Thread: How many saws...?

Providence just intervened and supplied a 22" 12tpi ?brand x-cut from the back if my FIL's garage. So I'll work around that as a starting point.

I'll let you guess how many of the four screws came loose... yep. 3.

There is an etch but you'd need technology i don't have to reveal it. The best I ca make out is "...keen edge... Tempered" which probably doesn't narrow the brand down.

Originally Posted by Berlin

I'll let you guess how many of the four screws came loose... yep. 3.

There's a law about that ... friggin' Murphy ...

Do you have a photo of the other side?

Cheers,
Paul

Spear & Jackson maybe?

The etch is the biggest and clearest I've seen on a British saw. My photography skills are not good enough to show it very well but the central emblem is the Spear and Jackson Mermaid tademark above the legend "The perfection of quality and workmanship". To the left, it says "Tested for hardness and spring" and to the right it says "Keeps keen edge - SORBITIC TEMPER - teeth won't break out".

Vintage Spear and Jackson Spearior 82 saw - advice please : Hand Tools - UKworkshop.co.uk

and this one just cos I came across it:
Rose Antique Tools old tools and history

Cheers,
Paul

What does the medallion look like? Disston used the name 'Keen Edge' at some point.

Toby

Bravo, Paul! It's definitely a Spear and Jackson! That is the same as the fraction of etch I have.

Toby, unfortunately there is no medallion. I wondered about Diston too because I'd read 'keen edge' was one of their brands, but as you can see in the first link of Paul's, it's a small bit of text and I couldn't see it being the brand name.

Cheers chaps. Well spotted.

How many saws to have? You don't have any choice in the matter. As soon as you say that, all the orphan saws see you as a soft touch and make for your shed.
Cheers,
Jim

No joke. I can literally here them coming

Originally Posted by Berlin

...Anyway. If I break and get some good old fashioned English pattern saws how many would constitute a workable set? I'm not on starvation rations. I can accommodate a few but I won't get every tpi increment .

I have a gent's saw currently 20 tpi but I think I'll re-file it to 16 and a little 13-ish tpi sash(?) backsaw. I was thinking of adding a 26" 5tpi rip saw, a 24" 8 or 10tpi x-cut and I'd love a half-back somewhere in the middle, say 14tpi?

Matt, I'm probably the least qualified to answer this question and of course, as usual, "It all depends..."

If you want to be an absolute mimimalist, you could follow Tage Frid's example. He did just about everything with a bowsaw equipped with a 15 tpi rip pattern blade. He saw no need whatever for crosscut teeth, and states in one of his books "I would never buy a backsaw; they are clumsy & heavy. Maybe they are alright in a mitre box, but a bowsaw will do the job faster." So there you go, that's one end of the spectrum. I guess if you were born with it in your hand like Frid, you could weild the ugly great thing like a surgeon's scalpel the way he reputedly did, but I would find something like his saw exceedingly clumsy in my hands!

It's really an individua'sl choice, & I doubt what I'd pack would be what the next person would choose, but I've ben mulling it over, and if I had to pare down to a minimal set for carting around, I think it would look a bit like your list. I would want a good dovetailer, so my 220mm 15 tpi would be a cert. This saw will comfortably handle any dovetailing task likely to be encountered in furniture production, plus small tenon cheeks (<30mm wide) Then for crosscutting small parts, my trusty 250mm, which has a bit heavier back, and is also 15 tpi.

I could probably get by with just those two, for back saws, but if I'm allowed another, I'd like to sneak in my 350mm halfback (10 tpi xcut). Once I would have packed my 16" 10 tpi panel saw, in a mobile kit, but the half-back is a little more versatile, so the panel saw gets bumped in its favor.

And and if I may, puleeease, a 300mm 10 tpi tenon saw - I'm sure it will fit with a squeeze.

Now I could be content for small saws with that lot, though I'd miss my little 18 tpi for very fine stuff, but I have to make room for at least one turning saw, and that would be my 10" with its custom-made blade, 15 tpi, & cuts like a hot knife through butter. It's not just for cutting curved bits, it is great for nipping out most of the waste on dovetails & numerous other small jobs where backsaws fear to go.

And I wouldn't leave home without a keyhole saw (I made myself a very thin & pointy one that cuts on the pull stroke & it is very often just the tool for the job). And a flush-cut would fit beside the keyhole saw....

For full-sized saws, I think I would pack my 5 tpi 26" 'Spearior' rip, and the battered, but still nice, old Disston 8 tpi xcut, also a 26", that was once my dad's.

I reckon I could do some decent work with that lot, but I have a feeling that, like Jim says, sooner rather than later, I'd stumble over another saw or two that I didn't know I couldn't live without!

Cheers,

Originally Posted by Berlin

To jog memories, I'm trying to whittle my tools down to a notional 100. I won't go over that ground again but I'm building up to blow out I use a frame saw with rip, cross and turning blades. It works beautifully, but all of the recent saw talk has given me major saw envy (not to mention i had a butcher's at IanW's saws and now I'll never be happy).

Anyway. If I break and get some good old fashioned English pattern saws how many would constitute a workable set? I'm not on starvation rations. I can accommodate a few but I won't get every tpi increment .

I have a gent's saw currently 20 tpi but I think I'll re-file it to 16 and a little 13-ish tpi sash(?) backsaw. I was thinking of adding a 26" 5tpi rip saw, a 24" 8 or 10tpi x-cut and I'd love a half-back somewhere in the middle, say 14tpi?

I also have coping, flush, and stair saws and I'd keep the frame primarily as a turning saw.

How does that strike people as a list?

Cheers

My better 7/8ths mentioned the other day that there were more than 30 saws in the shed. I went out to count, and there were more than 40...see they do multiply. No water, don't feed after midnight

Originally Posted by Blue-deviled

...... I went out to count, and there were more than 40...see they do multiply. No water, don't feed after midnight

BD, I think you'd better separate the boy saws from the girl saws and lock them in separate cupboards during the night!

I have much sympathy for Matt's project, as I have been having a bit of a tool cull myself, this year. I'm not putting any restriction on the number of tools, but I'm trying to pare back to a set that has everything I need and use, without unnecessary duplication. I decided some time back that I am a tool user, not collector, & I'm aiming to have only tools that get used on a regular basis. There are a few other reasons for keeping the numbers down, such as, preventing my tool cupboard from being over-run; keeping the chore of maintenance within bounds - I like tools that are sharp & ready to use; being able to keep an eye on our arch-enemy rust (which is a major concern in my shed), and not hoarding tools for no good reason when someone else could make good use of them.

For 80% of my tools, there is no problem, they are keepers that get plenty of use, it's the ones that see very little or no use at all that are so hard to decide on. These are either duplicates, or specialised tools that I thought would be handy, but will probably never get around to using even on an irregular basis. You may think that getting rid of duplicates would be an easy decision, but what do you do if the duplicates are heirlooms, and the one I already had is a slightly better tool, or in better overall condition (and has been with me for long enough to acquire some sentimental value, to boot)? And am I really going to get around to doing some of the more esoteric things I think I'm going to tackle "sumday"?

Hmmm, decisions, decisions.....

Cheers,

Well, Ian, if you're ever thinning your saw till down...

To be honest, i'm finding it hard too. So far all I've really managed to do is collect the keepers in one place and leave the extras in another. I also find stow aways keep cropping up in my new kit and once they're in it's hard to kick them out again. The biggest problem at the moment though is when I attempt to fill a gap in the list I get twenty things mushrooming up where I wanted one! Over all I'm winning though. I just have one cupboard of tools now, some clamps and soon... a neat, restrained saw till

Originally Posted by IanW

BD, I think you'd better separate the boy saws from the girl saws and lock them in separate cupboards during the night!

I have much sympathy for Matt's project, as I have been having a bit of a tool cull myself, this year. I'm not putting any restriction on the number of tools, but I'm trying to pare back to a set that has everything I need and use, without unnecessary duplication. I decided some time back that I am a tool user, not collector, & I'm aiming to have only tools that get used on a regular basis. There are a few other reasons for keeping the numbers down, such as, preventing my tool cupboard from being over-run; keeping the chore of maintenance within bounds - I like tools that are sharp & ready to use; being able to keep an eye on our arch-enemy rust (which is a major concern in my shed), and not hoarding tools for no good reason when someone else could make good use of them.

For 80% of my tools, there is no problem, they are keepers that get plenty of use, it's the ones that see very little or no use at all that are so hard to decide on. These are either duplicates, or specialised tools that I thought would be handy, but will probably never get around to using even on an irregular basis. You may think that getting rid of duplicates would be an easy decision, but what do you do if the duplicates are heirlooms, and the one I already had is a slightly better tool, or in better overall condition (and has been with me for long enough to acquire some sentimental value, to boot)? And am I really going to get around to doing some of the more esoteric things I think I'm going to tackle "sumday"?

Hmmm, decisions, decisions.....

Cheers,

Indeed! I'm trying to separate the saws as well (a trial separation). Although this has been pushed aside by the great carving tool audit... I think a table at the end of year MHTPS sale is in order. When there are Stanley Bedrocks to go, it's time for a table

Originally Posted by Blue-deviled

..........this has been pushed aside by the great carving tool audit...

BD, I always thought that carving tools must be like clamps in that "you can never have too many". The carvers I know have a staggering number of tools, yet seem to be constantly on the lookout for more. So if you're the carving type, forget it, you just have to accept your fate. Your only solution is to build more storage.

Cheers,

Originally Posted by IanW

BD, I always thought that carving tools must be like clamps in that "you can never have too many". The carvers I know have a staggering number of tools, yet seem to be constantly on the lookout for more. So if you're the carving type, forget it, you just have to accept your fate. Your only solution is to build more storage.

Cheers,

Well, these don't include the 20 or so for the instrument making, and I did pick up a box of a few dozen the other day (lined with newpapers from 1934 (whose adverts have since induced me to take up a pipe, and purchase a kodak camera)) which brings the spares to about seventy... Good news is that they're mainly Addis, with some excellent Marples and Herring Bros in the mix as well - easy to shift, in other words

cheers,
B-D.