A  Disston D-23 needed a refrsh of it's teeth.   Has 6ppi.    Picked the shop last spring....FREE.

 

Bought a new file to try out.

Stanley 6"  Extra slim taper file..$5.99+tax.  Dug up a few pieces of wood to make the saw vise's jaws

had to notch them to fit around the saw's handle.   handle won't fit in the vise, plate is tto wide back there.  C clamp to hold things still...adapted the file handle to hold the new file ( tang was a bit too long) and started off down the line of all them teeth.   6 x 26"= aLOT of teeth to file.   Got a bit closer to the bench vise, things were vibrating a bit...another c clamp was added

And we are off!  Until I got to the end of those jaws.   Mountain Dew Break!   Came back, and fought with the jaws to move everything BACK into the bench vise.  Had to add  a couple pieces out on the end..

Found out I can keep the file's teeth clean by just wiping the file on the leg of my jeans.   File was run at a 90 degree to the plate, tipped the file forward just a hair.  4 strokes acoss each tooth.  Had to stone the right hand side of the plate, too.   Found out there was a bit too much set on that side. ( burrs, maybe?)   gave the saw a test drive....first ones not so good.   Stoned off the burrs, waxed the plate....still wanted to follow the grain's curves...Ok, got that stuff fixed, and tried a third time..

I marked a line to try to follow.   Normally, it would be a knife-wall.   Cuts fairly well.    Tried in some curly maple.....board's kerf would close up onto the saw plate, causing it to bind.   Might use a different saw for maple.

 

Next up....I have a Disston No.7, 7ppi to work over.     I think I will go out and get a better set of "jaws" first, better using the file again.   Royal PITA to shift everything around.   Full length jaws would work a bit better. 

The clamp we used to use in school was about 6-8" long, if I remember correctly.