While at the Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking and Lie-Nielsen Toolworks during the last 15 days I took a lot of notes that I will be vomiting into my blog this week. Some of the entries require me to purchase some liquid plastic, wax paper and Wesson oil.
Or is that the shopping list for my next house party?
No… that’s the woodworking list.
Anyway, one of the cool little things I saw at Lie-Nielsen Toolworks last week will excite both the tool collectors and users.
Lie-Nielsen has added an extra inch of length to its much-beloved dovetail saw. The saw’s blade now comes with a 10”-long blade instead of a 9”-long blade. What does this mean for you?
If you are a user, it means the saw is a little faster in the cut. The Lie-Nielsen saw was already fast. This added length (and a tiny bit of extra weight) makes it noticeably faster. After using the new saw for a few days, I don’t think that it affected the balance of the tool. I was worried that it would be more toe-heavy as a result – a bad thing in my opinion.
The longer saw is now being sold by the company. The price of the longer saw is the same. And the 9” saw has now been discontinued.
And that will make the tool collectors tingle.
The 9” saw will now pass into legend and increase in price on the secondary market, just like the Lie-Nielsen bronze No. 9, the company’s chamfer guides for drawknives and the small bronze shoulder plane kit it used to sell.
So take care of those 9” saws for your children, especially the early ones stamped “Independence.”
— Christopher Schwarz
In reading of the new increased length L-N dovetail saw, I’m reminded of a question by a beginng student at an adjacent workbench at Chris Becksvoorth’s recent L-N workshop,: Why not use a deeper saw than the traditional dovetail saw in order to more easily align angles? I don’t know if he sought an answer from Chrus B, but, it seems like a good question. Why not? Any thoughts?
A tall dovetail saw would have a “moment of inertia” to deal with. You want to be able to tip the saw left and right accurately. A taller dovetail saw would make that task more trying.
However, the opposite is try with a tenon saw. Hence its tall blade.
Could you clarify a bit? You mean a DT saw when cutting the tail board (with end level to floor?) and thus angling the cut vs a taller saw being easier to cut the vertical pin board? Does “tails first” have lesser issue with this? I use a carcass saw for most all joinery cuts, but maybe I should buy more tools…. Also I tend to angle my tail boards so the cuts are vertical and change vise positions from left to right.
Um, I guess I got a little one.
> So take care of those 9” saws for your children, especially the early ones stamped “Independence.”
What about those that say “Independence Tool” and have serial numbers on them? ;^)