RWW 154 Using the Veritas Saw Filing Guide

I did a demo on tweaking a hand saw to make it start easier recently during one of my monthly live sessions over at The Hand Tool School. During that session, I guesstimated the rake angle and used a shop made guide block on my file. The new Veritas saw filing guide had been released just a few days earlier and I got a lot of questions about it at the time. I’m game to try something that can make my saw filing a little more precise so I spend the $35 on the Vertias guide. Here is a video of my first use of it to relax the rake on the first few teeth of a dovetail saw, on to my carcass saw.

Bottom line: this is a great sharpening aid. I use a lot of handsaws and even then I don’t find myself sharpening so much that I have developed the muscle memory like I have for chisels and plane blades. This guide gives you the reference point to repeatable sharpen your saws at whatever geometry or mix of tooth geometries you desire. In the end if it lowers the barrier to entry on a skill and encourages more people to use hand saws, I’m going to be excited about it.