# Hand saw sticking



## Korosu (Oct 16, 2014)

I have a Husky backsaw and I found the longer I was cutting, the more the saw was getting stuck. Became very frustrating. How can I prevent it?


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

Try waxing the blade with paste wax. If you have some gulf wax that works almost as good.


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## BigJim (Sep 2, 2008)

Do you have enough set in the teeth? If not the saw can bind.


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## Korosu (Oct 16, 2014)

I'm not sure what you mean by having enough set in the teeth. If you mean, is all of the blade making contact with the wood? Then I would say yes.


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## BigJim (Sep 2, 2008)

Korosu said:


> I'm not sure what you mean by having enough set in the teeth. If you mean, is all of the blade making contact with the wood? Then I would say yes.


With hand saws the teeth have a set, what is meant by that is they alternately are bent outward so the saw makes a kerf wider than the saw blade is thick. If the teeth were just inline with the blade it would bind in the wood. Below is an example of how the saw teeth are set.

Here is a good link about sharpening and setting the teeth, this is where the example below came from:
http://www.vintagesaws.com/library/primer/sharp.html


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## Korosu (Oct 16, 2014)

Actually that's something that I was noticing. How the teeth seem to be in line and not sticking out a bit. I shall look into getting them set. Thanks very much.


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## BigJim (Sep 2, 2008)

Back when I was using a handsaw a lot, I had a heavy flat piece of steel that I had filed the slight angle the teeth set at into the steel, I would lay the saw flat on the steel and tap every other tooth to make the set, turn the saw over and do the other side then sharpen the teeth. I liked that better than the hand grip set, I still have one of the hand grip sets. You can pick one up on ebay fairly cheap.

You don't want to over set the teeth, you can snap them off if over bent.


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## Korosu (Oct 16, 2014)

Is a and saw usually set when you buy it? Or is it like chisels how the end result is up to the user?


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## BigJim (Sep 2, 2008)

They usually are set from the factory.


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## Paul_R (Nov 26, 2014)

Backsaws typically have very little set, they're designed to make clean narrow cuts. I had a lot of trouble with backsaws getting started and it was almost entirely my sloppy technique. Lots of videos on youtube on proper sawing technique. Wax and a polished blade help too.


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