Tooth-Setting Tools (Drawings MTDC-998 and MTDC-1018)

After the saw has been jointed and the rakers have been shaped, the saw is ready for sharpening. Filers typically use a high-quality 7- or 8-inch special crosscut saw file for sharpening. After the saw's cutting teeth have been sharpened, they must be set.

Setting bends the tip of each cutting tooth slightly away from the plane of the saw. Too little set could cause the saw to bind. Too much set would make a wider kerf, removing more wood than necessary and possibly leading to sloppy or curved cuts. Dry wood or hardwood requires less set than green wood or softwood. There are several ways to set a saw's teeth. The tools redesigned by MTDC use the hammer and anvil method, the most common method.

MTDC built two types of tooth-setting devices, the crosscut saw tooth-set tool (drawing MTDC-998, figure 4) and the hand-held anvil (drawing MTDC-1018, figure 5). The crosscut saw tooth-set tool is a combination anvil and swinging hammer. The tooth tip is placed in a designated slot and the anvil is placed behind the tooth. The swinging hammer is struck with a hand-held hammer until the tooth has been set properly. When the hand-held anvil is used, it is placed behind the tooth and the tooth is struck with a hammer until the tooth has the proper set.

Figure 4—The tooth-set tool is placed on the saw
when setting a tooth. Some saw filers prefer the tooth-set
tool because it reduces the chance of a glancing blow.

Figure 5—Hand-held anvils are less cumbersome than the tooth-set tool.
They may be preferred by experienced saw filers.

Choosing which of the two tools to use is a matter of personal preference. Experienced saw filers seem to prefer the hand-held anvil, while less-experienced filers may find that the tooth-set tool gives them better control and reduces the chance that they might strike a glancing blow when setting the tooth. If the hand-held anvil is not available, any similarly shaped flat piece of metal could be used in its place.