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After teaching thousands of students to cut dovetails by hand and dealing with the problems they had when using traditional dovetail saws, I decided to design and build a dovetail saw to solve these problems.
My Rob Cosman Dovetail Saw is the best saw for dovetails and is designed for rip sawing that leaves a smooth, ready-to-glue, finished surface.
I designed my dovetail saw with a .020" thin blade, 22 tpi starting teeth and 15 tpi sawing teeth, filed rip, with a minimal 2000th inch (0.002) set per side. The relaxed cutting angle of the small front teeth allows you to start the cut with ease - a major issue with other saws! The teeth, formed with a diamond-saw, slice cleanly and precisely through wood fibers. The minimal set creates a small kerf that guides the saw straight in the crosscut while the shallow 1-5/8 inch depth of blade (tooth-line to brass back) helps with stability while sawing to a line. The pistol grip handle conforms to your hand for a perfect, repeatable fit every time.
Product Details:
Size. Overall length (Toe to Handle tip): 15 - 1/8 inches. Blade length (Toe to heal): 10 inches. Depth of plate under the back: 1 - 5/8 inches.
Weight: 22-24 ounces.
Blade. Each of our dovetail saw blades is made from .020 Inch thick, spring steel.
Tooth Geometry. Filed rip with a two-stage pitch. The first two inches of each dovetail saw is filed at 22 teeth per inch (TPI) and a 30 degree negative tooth rake, which allows you to easily start a cut. The rest of the blade is filed at 15 tpi and a 5 degree tooth rake allowing you to finish the cut with just a few strokes.
Set. Unlike most saw manufacturers who stamp out their saw teeth, leaving "dimples" in the blade, we individually cut out each of our saw teeth with a diamond saw. This allows us to maintain a very slight set of only .002 inch (per side), since we don't introduce that "dimple" onto the blade. This slight set produces a narrow .024 inch kerf that eliminates slop allowing the saw blade to accurately track in the saw kerf resulting in dead straight saw cuts with smooth ready-to-glue surfaces.
Brass Back: Rob Cosman dovetail saws have a 1/4″ thick x 7/8″ wide brass back secured to the blade with peened and flushed copper pins. Not only does the brass look wonderful but it imparts extra weight to the saw, as compared to other saws, that provides you a better balanced saw, allows the saw to do the cutting work, and helps you "feel" perpendicular.
Handle. Our unique "pistol grip" handles have memory enhancing carved finger recesses for a perfect and comfortable fit. A pair of brass split nuts secures the handle to the blade and the brass back. Our handles are made from Richlite an incredibly durable, sustainable, and versatile material made from High-grade FSC-certified paper infused with a thermosetting resin.
Handle Size & Determining your Size: Our handles come in two sizes: Regular and Large. Please refer to the picture above showing how to measure your hand and determine what size handle is correct for you size hand.
I had been looking to update to my existing dovetail saw for a while now and having reviewed a lot of available options I decided to buy Rob’s saw. The graduated tooth option appealed to me and I hoped this would up my game in relation to dovetail cutting. I have not been disappointed. The saw has a lovely weight to it and the open style handle fits like a glove and Rob is correct in his guidance around it helping you repeat cuts accurately and consistently. I also purchased the Shawn Shim and cutting knife so I could try the offset method I had seen demonstrated by Rob many times. I have taken my dovetail cutting to another level and would highly recommend the saw along with the other items. Finally the customer service throughout was excellent. I was updated at each stage of the order process and living in the UK I was provided with shipping information along the way. The cherry on the cake for me was receiving a phone call from Rob on Boxing Day. I was pleasantly surprised to hear his voice and was somewhat taken aback as I wasn’t expecting a call over the Christmas period. It proved to me that Rob really cares about his products and how he can help customers to improve their skills and woodworking pieces. I would highly recommend the products and I believe Rob’s family run business deserves any success it achieves. I am most grateful to Rob and his team and will be buying more items when funds become available.
Neil Mason - Stoke-on-Trent UK
We bought several of these saws for our adult education of Handtools. Great saw but definitely disappointed that tools of this quality and expense failed to include a simple blade guard to protect the teeth.
I'm old timer who has cut many dovetails and built classic furniture (secretary, writing slopes, chairs, tables and of course boxes). I've used japanese style pull saws (fine kerf) and then back saws. This saw beats them all! What a fine, clean cut you get. Ready to glue. I coupled this with Rob's dovetail system (using the tails to mark the pins with a kerf offset and marking tool). I got the best dovetail I have ever cut in my 50 years of woodworking! With no fitting. Straight from the saw.
The "starter teeth" at the tip are a great addition. Thanks Rob.
Very nice saw. Starts easy, good weight, well balanced. Glad I finally pulled the trigger. Now to work on the 30%.
Rob called. Nice when someone appreciates where we spend our hard earned money.
This saw is unbelievably great. Very easy to start the cut while staying on track. Cutting dovetails with this is a pleasure.
Also, Rob even called personally and left a message thanking me for my order. Rob and his saw are both impressive in today's world.
