Thread: disston saw set what saws????

Not an old hand tool expert, but I grew up with a father that was a chippie using mostly hand tools and had a retained set of grandfathers tools from the start of the 20th century as well as his own tools.

I know that there was a fair bit of leverage required to set the teeth on standard rip and crosscut framing saws. Your device has no sign of anything to supply leverage, and a fairly short, wide tooth slot.

I am guessing but I suspect that what you have is a guage for checking the set of a large saw, which would be applied with a set of pincers or some form of press. Going by the width of the tooth slot, possibly intended for a large mill circular saw blade.

There's not much info about this saw set around.
Some reference here
http://members.acmenet.net/~con12a/saw%20set%20website/wrestsawset.htm

It looks like the thumbscrews work as a stop and determine the amount of set.
Slide the slotted disc down over the saw tooth, and tilt the whole tool down left or right until the thumbscrews stop against the saw blade.
You would have a fair bit of leverage so it could set a pretty big tooth.

I'm just guessing though

Originally Posted by Thumbthumper

It looks like the thumbscrews work as a stop and determine the amount of set.
Slide the slotted disc down over the saw tooth, and tilt the whole tool down left or right until the thumbscrews stop against the saw blade.
You would have a fair bit of leverage so it could set a pretty big tooth.

I'm just guessing though

My thoughts too but guessing also.
Cheers,
Jim

Originally Posted by bluegum30

this saw set i think was for cross cut saws ,i can't find a reference to it on the Disston site ,if someone can let me know of a link explaining a bit about it would be good. thanks Lloyd.

Lloyd,
Tools with US patent dates or numbers are usually pretty straight forward to find info.
I went here first because the data is good and there are often pictures of the actual tool. ( some of mine are there)
DATAMP - Directory of American Tool and Machinery Patents
in the date box put in your date
May 11 1875.

I couldn't read your date well so went through this process..... 76 didn't give me the result so I went the long way.
Top of the page click where it says TYPE
Then you have the drop down boxes
In the first click
HANDSAWS
Then
Category is SAW SHARPENING TOOLS
type is SAW SETS
then click search
Then go to the page with your date
May 11 1875
US Patent: 163,162 - Improvement in Saw Sets
Then click on google patent to view it.
IMPROVEMENT IN SAW-SETS - Google Patent Search

OR
Go to Google patents
Google Patents
go to ADVANCED
Advanced Patent Search
Then
type in top box
saw set
then in the issue date down the bottom
type in your date MAY 1875 to JUNE 1875
click search button....there it is the first one!

Regards,
Peter

Thanks Peter. Far more satisfying than pooling ignorance.
Cheers,
Jim

Originally Posted by jimbur

Thanks Peter. Far more satisfying than pooling ignorance.
Cheers,
Jim

Jim,
did you note the tilt on the tool in use, so it would not bend the tooth at the root as usual, but in fact give the tooth a slight twist by bending it in a different way than the pliers type. I wonder how that would effect the way the saw cuts.
Regards,
Peter

Originally Posted by lightwood

Jim,
did you note the tilt on the tool in use, so it would not bend the tooth at the root as usual, but in fact give the tooth a slight twist by bending it in a different way than the pliers type. I wonder how that would effect the way the saw cuts.
Regards,
Peter

I wonder if that is why the set is so rare. Does it give an extra unwanted stress on the cutting tooth root?
Cheers,
Jim

There is a bit about that type of saw set here ,
Looks to be a piece missing from yours

Originally Posted by Manuka Jock

There is a bit about that type of saw set here ,
Looks to be a piece missing from yours

Manuka Jock,
It's not my tool, but the picture looks complete to me.
I don't see any missing parts there...
Looks like a two handled stock and a wheel with slots, a pivot (axle) screw, and a screw to fix the wheel in place. And the two screws to adjust for set.
All that is in the patent document.
What part do you think is missing?
Regards,
Peter

My mistake .
It might be that it is a slightly different model then .
The one you posted has the wheel enclosed

Originally Posted by Manuka Jock

My mistake .
It might be that it is a slightly different model then .
The one you posted has the wheel enclosed

Not my saw-set, however I wish it was. Never seen one in the flesh.
I would like to see how it works on a variety of different types of saws though.
Regards,
Peter

an apology to all for not getting back to my post which you all gave a lot of help in chasing down a lot of answers ,the short answer to my neglect is i have been of my tucker ,i have ducked in a few times but just didn't feel up to a reply to the post ,i will go through the links provideded and say something about what i learn soon.Lloyd

This saw set is shown on Tom Laws dvd, for setting the teeth on a two man cross cut saw.

the dvd is available from Lie Nielsen

Regards

thank's everyone for your help to find out a bit about my Disston saw setting tool ,thanks for the link's .The wrest way of setting i am familar with because i set the circular saws we used in our sleeper cutting for many years till we changed to tungstan carbide tip's which didn't need to be set .This Disston type saw setter would be too small to set the saws we used,but i am of the opinion it would have been quite ok to set a 2 man cross cut and up to a 7 tooth hand saw, though the hand saw would have required a bit of care because of the thinner gauge,with only 162 thousand made i thought more woodies would have had one.

Lloyd.