Let's Wrap Up That Weekend....

Ok...well...where to start. I haven't mentioned cooking for a while so lets start with food and then we'll talk about shiny metal things...

Usually I bake my own treats. This weekend, however, my dad made stollen. I hung up the apron, drove to his house and grabbed this tasty treat!!!!!

Stoning a saw

We talked about sharpening a cross cut saw here. I mentioned a bit about tuning, particularly stoning the teeth to correct the set. This is just a short post to show what stoning is.

Just as the name suggests, run a stone down the teeth. Lightly! If the saw pulls to the left, stone the left side, and if it pulls to the right...you guessed it. I use an old oil stone that was rescued from a bucket of rusty tools. I wouldn't use a water stone for this.

Disston key hole saw

I really shouldn't be out tool shopping right now. Well, kinda. I wanted a saw to restore for my cousin as a gift...and that one is kicking my arse at the moment. This little gem, however, jumped out of a basket at the store screaming, "take me home, I'm gorgeous." Why doesn't that happen when I'm out having a drink?
This is a Disston key hole saw. By my checking around, best I can figure is that it is pre-1875. It's seen better days, but is still a fine piece of work. The handle is super comfy, and is more befitting a dovetail saw. I'm likely to sell this, but not before I pattern the handle and take more pictures of it so that maybe one day I can reproduce it.

Resawing

Ripping is one thing, resawing is a whole other animal! You can't build everything from inch thick lumber, and buying stuff that's already brought down to a thinner section is expensive. What's a budding neanderthal to do? Steve Branam shows his technique for resawing here. I figured that would be a good place to start. I got some inch cherry and went to town.

The intended victim. It's a pretty piece of cherry, and I hope to keep it pretty!

Popping a saw etch

Enhancing, or popping a saw etch (as I like to call it, because I make up my own terms for stuff), is a bit of an art. It's a picky little task, and I'm still learning it. With my first few saws I didn't even know that I could pop the etch out. They're all waxed up now, so I'm not about to go and strip them to work on the etch. After working on my first few saws, I ran across an article on WK Fine Tools by Bob Sturgeon, here. I wanted to give it a shot because I had a mystery saw with a "Warranted Superior" medallion and a faded etch. Obviously, the WS medallions don't tell you much. In the end, the etch was too far gone to get anything recognizable to learn the origin of the saw. Rats. Currently I've been working on my second Atkins No. 53 and the Simonds from hell. I decided to give it another go, though the etches were very weak to begin with, I was able to improve them. To have gone farther probably would have lead to their complete obliteration. (awesome, I knew I was going to be able to use "obliteration" in a sentence today)

Simonds Saga (part 2)

Part one is here .

I couldn't let this saw continue to mock me. I could hear it laughing whenever I was in my shop. When your shop is only 77 square feet, it's hard to escape the taunting of a tool that's out to get you. "Now is the time!" I said. In reality, I needed an excuse to avoid sanding drywall for a bit. The drywall can wait until tomorrow.

Back into the trusty saw vise for another round. I jointed the teeth one last time, and went for it.

Damn, sometimes them ole tools are sweet!

Nothing real instructive here, I just feel the need to gloat a little. A few weeks ago, I picked up a junker of a saw. An Atkins 53 to be exact. I loved the handle, the blade was a nice length and dead straight. I resharpened it to a rip profile because I wanted a short ripper. I don't have a saw bench right now, so a shorter rip saw is easier for me to use (not to mention they fit my arm length better). Anyway, I had to rip a piece of Ambrosia Maple for my coffee table. Oh! Sweet goodness! That thing cuts straight.

It's a nice feeling when a saw you sharpened and tuned performs this well. Mind you, this was not a six foot long cut through two inch rock maple, but that's still pretty darned good for a novice.

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.

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.

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.