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  1. #106
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    Innovations are those useful things that, by dint of chance, manage to survive the stupidity and destructive tendencies inherent in human nature.

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  3. #107
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    Quote Originally Posted by FenceFurniture View Post
    Funny you should mention that - you haven't seen Paul pour (and consume) a glass of wine. The idea of leaving some airspace in the glass for aromas to accumulate seems to have bypassed him - possibly because not enough time passes for accumulation...... (and also because there is soon plenty of air in the glass anyway)

    The Hammers look great Rob. Way out of my expertise for specific comment etc, but they sure look like a quality bit of kit. Gotta love this resurgence of boutique hand tool craftsmen.
    There goes all my credibility. It's funny, but I never remember it that way .

    Regards
    Paul
    Bushmiller;

    "Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely!"

  4. #108
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    In vino veritas...
    Innovations are those useful things that, by dint of chance, manage to survive the stupidity and destructive tendencies inherent in human nature.

  5. #109
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    Rob

    Thanks for the LN video.I can quite see where a visitors could easily blow the budget for the whole year.

    You had a good display of hammers there too. When I heard your Texas drawl, which in truth is not that broad, I recalled the last Texan I spoke with. I had revisited his veterinary practice, at which I was in the process of removing some woodworking tools as it had previously been the site of a joinery.

    Terry asked me what I was doing and when I told him I was in Millmerran (600km away) he said in the Texan way

    "Ah know Millmerran. Ah used t' work there."

    Actually he had been based in Dalby about an hours drive away, but he would go out on farm calls, do 500km and visit two properties. Sadly Terry is no longer with us.

    I digress.

    Loved the three legged stool. I could have lost myself there. Thanks for posting.

    Regards
    Paul
    Bushmiller;

    "Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely!"

  6. #110
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    Thanks for sharing all this information Rob. I enjoyed the video and indeed your voice is very relaxing.

    I understand why you want to make your own hammers, but for someone just doing a few of his own blades, would a normal benchhammer not be just as usefull? Polish the hammer faces, maybe crown them a bit more then standard. Even the peen end looks like it could come in usefull. I have a 900 gram hammer like that, an anvil and some test saw plates. Nothing to hold me back? I wonder a bit about the anvil. Old anvils rarely are very smooth, mine isn't either. How smooth is your anvil?

  7. #111
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    The anvil I'm using was chosen mostly for it's portability and the face is not the smoothest. You can use any hammer with a flat face for this work but be sure to thoroughly smooth and slightly dome the face leaving no sharp edges. The dog head hammers have the center of mass offset from the handle toward the striking face. In use this really makes a difference in how the hammer feels. A hammer with the center of mass coincident with the axis of the handle has more tendency to tip which creates deep dents. Most critical is to not strike the saw plate as if you're trying to sink a nail. Bounce the hammer using the handle to control where the head strikes.
    Innovations are those useful things that, by dint of chance, manage to survive the stupidity and destructive tendencies inherent in human nature.

  8. #112
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    Thanks. I'm going to give it a try on a basket case saw.

  9. #113
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    From my LN trip I've recognized that two of the sub-groups of saw aficionado's that have a need for my hammers, leveling blocks and anvils are the collectors and users of old saws. At the LN show I made demonstrations of how to tension and re-tension saw plates. Thus I think it may be of interest to the members here to see the process applied to an old saw.

    This is an early Disston handsaw. It was sold to me as a No. 8.

    It is 27-7/8" long at the toothline. The blade is 0.024" thick 1 mm down from the spine at the halfway point between the handle and the toe, 0.030" thick 25mm down from the spine and 0.040" thick just above the toothline at the heel.




    The medallion places it's date of manufacture in the late 1840's or early 1850's according to the Disstonian Institute. It reads "HENRY DISSTON" over "PHILA" all in caps.




    The blade bears a stamp in the middle of the blade reading "HENRY DISSTON" again all in caps.




    The blade has been hammered, badly, near the toe. The half-moon dents in the saw plate come from not using a proper hammer and or ham-handedness. Dog head hammers tend, because of their dynamics and domed faces, not to produce such results. The toothline curves as is typical of saws that have been filed up into the tensioned region.




    I will endeavor to correct the problems with the saw plate and illustrate my progress.
    Innovations are those useful things that, by dint of chance, manage to survive the stupidity and destructive tendencies inherent in human nature.

  10. #114
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    As I promised above I've straightened and re-tensioned this saw. Here it is again ready for surgery. If you don't like lots of pictures you should stop reading now.




    Here is the damaged section of the blade. The dents are pretty deep, I'd guess around 0.010" or so.




    Here you can see some of the deviation of the toothline.






    I circled the worst dents to guide my hammer work later.




    To properly assess the straightening process I've found that it's important to have all of the teeth at a uniform height. These teeth are really pretty bad. The first step is jointing.






    The next step is shaping all of the teeth. The file is one of my 7" Nicholson Black Diamond's. Great files that are unfortunately a thing of the past.




    Big contrast between the shaped and un-shaped teeth. The hang-nail at the heel will be ground off later.




    After the first pass the deviations in the toothline become much more evident.



    Seems I've hit the ceiling for pictures.
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Innovations are those useful things that, by dint of chance, manage to survive the stupidity and destructive tendencies inherent in human nature.

  11. #115
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    Chapter 2

    Ended up having to joint the saw twice to get the toothline uniform. Next step is to pull off the handle. You can see why Disston went through several iterations of screws. These first model screws hardly merit the name, thin, spindly, crooked and look like they were threaded with somebody's teeth.




    The recesses in the handle look pretty sharp for such an old saw. The goop inside them appears to be beeswax.







    The saw plate under the handle is surprisingly bright. Note the mysterious X - maybe a hardness test?




    While I was in there I measured the hardness of the sawplate - HRC 49 by both testers.




    Now for hammering, I started out with a No. 3 two faced stretching to iron down the dents as much as possible.




    Then I took a pass down the plate with a No. 3 tensioning hammer to take out some of the curve. Note the line of impact points shining to the right of the hammer head in this shot. It's important to point out that the height of the anvil is critical. I like the anvil face just below my hip joint. If it's above that level I can't do this well. Your mileage may vary.




    Working my way down further with the strikes showing up surprisingly well, they weren't visible to me at the time from my perspective.








    The impact points really stand out in this shot. The tip of my left thumb rests on the line running down the plate above the toothline.



    While doing the hammering I check the toothline frequently to monitor my progress by sighting down the length of the blade.

    To get at the really deep dents I resorted to placing a slip of leather under the plate and hammering down the lumps from their convex sides. This is the 'dead anvil' or 'blocking' that other sources refer to.

    Attached Images Attached Images
    Innovations are those useful things that, by dint of chance, manage to survive the stupidity and destructive tendencies inherent in human nature.

  12. #116
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    Chapter 3.

    After hammering the toothline is pretty reasonable. There are still some bumps in the plate that are just perceptible but considering the damage the operation is a success.





    Now to set it.




    I cleaned the paint and dirt off of the handle, oiled and waxed it and re-assembled. Here it is ready to go again after ~166 years of use, abuse and neglect.






    A quick test cut revealed that despite the narrowing of the plate due to over a century and a half of sharpening it can still take full sawing pressure without buckling, snagging or bowing.



    The toothing on this plate is 5-1/2 ppi for the majority of it's length. The last 3/4" at the toe has five teeth corresponding to ~7ppi. I decided not to correct this and leave the saw as close to original as possible.
    Innovations are those useful things that, by dint of chance, manage to survive the stupidity and destructive tendencies inherent in human nature.

  13. #117
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    Rob

    That is a terrific sequence of pix. You have highlighted that there was a good reason the Glover patent was universally adopted for saw screws.

    I particularly noted the use of leather under the saw plate. I have heard of this before. Did you find it worked better? Was that just for some applications?

    Is there any easy way to measure tension in a saw plate other than the feel. Some saws flex all over the place and apparently have all the rigidity of toilet paper while others have the stiffness of a regimental sergeant major on parade.

    Regards
    Paul
    Bushmiller;

    "Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts, absolutely!"

  14. #118
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    Paul,

    After I worked the bumps down as far as possible with the live anvil I resorted to the leather and they worked out nicely. The key to all of this work is to go slowly, check frequently and let the mass of the hammer do the work.

    The screws on this saw are pretty scary, they have about three turns of threading on the shanks. The Glover screws work great until the seasons change then they need to be tightened. That's why I introduced the bushings, no need to even tighten the screws once they're set.

    I'm coming to think that the tensioning doesn't confer increased stiffness necessarily, at least that I can measure with the crude methods I've tried so far. An ultrasonic tester is on my mind...

    This is of course going to be translated into another SOP, I'll forward you a copy when it's ready.

    Cheers,
    Rob
    Innovations are those useful things that, by dint of chance, manage to survive the stupidity and destructive tendencies inherent in human nature.

  15. #119
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    Hi Rob,

    Well done on the all the work so far. The hammers, the LN show and the straightening are all all first class, thanks for sharing.

  16. #120
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    I'm workin' at it...
    Innovations are those useful things that, by dint of chance, manage to survive the stupidity and destructive tendencies inherent in human nature.

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