Peter Williams responded to Alan N. Graham with:
>Personally I do it in the order:
 >- joint
 >- sharpen (one pass from each side)
 >- set
 >- lightly stone to remove burrs/uneven set
 >- test cut
 >- smile at what an improvement I have made
 >- tell family members how clever I am :-)

Alan asked why the sequence, and the short answer is:  I don't know! The 
long-winded answer, which leaves me to believe a career in politics could 
have been lucrative, follows:

     One of the essential differences of hand work is the obvious human 
element.  More subtle is the need for reference when dealing with same.  
Downright esoteric is the application of that reference to our work in all 
capacities through all forms.  Some would theorize that life is naught but a 
feed back loop.  Certainly hand work is.  There can be no feed back without 
conductivity, no conductivity without ground.  No ground 
without.....reference.  Why are we taught to keep our elbow in when aiming 
careful blows?  Why do rest our hand on the work when carving?  Why do we do 
the off side first, trusting to  the side we can see clearly to 
automatically correct the symmetry? All of this os for reference.  When 
applying this to the above, a couple of things occur to me.  One is that the 
system for saw sharpening was worked out for hundreds of years before we 
came on the scene.  The second is that craftspeople are conservative and 
slow to change, even when a better method presents itself.
     By following the generally accepted sequence a few key reference points 
are established.  Jointing provides a frame-work, a parameter within which 
we create the teeth.  Shaping clearly defines those teeth, carrying the 
reference further for us naturally.  Once set we can sharpen, providing a 
blade that is ready to use.  A few disconnected thoughts follow.

setting after sharpening:  I am leary of clomping around my sharp saw with a 
metal saw set, slapping the guide down onto freshly filed teeth.

the sequence in general:  Taking the thought to its un/natural conclusion, 
we have a situation in which we are setting a blade to which no filing has 
been done.  The result would be a blade resembling a fine hacksaw blade, but 
with no teeth whatever.  We are now faced with the problem of filing the 
teeth to the set.  Any error, and there is sure to be some, will move the 
tooth forward or back, creating more or less set.  Just seems easier to 
bring the set to the tooth.

Also, no one has mentioned the virtues or lack of, an uneven set.  Wouldn't 
this serve the same function as uneven everything?  Lack of harmonic 
vibration, increased cutting capacity, so on and so forth?

Michael McCarthy(who's dead-horse flogg-o-matic 6000 is running to capacity)
Blacksmith
The Farmer's Museum

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