Spear & Jackson 9540B-91 Traditional Brass Back Tenon Saw, 10" x 15", Brown/Silver

Great saw for the price. It needs a little work when you receive it. Lacquer has been applied to the plate. It's easy to strip off. The handle needs to be reshaped or remade. If you don't mind a chunky, uncomfortable, ugly handle, then no worries. There were 3 teeth, at the heel of the plate, which were set incorrectly. All set one way, instead of alternated. It didn't matter to me since its at the end, near the handle. I'll either reset it when I feel like it, or just do it later when I resharpen. Out of the box, the saw plate was straight and decently sharpened. The handle and brass spine were tight. After cleaning off the lacquer, I tested the saw without any other improvements. It started the cut well, and tracked perfectly fine. The weight and length of the saw are perfect for my needs, but I have plenty of saws. I'm giving it 5 stars for the quality of the most important components vs. the cost. If you have a little saw know-how, this saw is pretty nice. This review is for the 12", 13ppi tenon saw.

4 years on since buying this saw, I can say that it's a very nice saw. Especially for the price. The teeth hold an edge while still being easy to sharpen. Backbone is rigid, the blade straight. The handle/grip isn't the most comfortable, but it's easy enough to reshape for a custom fit (very helpful if your hands are obscenely large). I have nothing bad to say about this saw except for the lacquer coating on the blade. Yes, it probably protects it from rust, but it also gets gummy and sticky in the wood after a few long cuts. However, it wipes off in a blink with acetone. Unfortunately, that also removes the maker's name, but I doubt that's going to be a deal breaker for anyone.Bottom line: i see no reason this saw shouldn't last a hobby woodworker for decades.

Since I bought this S & J 10", 13 tpi, 5010Y tenon saw in August, 2021, it's seen a lot of use and held up admirably. So I thought I'd update a couple of things. The plate is 0.026" thick and, at the moment, the kerf is 0.036" and the "Cross Ground" found in the description is not "Cross Cut", but cut straight across "Rip Cut". By the bye, since this comments section seems to include all things S & J saw related, if you have one ot their's with rivets instead of saw bolts, Amazon now sells saw bolts of two kinds from Taylor Tools. This saw, while not "Highly Refined" [hence the good price] it's serviceable w/a little "Fettling". The Paul Sellers' trick of using a mill file to take the excess set on the sides of the teeth down evenly on both sides a bit [jointing] works. So, of course, would removing it by using an anvil and a smooth face hammer. (Getting the reduced set reset evenly will take a lot of attention to detail. I'd suggest sandwiching the teeth between the anvil and a piece of flat ⅛" or thicker steel and hammering "Gently" on the steel. That way it won't take near as much "Fussing".) Otherwise, it will do the job of sawing close to your pencil line/Knife Wall leaving you to clean it up w/a chisel and/or a shoulder plane, etc.Addendum: I just helped another woodworker with a question about suitability of the the S&J 12" Tenon Saw in a miter box and I noticed something disturbing in the reviews; Benjamin Franklin's discovery [electricity] has led us to a society that has not only lost the hard won, time tested institutional knowledge of how hand tools are supposed to work properly, but get unembarrassedly upset when the tools don't conform to their preconceived misconceptions. What do I mean? All one handed saws, from 8" 26 tpi dovetail to 28" 4 tpi ripsaws are supposed to be gripped by the last three fingers of your hand and the first (pointer) finger laid along side the saw handle pointing towards the toe (tip) of the blade to help guide the cut straight. A bench (hand) plane, smoother, jack, fore and jointer plane's Tote (rear handle) is the same; three fingers around the body and the fore finger up under the plane iron helping to both guide the plane forward and be instantly ready to adjust the cutting depth as necessary. If you buy a handsaw whose saw plate's too short for your saw stroke, either shorten your saw stroke or buy a longer saw AFTER you read the dimensions and quit having a hissy fit. By the bye, if you go to Blackburn Tools [blackburntools.com] you'll find a lot of parts (like saw bolts, etc), measurements for hand sizes and much more - but only if you're willing to put in the effort to do so. Otherwise your reactions to the lack of knowledge you don't have speaks more to your institutionability, than it does your institutional knowledgeability.

I do hand tool woodworking making furniture and other smaller projects. I bought this saw to see what I could make of it - I am tired of buying new saw plates for my Japanese saws. I'd rather have saws I can keep and fix up. I figured the 10ppi skew back saw would make a good all round crosscut saw and let me get started learning how to cut on a push stroke.Out of the box my saw had a lot of friction and made super rough ragged cuts. I stripped a rubbery lacquer off the saw plate and narrowed the set by a lot. I also reshaped the tote.It took me a day of tuning and practicing, but by the time I was done, I was able to cut an eighth-inch slice of mahogany end grain freehand and the saw leaves a really nice finish that needs very little work to clean up. I plan to use it as my all-round crosscut workhorse saw.Regardless of what the company says, I wouldn't want to use this to rip anything more than a board foot at most. It isn't efficient for that.I'm rating 5 stars not for the saw's usability out of the box but because it's a reasonable price and with enough work you can make this a really refined tool. I particularly like being able to shape the tote to my hand.

I needed a hand saw to cut the back off of a solid body electric guitar so I could router out the inside to lighten it. I don't have a large bandsaw, so I chose this saw after some studying. I read that it should be re-sharpened for a dedicated rip cut. I found a YouTube video by Paul Sellers on how to do that with this exact saw! It probably would have cut well even left as stock. Then I made a simple jig to start the cut and was then able to control the saw perfectly all the way to the end. It easily cut off a 1/4" piece and it was a very clean and straight cut. The blade material was excellent thickness and I removed the protective coating with lacquer thinner so it wouldn't bind. The only thing I didn't like was that the handle was a little bit uncomfortable but Paul Sellers explains a fix for that too. I'm totally happy with this saw.

Good blade and nice heavy brass back like on some of the good older saws. I recarved the handle to suite my hand… nice now