.. I might as well work on the mitre box saw. I left my lumber on the storage rack at school so no more working on the work bench base until I go back to class.So I started working on the saw for my mitre box. I used Matt’s recipe at the Saw Blogfor cleaning the saw plate.
Before:
So I pulled off the handle and got out the Simple Green and wet/dry 400 grit sand paper. Rubbing in from tip to stern, I worked off the grim and rust.
After a good rinsing and drying (hopefully no one will notice that the blow drier made a trip to the shop), I set the saw plate to bask in the radiant heat.
Once thoroughly dried , I applied some paste wax for protection. If you look closely you can see the saw bench and sheet rock reflected in the plate.
And look what I uncovered after removing all the grim. Now to sharpening.
Hi Marilyn,Beautiful saw – you did a fine job on the blade. Does the handle need any attention?Chris
Yes, it does. Its actually quite smooth because of use and I've hesitated at at refinishing, but I'm going to. I thought I'd sand it with 220 grit and perhaps use this approach for refinishing (see link), but I'm always open to suggestions. http://pith.xyrka.com/?p=122
Nice job Marilyn, I love to see old tools brought back to life. I'm eager to see the sharpening process, I haven't done that myself although I just picked up the tools to do it last week.If you want to add a little flash to the saw you could sand the spine with progressively finer grits and work it up to a polished finish.-joe