An On-Demand eLearning Course
Popular Woodworking And Fine Woodworking Present
Restoring, Sharpening, & Tuning Handsaws
With Mark Harrell
Learn to clean, restore, sharpen and tune back saws and hand saws for use in your shop.
- Nearly 2Â hours of instruction
- Reference articlesÂ
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Course content available now.
About This Course:
Mark Harrell founded Bad Axe Toolworks in 2009 and quickly became a leader in bespoke hand saws. With a dedication to craftsmanship, he has restored, sharpened, and tuned thousands of hand saws tailored to meet the needs of woodworkers. In this informative course, Mark will share his knowledge gained over the past decade. He will cover essential maintenance techniques, including adjusting tension, sharpening teeth, and conducting thorough inspections. Through step-by-step demonstrations, you will learn how to keep your hand saws in optimal condition, ensuring they remain versatile and effective in your workshop. Whether you are an experienced woodworker or a beginner, this course will equip you with the skills to enhance your woodworking projects.
What You'll Learn:
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Inspecting saws for restoration
Disassembly
Cleaning the plate and handle
Reassembly
Re-tensioning to straighten a saw plate
Re-shaping teeth
Jointing Teeth
Sharpening Teeth
De-burring the saw
ABOUT YOUR INSTRUCTORÂ
COLONEL (RET.) MARK HARRELL is the founder of Bad Axe Tool Works and owner of SawSharp. Hailing originally from Oklahoma, Mark completed a 28-year career in the Army with much of his service spent in Special Forces and officer production assignments. Upon redeploying from Afghanistan in 2007, Mark retired from the Army and started up a saw sharpening business with his late wife, Yvonne L’Abbe, quickly followed by development of the Bad Axe line of saws; and thus, Bad Axe Tool Works was born. Bad Axe saws closely follow traditional designs established by the Henry Disston & Sons, Simonds, and Wheeler Madden Clemson lines using today’s tools and processes those sawmakers from the 19th century would have likely approved of without sacrificing any of the time-proven design imperatives they established. Throughout the 14 years Mark owned and operated Bad Axe, he developed basic weekend and advanced 5-day saw sharpening seminars teaching others how to take ownership of their saws and keep them well- maintained and sharpened. Mark writes extensively on saw maintenance, design, utility and sharpening, and conveys those methods and techniques over the past decade teaching at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking and other venues. To date, Mark has conducted a total of 60 seminars. Mark passed on Bad Axe ownership to his former employees in 2022, and now works independently restoring vintage saws and conducting the SawSharp quarterly array five-day advanced saw sharpening seminars. He is also completing work on his his book, Confessions of a Sawfiler: How To Select, Use, Sharpen and Maintain Your Own Danged Saw.