|
Wenzloff & Sons Kenyon-style Dovetail Saw The Wenzloff & Sons “John Kenyon” dovetail saw is an 18th-century delight. It’s like buying a new Kenyon saw from Christopher Gabriel himself in England back in the golden age of furniture. The handle is shapely. It’s thinner than the Lie-Nielsen at 13/16”, and the swelling in the grip is smaller, as are the handle’s hardlines. The tote is made using a beautiful pale beech, which is a bit shocking at first because saw snobs (like me) expect beech saws to have dark brown or grimy totes. And the wood is chosen with great care. All of the beech Wenzloff handles I’ve seen use nice quartersawn stock that’s flecked with beautiful rays. Also nice is the handle’s minimal finish – it’s smooth, but not slick. But while the tote delights the eye, it pinches my palm a bit. The horns at the top and bottom of the handle are beautiful, but I think they are too close together. My hand feels a bit caged in by the horns. If you have small hands, this might just be the saw you’ve been looking for. If you have oversized mitts, you’ll want to try something else.
The Gramercy and
Wenzloff saws have a traditional brass back The next key feature of the saw is the brass back. While the Lie-Nielsen’s brass back is one thick chunk of metal that is slotted for the blade, the Wenzloff’s saw has a brass back that is folded over the blade. The folded back is a more traditional look, which is critical to the men and women who re-enact the story of our nation at living history museums. But does the folded back improve the way this tool cuts dovetails? Not in my experience.
The Wenzloff’s blade is
.019” thick, the same as the Lie-Nielsen, and the Wenzloff has 16
points per inch that are filed rip. As a result, the cutting
characteristics of the Wenzloff and the stock 15 ppi Lie-Nielsen are
similar. Both of these saws track a line easily. The
Wenzloff saw cuts at about the same speed as the standard
Lie-Nielsen (though the Lie-Nielsen progressive-pitch version has
the land speed record).
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
