Craftsmanship in Wood

These are beautiful saws.
All I know is the file he used is not like the files I have.

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Hey Sebastian,

I don't know if your lighting set-up is set in stone but I saw a video of a gentleman by the name of David Bull who is a woodblock carver for prints. In his shop he hangs a lightbulb from above then hangs a glass bulb of water in front so it evenly disperses the light for his delicate work. It may be useful in sharpening if shadows ever start to play on your eyes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zV9SMe ... xCAyTZP5cQ

If you play this and scroll to the 43 second mark, you'll see what I mean. It seems like a good way to light anything that my require a delicate touch/extreme precision.

Anyway, great work and thanks for the contributions. I've greatly enjoyed reading this since I haven't seen the information anywhere else.

Thanks a lot Chris, glad to hear you like the series. Hopefully it brings more people to use try japanese hand made saws.

Actually, my set up is pretty lame, I need to move the lamp twice to light the whole saw. That breaks the flow of sharpening. I've seen japanese with fluorescent lights but I don't like the colour they give, it reminds me of high school.

I know that set up from engravers, I think I saw it one of Durer's engraving but cannot recall which one. Here is in his workshop



(I was looking into metal engraving before, but my wife went crazy with the constant hammering.)

For sure I will try it when I set up my workshop next year.

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Another excellent post Sebastian.

I will add that the term madonoko (窓鋸) literally translates as 'window saw', the word 'window' being a reference to the 2-tooth gullets filed into the blade.

I know this isn't a Japanese saw, but I wanted to post it anyway. This is a saw I found at a garage sale last summer and had to spend the $1 to buy it. This saw hangs in my shop for a number of reasons. I love this saw. It's like a tragedy and celebration all at once. Just think how many times this saw has been horribly sharpened. Also think of how much this saw was used to make it dull so many times even though it must have been hell to use. This saw has so much wrong with it yet was used for years. The person who owned and "sharpened" this saw certainly had a lot of perseverance. I think this saw is perfect the way it is.

Thanks Chris, glad you like it!

The saw is awesome Paul, it looks that was used once the other way around, doesn't it? The hole in the down part looks from a handle put upside down. Great find.

Sebastian, much appreciated. Looking forward to putting this to good use this weekend on an older throw away ryobi.probably not the best for resharpening but i figure its a good place to start. We'll see how it goes.the chumasaru has caught my eye as well.i might make an attempt if i have the time.anyway thanks again for sharing such priceless insight. Much obliged

You might have a hard time with sharpening a disposable blade saw, as the teeth are usually impulse-hardened (an electrical process for treating the teeth) and as a result the teeth are quite hard and brittle. It's like trying to file a file. Better to buy an inexpensive new or used regular type saw on Ebay and experiment on that.

Just trying to save you some aggravation.