Hi All, been reading all this talk of saw sharpening and thought I'd add
a couple of things :

1.  Don't forget to wax the saw when you're done.  Makes a :huge: difference,
    especially if there's no or little set.  I just scribble around near the
    teeth with a candle.  (do your plane soles as well :-)

2.  Somewhere (probably FineWoodworking) I learned to use two pieces of 
    wood on either side of the blade in a regular vise, instead of a saw
    vise.  I made mine in the following shape (seen from the end) :

                      \\/
                 ___  ||  ___
                /   | || |   \\
               /    | || |    \\
              |     | || |     |
              |     | || |     |
              |     | || |     |
              |_____| || |_____|

               block saw   block

    For fine saws (highest I did was 17tpi) what I found useful with this
    setup is that if you position the blocks to be just barely above the
    bottom of a gullet you'll file a fine groove in the tops of the blocks
    as you file a tooth.  It's easy to see if you're level since the grooves
    will be of the same depth (and width) on either side of the saw.  This
    also helps in keeping things even between teeth since the grooves are a 
    lot easier to see than the teeth.  For complete retoothing I file the 
    teeth completely off the saw, mark the tops of the blocks with lines 
    every tooth, then file till the lines just disappear.

3.  I found that modern saws are so soft that setting a tooth will crush it
    if you're not careful.  This makes setting them the same amount difficult.
    I drilled a hole through one of the set's handles (pliers-type Eclipse at
    the time, now have some Stanley 42*'s I haven't tried yet) and installed a
    bolt, adjusted so that the set will not close further that the amount I
    want.  I can then go down the length of the saw squeezing the set till it
    bottoms at each tooth.

Cheers,

Paul  (hoping it's warmer where you are, here it's -25c/-13f and very windy).

Paul Pedersen     
Montreal (Quebec)