Mechanick exercises: or the doctrine of handy-works. Applied to the arts of smithing joinery carpentry turning bricklayery. To which is added Mechanick dyalling: ... The third edition. By Joseph Moxon, ...


His description of a saw wrest sounds like it is turned horizontally, turning two teeth at once - one towards and one away.

Trying to picture whether this would be a little different result than a sawset as we know it now works, or setting with a hammer and plate, which leans the whole tooth or tip over.

I can't yet see how this wouldn't bend the front of one tooth and the back of the other ... hmmm ...

Paul


"§. 26. The Use of the Saw in general.

IN my former Exercises, I did not teach you how to chuse the Tools a Smith was to use; Be|cause it is a Smith's Office to make them: And be|cause in thoseExercises I treated of making Iron-work, and Steel-work in general, and the making and excellency of some Tools in particular, which might serve as a general Notion for the Know|ledge of all Smith's Workmanship, especially to those that should concern themselves with Smith|ing: But to those that shall concern themselves with Joinery, and not with Smithing; It will be necessary that I teach them how to chuse their Tools that are made by Smiths, that they may use them with more ease and delight, and make both quicker and nearer Work with them.
All sorts of Saws, for Joiner's Use, are to be sold in most Iron-monger's Shops, but especially in Foster-lane, London; Chuse those that are madeof Steel, (for some are made of Iron) for Steel of it self is harder and stronger than Iron: You may know the Steel-Saws from Iron-Saws thus, The Steel-Saws are generally ground bright and smooth, and are (the thickness of the Blade con|sidered) stronger than Iron-Saws: But the Iron-Saws are only Hammer-hardned, and therefore if they could be so hard, yet they cannot be so smooth, as if the Irregularities of the Hammer were well taken off with the Grindstone: See it be free from flaws, and very well Hammered, and smoothly Ground, (that is, evenly Ground,) you may know if it be well Hammered by the stiff ben|ding of it, and if it be well Ground, (that is, e|venly Ground,) it will not bend in one part of it more than in another; for if it do, it is a sign that part were it bends most is, either too much Ground away, or too thin Forged in that place: But if it bend into a regular bow all the way, and be stiff, the Blade is good: It cannot be too stiff, because they are but Hammer-hardned. and there|fore often bow when they fall under unskilful Hands, but never break, unless they have been of|ten bowed in that place. The Edge whereon the Teeth are, is always made thicker than the Back, because the Back follows the Edge, and if the Edge should not make a pretty wide Kerf, if the Back do not strike in the Kerf, yet by never so little irregular bearing, or twisting of the Hand awry, it might so stop, as to bow the Saw; and (as I said before) with often bowing it will break at last. When Workmen light of a good Blade thus qualified, they matter not much whether the Teeth be sharp or deep, or set to their mind: For to make them so, is a Task they take to them|selves: And thus they perform it: They wedge the Blade of the Saw hard into the Whetting-Block, marked P, in Plate 4. with the Handle to|wardstheir left Hand, and the end of the Saw to the right, then with a three-square File they be|gin at the left hand end, leaning harder upon the side of the File on the right Hand, than on that side to the left Hand; so that they File the upper|side of the Tooth of the Saw a-slope towards the right Hand, and the underside of the Tooth a lit|tle a-slope towards the left, or, almost down|right. Having filed one Tooth thus, all the rest must be so filed. Then with the Saw-wrest, mark|ed O, in Plate 4. they set the Teeth of the Saw: That is, they put one of the Notches marked aaa of the Wrest between the first two Teeth on the Blade of the Saw, and then turn the Handle Ho|rizontally a little about upon the Notch towards the end of the Saw; and that at once turns the first Tooth somewhat towards you, and the se|cond Tooth from you: Then skipping two Teeth, they again put one of the Notches of the Wrest be|tween the third and fourth Teeth on the Blade of the Saw, and then (as before) turn the Handle a little about upon the Notch towards the end of the Saw, and that turns the third Tooth some|what towards you, and the fourth somewhat from you: Thus you must skip two Teeth at a time, and turn the Wrest till all the Teeth of the Saw are set. This Setting of the Teeth of the Saw (as Work|men call it) is to make the Kerf wide enough for the Back to follow the Edge: And is Set Ranker for soft, course, cheap Stuff, than for hard, fine, and costly Stuff: For the Ranker the Tooth is set, the more Stuff is wasted in the Kerf: And besides, if the Stuff be hard it will require greater Labour to tear away a great deal of hard Stuff, than it will do to tear away but a little of the same Stuff.
The Pit Saw, is Set so Rank for course Stuff, as to make a Kerf of almost a quarter of an Inch, but for fine and costly Stuff they set it finer to saveStuff. The Whip-Saw is set somewhat finer than the Pit-Saw; the Hand-Saw, and the Compass-Saw, finer than the Whip-Saw; but the Tennant-Saw, Frame-Saw, and the Bow-Saw, &c. are set fine, and have their Teeth but very little turned over the Sides of their Blades: So that a Kerf made by them, is seldom above half a half quarter of an Inch.
The reason why the Teeth are filed to an An|gle, pointing towards the end of the Saw, and not towards the Handle of the Saw, or directly straight between the Handle and end of the Saw, is, Be|cause the Saw is designed to cut only in its Progress forwards; Man having in that Activity more strength to rid, and Command of his Hands to guide his Work, than he can have in drawing back his Saw, and therefore when he draws back his Saw, the Work-man bears it lightly off the un|sawn Stuff; which is an ease to his Labour, and enables him the longer to continue his several Pro|gressions of the Saw.
Master-Workmen, when they direct any of their Underlins to saw such a piece of Stuff, have seve|ral Phrases for the sawing of it: They seldom say Saw that piece of Stuff; But Draw the Saw through it; Give that piece of Stuff a Kerf; Lay a Kerf in that piece of Stuff; and sometimes, (but most un|properly,)Cut, or Slit that piece of Stuff: For the Saw cannot properly be said to cut, or slit the Stuff; but it rather breaks, or tears away such parts of the Stuff from the whole, as the points of the Teeth prick into, and these parts it so tears away are proportionable to the fineness, or rank|ness of the setting of the Teeth.
The Excellency of Sawing is, to keep the Kerf exactly in the Line marked out to be sawn, with|out wriggling on either, or both sides; And straight through the Stuff, as Work-men call it;that is, in a Geometrical Term, perpendicular through the upper and under side, if your Work require it, as most Work does: But if your Work be to be Sawn upon a Bevil, as some Work some|times is, then you are to observe that Bevil all the length of the Stuff, &c."








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