After making the mini hand saw for my son, the bug inside of me that wanted to make more saws reared is head again. I had made 4 saws in the past, a pair of panel saws and a pair of dovetail saws (one of which was made and sent off for a community shop made tool exchange). With the two brass back dovetail saws that I made previously, however, I had never tried making my own brass back. I’m not sure if this was out of lack of ambition, lack of tools, or lack of confidence, but for the two I made, I bought pre-made brass backs.
I started thinking, now that my son has a mini panel saw, maybe I can repurpose an old gents saw to make a brass back saw for him too. Then I started thinking about it, and decided what the heck, let’s try folding my own brass backs out of 1/16″ thick brass angle.
The first few attempts at folding my own backs did not work so well. I could get them closed up, but they would end up cracking along the fold. To remedy this, I bought a propane torch and used it to heat up the brass before folding. That solved that problem. I just used my bench vise to fold up the back, but it got the job done. Little tougher on 1/8″ though, but subscribe to the blog if you want to see that, as it’s also coming in the future.
Below is the full video, followed by a few pictures with a write up. I basically did the same shrink down to 60% as I did for the mini panel saw handle, and went from there. It ended up being a 6″ saw.
I started out by heating up the brass and using my bench vise to smash the 90 degree brass angle in to the folded back. I had to do a fair bit of straightening due to the vise jaws not being long enough to get it all in one squeeze.
I used a file to get rid of the sharp corner at the top and round the front end of the back. The saw plate is 0.020″ thick, and was toothed with a Foley retoother.
I used vinager and scotchbrite pad to remove the bluing on the saw plate, and some 400 grit sandpaper and scotchbrite to clean up and lightly buff the brass. I used my CNC router to cut out a 60% scale closed tote out of some 3/4″ curly maple I had. It did take 3 attempts to get it, though. The first time I cut the wrong file, so I ended up with another panel saw tote, then the double stick tape I was using didn’t hold and it rattled around and got damaged. Third time worked, though.
The saw plate was spray painted with some black enamel paint and my 10w diode laser was used to burn away my Mosquito Made logo in the paint. I then used it to electro-etch the logo a little deeper for a saw plate etch.
This was an experiment with using the same approach to etch the brass back. I used one of the failed brass backs as a trial piece. The laser burned the paint away beautifully (I ended up burning twice, which is why there’s the offset in the image). When I tried to use my electro etching, however, it barely touched the brass. I did some more research and discovered it’s a significantly different process for etching brass. Maybe I’ll revisit that in the future if it’s something I feel inclined to add, should I make more saws (spoiler, I will be).
Acetone cleaned off the paint wonderfully, and the plate was re-buffed with scotchbrite pad to bring it back to the finish it had before. Personally I think the etch turned out great, and I was quite pleased with that.
Using saws, chisels, and floats I was able to get the handle slotted for the saw plate, and a mortise chopped for the brass back to sit in to the handle. For me, this is probably the worst part. At this point, if the slot for the saw plate or the mortise for the back is not straight or accurate, I basically have to start over with the tote. Thankfully, this one worked on the first try and had no issues.
At this stage the only thing left to do was finish shaping the tote and drilling for the binding screws I used for hardware. Both of those were relatively minor tasks and went smoothly.
I finished the tote with the same danish oil followed by dewaxed shellac and gray scotchbrite buff as I did for the mini panel saw. I am rather pleased with how well this worked out. It really reignited my desire to finish making my tool chest set of back saws to go along with my dovetail saw and pair of panel saws.
Here it is next to the 12″ mini panel saw. They’re a good pairing, but now I’m more tempted to make a new saw plate for that mini panel saw, or maybe use the tote I accidentally made so my son can have both a crosscut and a rip panel saw.
This really was a fun saw project. I liked the way everything turned out, and I’m excited to keep making a few more saws, whether more for my sons growing tool cabinet or full size for myself.
I don’t know exactly what the future holds for my saw making endeavors, but I do know I’ve got a fair bit of brass stock and 1095 spring steel ready to go. I did recently determine I used the wrong steel for my own crosscut panel saw so it is 0.020″ thick instead of the 0.032″ I intended. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it makes a big difference. Maybe I’ll use that 0.020″ plate to make a back saw, and redo that in the right size stock. Stay tuned for that one, if it happens.
If making a saw is something that you’ve wanted to try, but aren’t sure where to start, maybe making a mini saw is a good option! It was a fun project, and helped me figure out a few of the challenges and processes for making a full scale version some day.
If you’re interested in a saw plate with teeth reach out through the contact page, and we can discuss what you’re looking for. I can stamp a saw plates to a variety of tooth sizes if it can help anyone get in to trying to make a saw of their own.
Anyway, thanks for checking it out!
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