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So now that I goofed the teeth of my fret saw, what way is there to restore it? Or I should just buy a new saw?

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

That's a candidate for learning at the deep end. It can be 'saved', nearly all of them can.

Start here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA5DixEaaUo

The detailed one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-_MF2Mnxwc


BTW. There is another simple and easy way to learn how to shape and form teeth: start with a thin piece of wood or thin plastic. Cut teeth in the stuff. You won't be able to do fine teeth but you can learn how to form larger teeth using a larger saw file. You won't damage anything but the plastic or the wood. It's also a bit easier to work than metal.

Update: I brought the fret saw back to life, but I ended up making the teeth much larger (around 8 TPI). Mostly because I have trouble with small teeth and I figure it would be easier to sharpen later. What messed me up was trying to do a crosscut pattern when a rip pattern would have sufficed with a backsaw... The teeth aren't even... some slightly larger than the other and even skipped one because it got so small that the file just stripped it. The saw cuts nice and fine now but with occassional teeth taking in too much wood (and resisting the cut) however it works really well now. I realized now that the saw was originally done with rip pattern rather than crosscut...

Where can I get a cheap saw set?

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

8 TPI ? Wow, are you sure you aren't sawing house frame lumber. Sounds to me that you aren't really taking this seriously.
If you are having trouble with 14 TPI you need a magnifier.
Saw set: either use a nail or buy the Somax for small teeth. They do two versions. Don't buy the one with the inbuilt magnifier, it doesn't really help.

So what should I have done? I goofed the teeth so much that I can't even see where the original teeth was so I pretty much had to start from scratch. The saw works it just doesn't look so pretty... If I try to reteeth them again it will probably run out of steel. I mean this is for a saw that I was going to throw away.

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Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Practice. I've already given indications of how easy it is to work on plastic. You can sharpen a saw pretty much first go with instruction and when the teeth are already in good order. That's pretty easy. Once the teeth are in poor condition it takes practice/experience to bring it back to life. The easiest way to learn is to start with a blank piece of steel (cabinet scraper?) or plastic or whatever. Start to cut new teeth. After a while you will learn how to correct mistakes before they become too severe.
I learnt by converting a saw that I had which was 21 TPI. Too fine for my ageing eyes. I recut it to 14 TPI but I made plenty of mistakes. Fortunately the saw came with a deep blade and eventually I managed to salvage it. If you mess up on a few teeth it doesn't really matter, as long as they are random along the whole blade.

I wouldn't have thought that has anything to do with the welfare state. Sounds like you're inserting a political comment just for the sake of it. The lack of quality in saw files has probably more to do with the 'free market'. Hardpoints and power saws becoming ever present. Haven't got a clue what that has to do with a welfare state. I think it's called a global economy.
It's not that dissimilar to Stanley and Record Planes degrading in quality. Eventually a high quality niche market developed. The same seems to be happening with saw files.

I was using a triangular file I bought from a big box store... but as for quality they're all the same. Good quality (brand name really) costs like 2x more than the similar product in the US, possibly due to lack of demand thanks to the flood of Chinese made files. I don't really know what a real saw file is or should look like, so I took a gamble on it. All I could see is that the teeth angle seems to be way sharper than any triangular file I have seen.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

According to what I have read there are no saw files made in Switzerland anymore, other types of files but not saw files. Bahco do make some in Portugal. Bahco, Grobet aren't great but probably the best of what is available new. I've not tried a Nicholson but I have heard that quality is poor.
If you can get hold of NOS that's the way to go until someone starts making decent saw files again. I have seen saw files from the late 1940's that did look very good. The guy inherited them from his father and he wasn't letting go of them. There are some Heller NOS on the bay at the moment but a little too large for fine teeth.

I have seen some oil stone that is in the same shape as triangular files...

Are they suitable for saw sharpening?

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

No. Get a decent file. In the UK they charge $15 upwards to sharpen a saw and that's if the teeth are in very good condition. A decent saw file will sharpen 6 + such saws. More if it's one of the better old files. Probably less than $1 to keep a saw in keen condition.

What's a decent file? What cut pattern should they be and how fine should they be? If I ask a hardware store about sharpening saws they will look at me like I'm from another planet.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

New? Bahco or Grobet, 5 " double extra slim taper for the fine teeth.

I'm not even sure that a lot of the problem is due to the saw getting 'dull' per se: my little fret saws always start to bind long before the points on the teeth are even a little rounded or start to feel dull. The issue is that these thin blades don't use any set, which provides the clearnance. A freshly sharpened blade has a slight burr on the teeth, which makes the kerf a little bit wider than the body of the saw and makes up for the lack of set. Once that burr is gone it starts to bind, even if the teeth are sharp.

I've been using the old German 'Blitz' backsaws with the replaceable blades since the time when Noah was a bo-s'ns' apprentice. I used to buy new blades when they started to bind, and throw the old ones in a drawer. Then I found out about sharpening them using a triangular diamond jeweler's file. I black the teeth by rolling a Sharpie along the top (those little teeth are hard to see!), give every other tooth a couple of strokes across, turn the blade around and do the other side. This gives an even burr ion each side so they cut straight. I get four or five sharpenings out of a blade before it gets too ragged, but I still have some in the drawer. Good thing: they don't sell them any more...

BTW, when I got my first dulcimer kit, the instructions said to cut the fret slots with a thin hacksaw blade. You make a test cut, and lap off some of the set with a stone until you get just the right cut. It works pretty well, actually. Even a pretty cheap hacksaw blade has fairly hard steel, and should last for a while.

Has anyone tried Harbor Freight's Japanese flush cut saw? I saw on google that it is just the right kerf for fret slots..

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Al is right about the burr forming but with 0.5 mm saw plate but you can put just enough set on the teeth to make a real difference. I haven't had much luck with saw sets with the smaller teeth so I use an ordinary carpenters nail, point removed. I place the saw flat on a piece of softwood and very gently 'punch' the set in. It never comes out 'perfect' so I have to stone each side of the blade to get the correct kerf and even out the set. The trick is not to overdo it with the punch, less is better than more, until you get the feel for it.

Where can I get a proper saw set tool? Nail is fine and all but I see a great potential in ruining a saw...

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

You want the Somax Blue one, that's the one intended for small teeth. A bit pricey but will last a few lifetimes.
Here's a neat little trick. I've never tried it but I guess that if it's good enough for Wenzloff. . .

http://www.popularwoodworking.com/artic ... with-paper

Should I somehow re-tooth my fret saw for a finger teeth count than 8? I feel it worked well enough... I guess I'll try hammer setting them and dialing it in a bit... I feel the saw could really benefit from a set because as it was it cut well even dull until the cut was deeper than the teeth, then it started binding.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

I'm surprised that 8 TPI gave you a clean enough cut but if it did then I guess there's really no need to change.
Cutting fresh teeth in saw plate isn't really beginners stuff, although if you have something to practice on it's a very good way to learn how to sharpen saws. It also teaches you how to correct mistakes when they start happening. I brush Indian ink on to blacken the teeth. It works good if you let the ink thicken up first though.
There are templates online that give you a print out of different TPI, just glue them to the saw plate.
But it's always best to practice on junk saws. File straight across and concentrate on getting tooth size even. When I first started sharpening saws I made this 'tooth template' and indicator:



You see. There's those plastic teeth. You can cut a whole saw like that and not damage anything. Once I had the tooth geometry on the plastic correct I would simply sit the file in the gullet and then press the indicator onto the end of the file so that it was pointing absolutely vertical. Then I could transfer the file and the indicator to an actual saw. It's a good technique for learning. After a bit of experience you'll dispense with these visual aids.
If you get really good at it there may even be a little part time business sideline. For some odd reason LOTS of woodworkers are scared of putting a file to a saw.

I found a Bahco saw file locally, it wasnt cheap either at about 12 dollars a pop. Will see how it goes

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com