Sharpening Skills

The Conservation Corps team had fun this February attending a two-day Cross Cut Sharpening and Maintenance course hosted by Larry Walters of Rutland, VT, a former U.S. Forest Service employee. Larry was a wealth of knowledge in the realm of crosscut saws, their maintenance, and the precision-based tools that are involved in the process of sharpening them. Larry was very happy to host Corps team Dusty, Blase, and Charles and pass this lost art form on in hopes that NorthWoods will steward and share this knowledge with future generations.

While the chainsaw is known as the favored wood-cutting instrument of the modern era, crosscut saws today are not simply a vintage curiosity. Two-person crosscuts are lightweight, safe, inexpensive, quiet, non-polluting and effective, making them the ideal saw for use in official Wilderness areas where motorized equipment is prohibited. Last year, NorthWoods crews worked alongside the US Forest Service in the Dry River Wilderness area of the White Mountains, and this year will be working in the Breadloaf Wilderness in the Green Mountains, so learning how to properly care for these historic tools provides a tangible value for future Wilderness projects!

With Larry’s help, the Corps staff was able to restore two of our old crosscut saws and return them to almost original condition and sharpness. The sharpening process is a very labor-intensive and precise process that takes 8-24 hours depending on the shape of the saw. We learned about joining the cutting teeth and setting them to just 12/1000 offset. For every set of teeth there is an associated raker that removes the wood after it has been scored by the cutting teeth. Setting the depth of the rakers was also very precise— just 14/1000 below the cutting teeth. Once we finished this sharpening process we were able to test our saws and put them into action!