I find it hard, even after many years, to carry on a conversation about "sloping gullets" with at least a little chuckle.   Not at how it refers to a certain method of sharpening a hand saw mind you - its more that every time I hear the phrase "sloping gullet", I can't help but think of some sort of deformed fish...

That, and when researching the origins of this icthyological pursuit, I ran across a reference to a photo of a WWII era front-line French infantry "installation" (actually a shack the infantrymen had set up as a bar) called "L'Auberge des Gosiers en Pente" - or "The Inn of the Sloping Gullets" - that is to say, always thirsty... (from "The French in love and war: popular culture in the era of the World Wars" By Charles Rearick)

When sharpening a saw, there are several angles you are concerned with. The terms associated with these angles which are most important to this conversation include rake, fleam, and of course - slope (as shown in the graphic above -you can click on any of the images to see a larger, clearer version).  I'll try not to go into too heavy technical detail on saw sharpening as that's another subject, and it's been well covered by others... as well as myself.

Going through my "archives", and I ran across this early article I put together some time ago and never published.  It's still good info, so here it is in its unvarnished glory:

Here's a few small tips I use when working to keep my projects on the straight and narrow, and some meandering thoughts on inches, feet, millimeters, fractions thereof and of paranoid machinists who have invaded the souls of today's woodworker.  I can't say it will help you mark the correct side of the inch mark, but maybe it will help.

I apologize for the lack of content lately.  I have had the intentions of creating several new posts, but the world it seems has conspired against me!  I was just sitting down to compose a new article when an email arrived saying my web hosting company was going out of business, and that I had less than a month to react.  There was a choice to be made on whether to continue the site or not to, and you see here the resulting decision, to keep it up.  It was actually quite a wrenching decision for me, as I find myself with much less time these days, but so enjoy keeping up the site and the people I have conversed with because of its creation.  In the end, that's what won me over to continue.