Simonds Saga: part one

Just in time for Halloween...scary teeth. Here we're going to labor through sharpening my Simonds hand saw. I know, I know, "Mark, you've already done a sharpening post." Yeah, well this thing needs special attention.

Let's talk about crosscutting

 Since we've figured out a thing or two about sharpening a crosscut saw, let's look at putting one to use. This is definitely not the be-all-end-all guide. My method usually only involves marking the cut line on the top of the board. I've added a step for this write up, and for the foreseeable future, I'm going to continue to do it. The additional step is to mark the line on the back of the board as well. The idea is to reduce tearout on the backside of the cut. It works! And to prove it, I made a second cut with no knife lines at all.

Making Traditional Side Escapement Planes, With Larry Williams

...a review...
I like to think of myself as a budding tool maker. Truth is, I'm a wannabe. Seriously, let's look at this for a moment. Going back over the years you have Enos Baldwin, J.R. Tolman, Marley (those three come to mind because their tools are in my living room). There's Norris and Spiers. There's more and more. Today we have some great tool makers as well. Then there's me. Sure, I've got a few odd Krenov style planes. Planes that I love to work with. A few of them even have irons that I cut, hardened, and tempered myself. I am no tool maker. I'm a wannabe. Put me in a room with Larry Williams, and I'll shrink away and try to pretend to be a corner table.

On saw sharpening...

My 18" Disston D-100 loaded into the vise. A good saw vise can be had at an antique store. I see plenty of them around...you can find one. I always start with the handle to my left. I file from the handle down to the toe. Being a cross cut saw, file every other tooth...and we'll visit more on that in just a moment.

The Taming of the Skew

A D.Malloch skewed rebate plane. Marked "INCH 1/4". Malloch was a19th Century English plane maker. To find one of these in Waukesha WI was a bit unusual.

A battered old chisel

No...wait...you should have seen this thing BEFORE I brought it home. Believe it or not, this is an improvement. An old 3/4" Craftsman chisel. It features my very own, incompetent, but effective and comfortable repair to the top of the handle. There's nothing wrong with the picture, the blade is really bent (it is also curved on top, not just canted). I have almost restored it to working condition.

A couple old metal planes.

An older Craftsman plane. 9 3/4" with a 1 1/2" iron. This thing was in ROUGH shape when it followed me home. It is, still, in rough shape. However, after a little bit of work it has proven to be quite a nice smoother. It takes great shavings with the original iron. This one will likely remain ugly, there's really no need to try and tune it any further.

The Craftsman, from the top. Yup...still ugly.

This, I think, is a Lakeside. 9 1/2" with a 2" iron. The original iron has been 86'd. I replaced it with a standard Stanley iron. The sole and sides have been brought flat and square. Performs like a pig. I've got to fiddle with it some more. Open the mouth and it digs...close the mouth and it chatters. Ugh. It was Grampa's, and it may end up on my dad's mantle if I can't get it fettled.

First of the saws

My Penn State rip saw. It is 5ppi, 26". Rather a heavy one too. I haven't found much about the Penn State Saw Corp. The plate is uber-hard and a pain to file. In fact, a couple of teeth broke when I tried to set it. I'm going to rejoint it, and refile the teeth as soon as I remember to get a new file that I don't mind killing on one saw. I'm putting this one up here first, since it is the first saw I took an interest in restoring.

The "Quaker Oats Guy" etch. Of my old saws, this one has the strongest etch. This saw cleaned up nicely and is very straight. I'm not in a hurry to resharpen it, since I have picked up two new rip saws recently.

Old tools...

My E.Baldwin planes. Three rounds (or are they hollows? I always screw that up) and a moving fillester.

Marley match plane. I have no idea of age, or anything about the maker. Nice plane, though.

My Stanley SW panel saw. Made (I think) around 1922.

A Disston D-100. The plate is right around 18". A very nice worker.

First post, an introduction

If you randomly stumbled upon this, well, my apologies.
We'll see as time goes by how well I keep up with this thing. I'm here to share (read take) woodworking techniques and related, uh, stuff. My primary interests are with old tools (for purposes of the blog anyway). After that it gets into doing stupid things with old British motorcycles, which I'm sure you're not interested in. Unless, of course, 300 pound overpowered antique 650's are your thing. They're my thing, because I'm a wrench and gear head. They are also part of the reason I want to learn the QUIET skills of working wood by hand.
I also tend to get rather worked up about politics, but I'll try to keep my ramblings on that topic to myself.
So, let's see if we can get this party started. I'm betting party is the wrong word. I don't often stay up past 10 o'clock and I'm not supposed to drink (much). We'll try again.
So, let's see if we can get this rather boring little blog started. There, that's more like it.
And if you're wondering about the name of this little blog, is has mainly to do with the fact that there is very little to do with partying or sins of the flesh going on inside my life. Damn.