Ressurecting an old buck saw..How to sharpen?

[Lem]

 Found an old,[would guess c.1940's] buck saw at the recycle center last summer....handles twisted and split,blade rusty etc. not much to look at,but reminded me of the one my Dad bought back in '38 to clean-up after the hurricane..[though it was about a 24",and this one is a nice 30"].
  Made new handles for it from some suger maple that I milled back in '03,and reused the the nicely aged two-piece curved oak spreader...which had been epoxied into the handle mortises,[!!!..thus the ruined handles and the reason the previous owner couldn't tension the blade]. Made-up a new tensioner w' a turnbuckle..... w/ 4 coats of thinned Linseed oil it looks great,BUT now I'm puzzled by the correct way to sharpen the blade:
The blade has been filed several times and the correct profile has me stymied....Seems to be a plain tooth,4 TPI,.032" thickness,and teeth appear to be alternately set.
  Questions....
                      How should I shape the teeth...w/ a rake angle on one side or equilateral? If raked what angle to use? Bevel angle,[fleam] to use ? How much set should I put on teeth after shaping and filing?...
                      Any tips or help would be apprecited.
     My pupose in all this is to get a usable buck saw that i can use to cut-up firewood from my cord wood piles back in the woods ....so,why not just use my chain saw ? Well,I'd just like to go out w/ a thermos of coffee and enjoy the stillness of the woods for awhile each day,get some exercise ....leave the clatter of my chainsaws for felling and milling....When I have "company" I'll use my old "two-man"...but usually there to busy to spend some quiet time in the woods....'course they pay some exercise gym to allow them to exercise ...go figure ???
    TIA    Lem
             

[beenthere]

Can you get a picture of the teeth in the saw now, and post it?

First thing I would do would be to joint the teeth so they are all the same height. A flat tip of each tooth should show when finished jointing.
Then you might be able to sharpen it with a triangular file, (after putting some set in the teeth), and filing down to just where the jointed 'flats' are removed.

I'd like to see more of the profile, however.

[Lem]

Been there,
  Don't have camera available right now,but the teeth are just plain 60 +/- 5 degree, vertical triangles,about 3/16" tall and 7/32" wide at the base.I have jointed the blade and with the exception of eight or nine short  teeth the jointing "flats" are within reasonable reshape filing.
  There is a "R" stamped on one end of blade,and I suspect that it may indicate that the blade was originally ground w/ a Rake ,though as I said before,there is none now...each tooth slopes about 30 degrees from vertical on each side...
Lem

[Skytramp]

Just enough set to keep the saw from pinching, like a crosscut, the R is rake toward you.  You want it to cut as you pull it toward you and silp back easily.
     I am pretty sure you can still buy a one man buck in some farm supply stores, go take a look.  They may not be built exactly the same but they will sharpen the same.
Sky

[Lem]

   Tramp,  cutting on the pull stroke?Most carpenter type saws are set-up to cut on the push stroke so as to provide a natural down pressure on the cut...why wouldn't you want the same on a Buck Saw????Please explain...
Lem

[Skytramp]

lots easier to pull than to push, also saw even tho taught will tend to bend when pushed.  Lots of old timers would sharpen a crosscut with rake so they could use it by themselves.
Sky

[Skytramp]

Lem the buck is not a carpenter type saw, but the more I think about it I am not so sure, It has been so long since I have filed one that I can't really remember.  People around here have brought my Dad and my self all kinds of saws to sharpen over the years and there were some one man bucks.  Guess the best would be to look one up and see for sure, certaintly hope I havn't led you astray.
     I used to sharpen the crosscuts for a compatition event here locally, two years ago I put too much set into them for some reason, they cut great but sure did pull hard, someone else gets the job now, Maybe I subconcesly did it on purpose, ha.
Sky

[beenthere]

Interesting thread on buck saws, and I ran across this one having to do with various tooth configurations.
buck saw 
See Fig. 8 for the buck saw tooth config. and maybe it will help.

[Lem]

Thank You Beenthere and Sky for your help..
   BINGO!the thread you found BT solved the quandry re the tooth shape.Disston's 1907 treatise answered my questions,though must say the writer sure had away of using the word "pitch" rather loosly:On p.2 he seems to use it to define tooth size,[Fig.1],then adjacently uses it as a word for "rake";then
next to Fig.3...."...fleam to teeth in Fig.3 is about 45 degrees,while there is no "pitch"at all....." :-\
  Ye,"peg tooth",that's the word I was looking for when I was originally describing the shape of the tooth.
Re the "R" stamped on the blade.....guess the bevel is in effect a "rake". From the footnote,on p.6,I can only surmise that it is possible that originally the blade was ground w/ "less fleem" on the back side  and .therefore was marked "R" to denote the front bevel side. Think I'll just go w/ both front and back of tooth the same...though w/ less than a 45 degree bevel as a starter.
  Thanks again guys and a Merry Christmas to you and yours.
  Lem