The Cheapest, Easiest and Simplest Saw Sharpening Vise Ever?
While noodling around the shop getting the classroom and supplies ready for the upcoming (actually, just-completed) “Make A Petite Dovetail Saw” workshop I devised and built several of perhaps the easiest and simplest saw filing vise ever. Like me you can make one in minutes using materials from the scrap box.
I started with some 1/2″ baltic birch cut into a pair of 6″ x 8″ panels. These were connected together along one of the long edges with a piece of piano hinge, with about 1/8″ space between the panels when the hinges were screwed on. Following this a pair of scrap strips approx. 1/8″ thick were glued to the inside edge at the tops (the hinge was on the bottom). Once the glue was dry I trimmed the top edges with a block plane until they were clean.
The result was a wooden book facsimile that was narrower at the bottom than at the top. This would be important later on.
With these top strips in place along the inside edge and the glue hard I planed a chamfer along the bottom of each of them to create bevels that touched at the top of the vise, thus bringing it into intimate contact with the saw plate being sharpened. At this point the vise is finished. Really.
In operation the vise is pretty much idiot proof. Place the saw in the “book” so that the teeth are exposed by the amount you want. I generally shoot for a tad more than the distance between the teeth, but you can use what ever is convenient and comfortable.
The vise with the saw inside are gently pinched together and placed in a bench vise, a Moxon in this case but any vise that fits is an option. By adjusting the Moxon vise such that the thinner bottom of the saw vise slips into it easily yet the saw vise engages with the Moxon jaws a little more than halfway in, this seems to work perfectly. Press down on the saw vise until it is snug in the Moxon and fully engaged with the saw plate. A gentle tap on the top of the saw vise drives it deeper into the Moxon and causes the saw vise to pinch the saw plate so that it can be filed.
When you are finished with a filing run a 3/4 turn of the screws loosens the Moxon enough to allow the saw vise to be easily lifted out of the Moxon.
My Father helped me to make one for myself in the latter sixties, was still using the one His father made in the late thirties. I have four sizes in use.
Awesome article.
My panels were a bit taller, as I made it for use in a front vise rather than a Moxon.
These work very well. I have one that is about a decade old. I call it a Tage Frid saw vise without the hinge, since I tried mine before adding the hinge and it worked fine.