Heritage rip and crosscut backsaws
Above: Heritage custom 300mm crosscut saw with 12ppi teeth and cooba handle
Review: Robert Howard
When I first worked as a furniture maker back in the mid-1980s, the best new dovetail saw I could buy was a 200mm, 19tpi Spear and Jackson saw, with a very ugly, red painted handle. I stripped the paint off the handle, and reshaped it to something I could live with, and used it long and often enough to have my fingerprints still visible on the handle today.
How things have changed. My choice then was easy, whereas a furniture maker today must choose from a wide variety of excellent saws, ranging from large enterprises such as Lie-Nielsen and Veritas, all the way down to small custom shops such as Heritage Saws in Melbourne.
The two Heritage saws I have before me are a 300mm, 12ppi crosscut saw with a Kingston pattern, closed handle made from figured cooba, and a 300mm, 14ppi rip saw, with a Fitzroy pattern, open handle made from Tasmanian myrtle.
The crosscut saw has a slightly thicker 0.8mm plate, with, by my rough calculation, about 0.1mm of set each side. The rip saw, which would likely be used for more delicate work such as cutting dovetails, is made from 0.5mm plate, with slightly less set each side. The thicker, more robust plate is also deeper (63mm) than the thinner plate (53mm). Both saws have backs made from folded, 3mm brass, but the closed handled crosscut saw feels significantly heavier than the open handled dovetail saw, even though the difference is only about 10grams (60 vs 50g).
Above: Heritage 300mm rip saw in myrtle with 14ppi teeth
Saw nerds might be interested to know that the dovetail saw has a higher hang angle (that is the angle between the line of the force you apply perpendicular to the back of the handle, and the line of the teeth) of 41° compared with the crosscut saw’s 23°.
This difference is not unusual and is only one of many variables that sawmakers consider in making a custom saw to meet your needs. As an interesting aside, my old Spear and Jackson dovetail saw had a closed handle with almost the exact same hang angle as the cooba handled crosscut saw, while a very old, Moses Eadon dovetail saw I own, that must date back to the early 1800s, has the same hang angle as the myrtle dovetail saw.
Attention to detail is evident everywhere on these Heritage saws, from the closed, polished ends of the brass backs, to the beautifully detailed and finished handles and the stamped production number on the bottom of each handle.
Finally, and most importantly, they both cut fast and straight. The smaller teeth on the 14ppi ripsaw were noticeably smoother than the larger 12ppi crosscut teeth, and, as ripsaws are better at crosscutting than crosscuts are at ripping, it would be my choice if I had to choose between them.
These saws are custom made to order, so if you are interested in owning one you will enjoy the luxury of choosing the style of saw, the wood for the handle, and all the technical specifications that will give you a saw designed to your specific needs.
We are very fortunate to have saws of such high quality made here in Australia, and I urge you to seriously consider them if you are looking for a good saw.
Review tools supplied by and available from Heritage Saws, see www.heritagesaws.com.au
Robert Howard @roberthowardwoodworker is a woodworker who teaches woodcarving classes from his workshop in South Brisbane, see roberthoward.com.au