Hi Cathrine,

If all you need is to shorten a saw blade, it can be done using a hacksaw with a new blade in it. The trick is to clamp the blade between three pieces of wood. One piece is under the blade and the other two pieces on top with one piece on each side of where you want to make the cut. Clamp the whole assembly on a solid surface with the part you will be cutting, over-hanging. When you saw, use a low angle. A sharp hacksaw blade will cut a handsaw blade quite easily and you can follow a scribed line. After shortening the saw blade, file the hacksawed edge smooth. Give it a try on one of the worst saws just for practice.

Here's a picture of how I do it. The solid surface in this example is the table on my Radial Arm Saw.

This is after the saw blade has been cut.

This is before the cut was made...

This is the saw after shortening it.

The purpose of shortening this saw was to make what I call a "poor man's tenon saw". It is filed rip for cutting end grain for extra large tenons.