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Rip Saw: a Hand Saw Filed with Upright Teeth and Little Set (Cassell's Cyclopaedia, 1904)
Woody

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Woody

5. November 2026NO
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Rip Saw: a Hand Saw Filed with Upright Teeth and Little Set (Cassell's Cyclopaedia, 1904)

A rip saw cuts along the grain, so its teeth work like a row of small chisels, not like the knife points of a cross-cut saw. Cassell's Cyclopaedia of Mechanics (1904) says how to file one: the fronts of the teeth perfectly upright, the faces given a transverse bevel of only 3 to 5 degrees (the file held at 85 and 95 degrees), and only a little set, less than a cross-cut saw needs. It gives no tooth size, back angle or amount of set; those are unknown here. Source: P. N. Hasluck (ed.), Cassell's Cyclopaedia of Mechanics vol. V (1904), p. 73, Setting Saw Teeth. Picture: our diagram.
Intermediate
An hour

Instructions

1

Read Cassell's

"The teeth in a rip saw should be so filed that their fronts will be perfectly upright. A transverse bevel of from 3° to 5° should be given to the faces of the teeth."
2

Clamp the saw

Clamp the hand saw in the vice with its teeth just above the jaws, so the blade cannot chatter under the file.

Materials for this step:

Woodworking SawWoodworking Saw1 hand saw

Tools needed:

Bench ViseBench Vise
3

File the teeth upright

File each tooth so its front stands perfectly upright to the line of the teeth. Hold the file at 85° to the blade for one side and 95° for the other, to give the faces a transverse bevel of about 5°; 3° is the least. File alternate teeth from one side, then turn the saw and file the others. Tooth size and the slope of the backs are not given (unknown).

Tools needed:

Saw FileSaw File
Unknown DimensionsUnknown Dimensions
4

Set lightly and evenly

Set the teeth alternately left and right with the saw set, the same amount on each side. A properly ground ripping saw needs only a little set, less than a cross-cut saw; how much depends on the timber, the thickness of the blade and how it is ground (not given, unknown).

Tools needed:

Saw SetSaw Set
Unknown DimensionsUnknown Dimensions
5

History and honest limits

On the same page Cassell's gives the other hand saws: a cross-cut saw's fronts recline about 10° and need a keener edge, a tenon saw is filed much like a hand saw with less bevel, and a panel saw, used both ripping and cross-cutting, like a mitre saw. Tooth size, back angle and amount of set are not given; the saw is a hand saw refiled for ripping.

Materials

1

Tools Required

4

This blueprint makes

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