Bad Axe 18" Large Tenon Saw: The Beast $255

Customize Your Saw:

Handle Preference

American Black Cherry - standard American Black Walnut - add $10

Back Preference

Gunsmith-Blued Steel - standard Stainless Steel - add $10 Black Pearl Nickel-Plated Steel - add $12.50

Points Per Inch

10 ppi 11 ppi 12 ppi Custom - please specify

Filing Preference

Rip-cut Hybrid-Cut X-Cut

Plate Thickness

.025 - standard .0315 Ripping Plate - add $10

Fastener Preference

Brass Slotted - standard Brass Split Nuts - add $15 Stainless Steel Slotted - add $17.50 >Stainless Steel Split Nuts - add $20 Gunsmith Hot-Blued Steel Slotted - add $20 Gunsmith Hot-Blued Steel Split Nuts - add $22.50 Gunsmith Niter-blued Steel Slotted Nuts - add $27.50 Gunsmith Niter-Blued Steel Split Nuts - add $30

Make a Deposit

Here's a big saw for big work, with the balance and grace to handle medium-range requirements as well. It's a beastly-sized saw, so unimaginatively, I call it The Beast. This saw features a 4.5" deep x 18" long premium-grade Swedish spring steel sawplate, a firearms-grade, hot-blued carbon steel or optional stainless steel back, cherry or optional walnut handle, and standard brass slotted fasteners or an array of optional slotted and split nut fasteners in three alloys: brass, gunsmith-blued steel and stainless steel. Standard filing suitable for most purposes are 10 ppi rip and 11 ppi x-cut. Be sure to check out my bench hooks to accessorize this great tool if you'd like it filed in crosscut mode.

Why do I want this saw? The Beast is a big saw for big jobs. While its thin 0.025-thick plate excels at crosscutting, and will still rip quite nicely, I have decided to offer an optional, thicker plate for dedicated ripping purposes. Why? Because if you are a timber framer, or one who frequently rips deep cheeks in wide stock, you'll want a thicker plate. Any sawplate will heat up in the friction of a deep cut, the area along the toothline will expand, and without appropriate set and perhaps some lubricant like camellia oil or canning wax, the resulting heat expand and warp the metal along the toothline, promoting drift in the cut. It's simple physics--a slightly thicker plate will absorb more heat without expanding. So while thinner plates are certainly desirable for most cuts, at the end of the day this 18" bad boy requires a thicker plate for dedicated ripping into big joints.

Now let's switch back to the desirability of an 18" saw with a .025" thick plate: use the thinner .025 plate for dedicated x-cuts and for the occasional rip cut. I've found that this size of saw works phenomenally with the smaller miter boxes you can pick up pretty inexpensively on eBay, where length and a thinner plate counts the most. Getting back to timber-framers: if you have a large shoulder cut against the grain to make, the .025-thick plate in either the 16" or 18" saw will be a great companion for your dedicated 18" ripping saw with the .0315 plate. The key thing is to tell me about your upcoming project, the most prevelant wood species you intend to use, and typical cut dimensions you think you'll encounter. That way, I can custom-file your saw to best suit your needs, given the way I employ my saw sharpening techniques.

New for 2011 is the black pearl nickel-plated finish available for the sawback. Nickel-plating is particularly durable, on par with stainless steel in its ability to withstand the corrosive nature of humidity and coastal air on carbon steel. You'll find this finish on high-end firearms, and on other applications where form and substance converge. And on that note, it looks just great--the deep black pearl lustre of this finish on carbon steel polished at 400 grit not only looks fabulous, but serves a completly practical role in scratch and corrosion resistance. With proper care, this saw will look just as good a century from now as it does today.

How long do I have to wait? Right now, I'm running a 10-12 week backlog with orders, so the best way to lock your place in the queue is to build the saw you want now, via the specifications block at the right, and click the PayPal button at the bottom to make a deposit. After paying the deposit, you will populate my queue, and I will advise you of the delivery date in my follow-up email. Hate making you wait, but this winds up being an easy, two-part transaction that won't drain your wallet up front while waiting for your saw.

And on a final note: if you change your mind about the options you select today when making your deposit, don't sweat it. I will shoot you an email the week before I'm ready to build your saw to solicit any changes you wish to make at that time, and there will be no penalty for changing those options around.

After I build your saw, I will send you another invoice with shipping costs for the balance due and ship it out no later than one business day after full payment is rendered.