Star Brand Saw

[Treeline]

I have a couple of these "Star Brand" Saws I'm tuning up. They are stamped Made in Germany, and based on the crude quality, I'm thinking they are coming from the same place as the Traditional Woodworker saws, although these are a slightly heavier guage steel with somewhat nicer handles than what I've seen on the TW saws. I took some photos of before, during, after tuning to show how poor these are from the factory. Similar to Jemco with the chunky edges, uneven rakers, teeth of different lengths, etc. I had to joint it down a ton just to get everything even to begin. Soft steel, flat ground. It seems to have turned out pretty well but snow yesterday and today so I'll post some outdoor and test pics later.

Here is the etch:



Detail of the teeth and rakers as it came from the factory:



This shows how far I had to joint it to even things out:



Newly shaped raker:



Teeth getting pointed up:



More to come after I test it...

[goodfeller]

Interesting logo. Star of David with a Maltese cross. Gotta be a story there. Any idea where in Germany? I'm guessing what used to be East Germany. You clearly had to joint that devil from the pictures.

[SalmonCreek]

I was sharpening a saw very similar to this one, at a mountain bike vendor show for demonstration purposes, and the vendor next to me was working on very high end, carbon fiber bikes. I told him, me working on this saw would be like him working on a Kmart Huffy bike! He said he completely understood.

Mike

[PATCsawyer]

I'll bet those rakers peened over like butter.

[Treeline]

I don't have any info on these saws but recognized the Made in Germany stamp from a traditional woodworker saw I tuned. This was actually quite a bit nicer though.

Test cut with it this week and it cuts just fine. But similar to the Jemco saws, it will require more frequent tuning since it is pretty soft steel. Just had to stare hard at those rakers to swage them.

[TheLastAxeman]

Almost all modern saws seem to be of poor quality..the only kind I use are older than most people living. It would save some work, staring at rakers to swage them.