The assembled Saw-clamp

 

A quick shot of the assembled clamp using a shop turned wooden screw

 

This has been a quick and easy project. As usual I never follow directions or plans exactly. A personal curse since elementry school. Readers of Popular Woodworking looking at the published plans accompanying the article will note that the socket head screws holding the two jaws together at the hinge appear to be missing. In fact they are mounted on the 'back' side of the clamp and don't show in this photograph. An error in laying out the project, but not something that is of real importance. I can still easily adjust the socket-head screws with an allen wrench. At this point the clamp is usable. I haven't yet glued on leather strips to the inside faces of the jaws, as described in the text. I used my block plane to taper the mating faces of the jaws. Even without the leather the jaws grab a saw firmly with out slipping. I am holding off gluing on the leather until I am sure that I don't want to plane a little more meat off the jaws to increase the spring action. So far so good.

 

Another slight got-cha from the article, the plans show a second half-round cut out on the very ends of both jaws. This cut out doesn't appear in any of the photographs that illustrate the article. I went back and forth over whether to add these notches now or wait. Clamping four of my hand-saws in the clamp for comparision, I found only one of the four had a handle that would need a further cut out. But even in the case of this one saw, only the last 3/4 inch of the saw blade was left hanging in the breeze, because the handle obstructed positioning the saw-blade along it's full length. The clamp holds the blade firmly even with this little bit of unsupported exposure. So I am going to use the clamp for a while before making any additional changes to it's profile.

 

Well that was fun. Now it's back to the paying work. Have a good day.