Small carcase saw

I have built a few back saws in the past couple of years.  I bought this kit thinking it would be my first.  It consisted of a toothed plate (not sharpened), a machined brass back, and two brass saw bolts with split nuts.  Before I put the kit to use, I figured out a way to make all the parts to build my own saws from scratch.  As a result, this kit sat unused for a few years.  I decided it was time to do something with it.  I had actually cut out and started shaping a black walnut tote for it way back when, so it would be a pretty easy build to finish.

I don't really care for a machined saw back since they are typically permanently attached to the plate with loctite or epoxy.  I used a plastic dead blow mallet to pinch the slot partially closed so that I could treat it like a folded back when installing the plate.  This took some time and a little care but worked out perfectly.  If the plate ever becomes damaged, I can remove it and reuse the brass back or, if the saw is ever dropped causing the tooth line to becomes wavy, I can remove and reinstall the plate to fix it.

Saw kit after cutting everything to size and punching the holes.

Before cleaning the plate and punching the holes.

The plate was 12 x 2-7/8 x .020 inches.  The finished plate ended up 11-3/4 inches long after a minor mistake cutting the bevel where the handle would fit.  There is 2-5/8 inches of usable plate under the back.  It is 14 PPI and I filed it crosscut with 15 degrees of rake and 20 degrees of fleam.

Flush bolt heads.

The heads of the bolts had a ridge around the outside leaving a relived center about .030 inches deep.  I didn't like this so I put them in the lathe and turned the ridge off making the bolt heads flat.

Clocked split nuts.

I initially set the teeth using a nail set and hammer.  I put the plate on a sacrificial backer board and gave every other tooth a light tap or two, flipped it over and did the remaining teeth.  The board I used had a dent under one of the teeth.  Consequently, when I struck that tooth with nothing to support it, it broke off.  Not the end of the world but next time I'll pick out a better board.  This put a little more set in the teeth that I wanted so I moved to the anvil on the back of my vise and lightly tapped the entire tooth line down both sides to reduce the set.

I made some test cuts to see how the saw tracked.  It pulled a little to one side so I ran a diamond hone down that side of the teeth and tried another cut.  With some trial and error I got it to cut pretty straight.  The cuts were nice and clean but there was some binding in the kerf which annoyed me.  I fought this for a while then decided I just didn't have enough set.  This time I used a plier type saw set which normally over sets the teeth but I used a very light touch with it and got acceptable results.  The overall kerf is a little bigger than I would like but the saw tracks straight and doesn't bind.  Now the saw cuts fast and leaves a fairly smooth finish.

Completed saw.

Overall, I'm very happy with the results.  This will become a go to tool in my shop.