in our area we are fortunate to have a forest service volunteer who has been a sawyer for years and has taken it upon himself to maintain the saws. as i am discovering, this seems to be the case in other areas as well.

these saws are old. the 'golden age' of cross cut saws was 1880 - 1930. i keep reading that the saws made today do not have the same type steel nor workmanship. i have no personal experience with the new saws. but the old ones sure do the job!

regarding maintaining the saws, i'm told that 'sharpening' a saw takes about one hour per foot of the saw. one has to make sure the saw is straight, set the set, one has to measure, adjust and ensure that the raker teeth are at the right depth below the cutter teeth, and then one has to sharpen the cutters. and not necessarily in that order. there are specialized tools and instruments - that are no longer made - for these tasks and can be found if one looks. touch-ups may be possible in the field, but discouraged as the teeth can bite!

to see what it takes, go here: Warren Miller, Crossut Saw Manual and open the pdf.

it is also possible to find services online that will sharpen these for you. it appears they are also past forest service employees / volunteers who have learned through experience.

for an in-depth look at the sawyer process, which makes for very interesting reading, see the forest service manual here: Saws that Sing

there is an updated version of the usfs manual, but not much has changed.