I had never thought much about chamfers until I bought this saw and hefted it around a bit. I then realised that were I to use it (which is unlikely as, at the risk of mixing metaphors - or perhaps more accurately similies, it is as blunt as a bag of hammers and my joinery skills extend little beyond a 4\"x2\" nailed butt joint). If there is an average sized hand then I probably have somewhere near it, and when using this saw, the shoulder on the chamfer in just the wrong place - or rather just the right place to be annoyingly uncomfortable. http://www.backsaw.net/cpg/thumbnails.php?album=47 (Hello Peddar, I hope that I have done the photos right.) The pad of my finger fits into the chamfer above the shoulder perfectly, and is very comfortable but I have to bend it to do so and would lose a lot of control of the saw. Were this to be a bespoke handle and made with the shoulder in the configuration that it is, but 1/4 of an inch further forward then it would be wonderful. But it isn\'t. This prompted me to muse on the purpose of the chamfer and certainly the shoulder in the middle. Is there some practical use for it, or is it there purely for decoration. If this is going to turn into a \"nib\" type of discussion, then I apologise now. Fred
Hi Pedder Sorry to have spelt your name wrong in the text above, and just to let you know, it took me about two days on and off to work out how to get the thumbnails into the text. This is definitely as far as I go with learning to use one of these machines. Fred.
Hi Fred, thank for taking the work to post links. Very easy now. Regarding chamfers Iread several times that one us is to hide mistakes from centering the slots. I think they are like the nib only ornamental. Cheers Pedder