- 11 ppi (Pitch per Inch)
- Recommended Filing - Hybrid
- Plate Thickness .025"
- Kerf of .032"
- Depth of cut 4 1/2"
- Perfect for building large pieces or large cuts
- Great for cutting tenons, miter cuts, and general large joinery
Plate & Filing: The 18” Tenon is a big saw for big jobs. While its thin 0.025-thick plate excels at crosscutting, and will still rip quite nicely, I have decided to offer an optional, thicker plate for dedicated ripping purposes in beefy stock. Why? Because if you are a timber framer, or one who frequently rips deep cheeks in wide stock, you'll want a thicker plate. Any sawplate will heat up in the friction of a deep cut, the area along the toothline will expand, and without appropriate set and perhaps some lubricant like camellia oil or canning wax, the resulting heat expand and warp the metal along the toothline, promoting drift in the cut. It's simple physics--a slightly thicker plate will absorb more heat without expanding. So, while thinner plates are certainly desirable for most cuts, at the end of the day this 18" bad boy requires a thicker plate for dedicated ripping into big joints.
My personal favorite filing for this saw is 11 ppi hybrid. Whenever I build a new workbench, I can both rip tenon cheeks and slice off the shoulders in this mode. Hybrid-filing also lets you use your tenon saw as a hand-held miter saw--a great alternative to the constraints of miter boxes with elevator posts which constraint up to a third of a 30" saw's utility alone. But hybrid-filing is my personal preference as a woodworker. We each possess our own unique style when woodworking, and choose to size, trick out and use our tools in the way that works best for us as individuals-but do consider hybrid-filing-the difference in ripping speed is negligible, and you'll get just as clean a cross-cut on the end grain as you would with a (slower) saw filed dedicated crosscut.
Handle: Modeled after traditional 1887 Disston-pattern closed handle. All Bad Axe handles are milled from full-heart quartersawn stock in Cherry, White Oak, Hard Maple and Walnut. Why quartersawn? Though it's the most expensive cut of wood, quartersawn stock mitigates wood movement with seasonal change, which can throw the plate out of true.
Bad Axe sources all handle stock from a family-owned business practicing sustainable lumber harvesting practices, and with whom we've done business from the very beginning. North American hardwoods: beautiful, sustainable, environmentally responsible.
Backs: Traditional folded sawback finished in black-oxide carbon steel, or titanium nitride carbon steel. Read more about this critical component for any backsaw, and why Bad Axe promotes the enduring traditional folded sawback over commonplace static-backed saws that disallow retensioning the toothline with heavy use.
Have you purchased enough brass-backed saws already to know that they just don't age that well? It's a great look, but it doesn't take long for tarnish to set in, and over time a brass-backed saw deforms with hard use, wreaking havoc on your toothline. But it's traditional, right? And conveys a traditional, warm look we all like to see. But form only goes so far before substance sets in. You very seldom see brass-backed saws longer than 12" or 14", because brass just isn't a strong enough an alloy for larger saws. Steel on the other hand presents superior strength and durability. So-we at Bad Axe made the hard choice to phase brass out of our product line, since it's difficult to work with (it has a 'springy' quality to it), doesn't form well, tarnishes, and at the end of the day, just doesn't measure up to carbon steel, which can take a variety of plating’s for aesthetic purposes.
Long a favored finish for high-end firearms, titanium nitride presents stellar corrosion and wear-resistance, Titanium-Nitride hits the sweet spot when it comes to form following function. The tone falls between the look you get between brass and bronze, so it certainly scratches that aesthetic itch you desire. And the cool thing about it? We can apply Titanium Nitride on our largest sawbacks, where the strength and durability of a steel-backed saw is paramount. So, what are you getting for the $75 upcharge? It's obviously not cheap-because it's not a cheap plating process for us to apply. But what you get is corrosion and wear resistance, along with that deep, brass/bronze look that retains its golden luster over time. Give it a shot--this is a drop-dead gorgeous plating that will retain its deep, rich look for the generations to come.
