth

To sharpen a longitudinal or universal hacksaw, it must be fastened at a 90 ° angle. Here you need a file with a diamond-shaped cross-section. The file moves in the plane of the desktop. The sequence of sharpening the teeth is the same as for cross hacksaws. During work, burrs usually appear on non-sharpened edges, which are larger or smaller depending on the thickness of the hacksaw blade. They should be smoothed with a “velvet” file or an abrasive bar of minimum grain size. Sharpening quality can be checked in two ways:

To the touch. Should feel sharp, should not feel burrs.
By color. No x glare occurs on properly sharpened edges under illumination.

The quality is also checked by a trial cut. The hacksaw should not be pulled to the side, the cutting surface should be smooth, without soaked wood fibers.

How to sharpen a hacksaw on wood

Despite the widespread use of circular saws, reciprocating saws and electric jigsaws, the traditional wood saw is preserved in the workshop of every household. With a small amount of work or in hard-to-reach places where it is impossible to crawl with a power tool, a hand hacksaw still helps out. In order for the tool to work with sufficient performance, accuracy and quality, it must be sharpened on time.

How to determine when it is time to sharpen a hacksaw

An experienced carpenter can tell when the saw is ready to sharpen by:

the sound of sawing a tree changes;
teeth change shade.

A number of signs are also available to the less experienced:

increased material resistance;
it is difficult to maintain the perpendicularity of the cut;
the blade does not adhere well to the mowing line of the cut, the line deviates or bends;
the blade gets wedged in the wood.

Before sharpening the saw, it is imperative to separate the teeth, that is, to ensure that they are deflected from the plane of the blade at a certain angle. Correctly set teeth ensure a kerf wide enough to prevent the blade from getting stuck in the material. If the teeth are too set, the kerf will be too wide, this will increase the loss of material, the pulling force, and also reduce the accuracy. If you sharpen the saw correctly on wood, it will restore its working qualities.

During sharpening, the following geometrical characteristics of the teeth are restored:

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

Important: Blades with hardened teeth must not be sharpened. They are easy to distinguish. they are black with a blue tint. Regular blades can (and should) be sharpened in a timely manner.

Tooth setting

The teeth deviate from the plane of the blade in a checkerboard pattern, for example, all even ones to the left, all odd ones to the right. Only very experienced carpenters are able to cut saws in wood “by eye”. This skill comes after several hundred diluted saws. For less experienced craftsmen, it is better to use a special tool. wiring. The simplest version of the tool is a flat plate made of strong metal with a slot, into which the blade goes in tension, with minimal clearance. The saw blade should be clamped in a locksmith’s vice. The teeth should protrude slightly due to the jaws. The teeth, one by one, are clamped in the groove of the tool of the plate and bent in the middle. The routing angle must be constantly monitored. First, all even teeth are bent in one direction, then all odd ones are in the other. At the end of the wiring, you can spread the sponges to the width of the wiring and stretch the canvas between them. If any of the teeth are bent more than necessary, they will touch the vise. They need to be fixed.

Canvases with hardened teeth are not subject to spreading.

Requirements for wiring a hacksaw

The spreading width of the tops of the teeth corresponds to the kerf. Experimentally, it was found that the best width of the setting exceeds the thickness of the blade by one and a half to two times for hard varieties of wood and two to three for softer ones. Considering the most popular saw blade thickness for wood, one millimeter, we get a divorce value of up to half a millimeter for hard varieties and up to a millimeter for soft.

When setting, it is also very important that all teeth bend at equal angles. Teeth set wider than the rest will increase pulling resistance and wear out quickly. The teeth that have already been set apart will not participate in the sawing process, and their tops will slow down the broach and reduce its uniformity, making it difficult to work.

Attention: the bending of the teeth is carried out starting from the middle part. An attempt to bend the tooth at the base leads to a decrease in the strength of the blade and to its destruction.

Required tool

To quickly and efficiently sharpen a hacksaw on wood, you should prepare a set of equipment for setting teeth and sharpening. Required:

crafting table;
locksmith vice;
pliers;
whetstone;
sandpaper;
measuring tool: protractor and caliper;
metalwork hammer;
equipment that allows you to fix the canvas at angles of 90 ° and 45 °.
cross-section in the form of a triangle;
cross-section in the form of a rhombus;
flat;
needles.

The notch is necessary whole and not clogged with metal dust. If you sharpen the hacksaw in time and correctly, it will be easy and convenient to work with it. Such a tool will last much longer, delighting its owner with an even and accurate cut and high quality of the surface of the saw cut.

How to sharpen a hacksaw on wood yourself

For sawing building materials from wood, as well as trees, a tool such as a hand saw is used. Despite the fact that electric and even gasoline saws, jigsaws and circular saws have long been developed, a hand saw for wood remains an indispensable assistant in the arsenal of every craftsman. With the active use of this tool, it becomes necessary to sharpen the teeth. How to sharpen a hacksaw on wood yourself at home, we will consider in the material.

Why and when to sharpen

The tool in question is subjected to various loads during operation, which leads to dulling of the teeth. If you cut with a saw whose teeth are dull, the result will be much less effective than a sharp one. In addition, using a saw with blunted teeth is not recommended for the following reasons:

Decreased tool performance. Not only the powers of the master will be spent, but also his time.
Decreased accuracy of work. It is impossible to smoothly cut wood materials with a blunt-toothed hacksaw, and even more so to do it neatly.
Danger of using the tool. During work, the saw will get stuck, jammed, come off the mowing line of the cut, so such work can be dangerous for the master.

A sharp hacksaw is not only easier to work with, but also much safer. To determine that the time has come for sharpening the saw blade for wood, you should pay attention to the following factors:

The canvas emits a characteristic dull sound. If the master often uses a hacksaw, then it will not be difficult for him to determine such a sound.
The tips of the teeth are rounded.
Saw when trying to cut wood, refuses to do its job.

These factors indicate that the time has come to sharpen the hacksaw on wood with your own hands. But before you take up the file, you should determine whether these links are subject to sharpening.

How to sharpen a hacksaw on wood

To sharpen a hacksaw on wood, the blade should be fixed in a vice in the same way. Needle files or triangular files with a fine cut are used to sharpen the saw links. Not many people know how to properly sharpen a file on wood, so you should pay as much attention as possible to this process.

Initially, you need to pick up a file. A file with a fine cut should be used, which should be held with one hand by the handle and the other by the tip of the instrument.
The sharpening angle is determined, which usually ranges from 15 to 30 degrees. The angle is usually determined by eye, but if this is difficult to do, then you can use special home-made devices, for example, a wooden block. To do this, the bar is turned until it has the shape of a right-angled triangle with angles of 30 and 60 degrees.
The most important thing when working with a file is pressure on it. To ensure uniform sharpening, the same number of file passes on each tooth must be performed. With experience, you will learn how to remove the top layer of metal evenly.
With the help of the prepared device, the sharpening angles are controlled. The process is carried out in the same way on the back of the web.

Saw set

Sharpening a hacksaw for wood begins with a procedure such as setting the teeth. The setting of the hacksaw teeth is performed for such purposes as ensuring the free movement of the blade without jamming. The setting is the bending of the teeth in different directions, alternately, by one amount. This leads to the fact that the kerf width increases, which means that during the sawing process the chip removal process is accelerated.

It’s important to know! The wider the tooth setting, the less chance of blade jamming.

The size of the set of teeth depends on the thickness of the blade, and is usually equal to 1.5-2 mm. To bend the teeth by the same amount, you will need to use a special device. This device is a metal plate with a special slot. The blade is clamped in a vice so that the links protrude slightly. After that, the process of bending the teeth is carried out. Sharpened teeth must also be bent to the same distance.

Purpose and device of the saw

How to sharpen a saw: practical recommendations

When carrying out work on sharpening a hacksaw, you should adhere to the following recommendations:

The device is tightly fixed on the working surface in a vice.
Providing good lighting for the workplace.
For sharpening the links, files and needle files with various notches are used. The smaller the notch, the better. It all depends on the degree of dullness of the teeth.
Metal removal is carried out only when the file moves away from itself in one direction.
After the work is done, you need to check the quality. To do this, you need to look at each link in the light. If the tooth shines, then it is sharpened correctly, as in the photo below.

In conclusion, it should be noted that many craftsmen do not consider it necessary to sharpen a hacksaw. This is wrong, since the efficiency of the work depends on the quality of sharpening.

Sources:

http://ss-p.ru/remont/kak-natochit-nozhovku-v-domashnikh-usloviyakh.html
http://stankiexpert.ru/tehnologii/kak-natochit-nozhovku-po-derevu.html
http://instrumentyvdom.ru/ruchnoj/kak-natochit-nozhovku-po-derevu

Articles hacksaw, home, sharpen