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The Largest Saws in the World
from Crucible, June 1920
Henry Disston & Sons, Inc., make Two Huge
Circular Saws 108 Inches in Diameter to be used in cutting the
Big Trees of the Pacific Coast.
In the making of large Circular Saws, Henry
Disston & Sons, Inc. have had much experience.
As long ago as
1876 they made one 100 inches in diameter for exhibition
purposes. Some years after, they made another 100-inch saw
for cutting stone, ....
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Tools - a Genuine Expression
of Folk Art by Jonathan
Green-Plumb
The book presents a survey of European hand tools
for woodworking and other trades, dating from the 16th to the the 19th century.
The tools
were either made decoratively or received surface decoration.
Although all the tools featured were made to be primarily
functional, the focus of the book is on the esthetic qualities that transform such tools into examples of genuine
folk art.
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 A
Trip To The Woodwright’s School by Will Myers
This past weekend I was able to
go back to Roy Underhill’s
Woodwright’s School in Pittsboro
North Carolina. This time I took a saw sharpening class and
a joinery planes class.
Since I survived the two days I
thought I would write a few lines about the experience.
Day one:
Hand saw sharpening class with Bill Anderson. I have been
trying to improve my saw sharpening skills lately but was
not really great at it. In the class Bill covered the types
of saw teeth...
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 Lie-Nielsen No. 51R Chute Board
Plane
by Chris Schwarz
I have never been a fan of specialty planes or gizmos. I’d rather
use a No. 7 bench plane to square an edge than use a No. 95
edge-trimming plane or even a Stanley bench plane with an accessory
fence.
Part of my preference has to do with my salary. As a
writer (a low-paying trade much like woodworking), my
salary limits the tools I can purchase.
Yes, I know that if you have been reading this column for many years
that it looks like I can afford lots of tools. But many of those
tools are either sold when I am done or returned to the owners I
borrowed them from.
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 The Table Saw, part 2: Sharpening and Use
by Matthew Cianci
I
finally had a chance last weekend to finish up my
new table saw and put it to use.
You can read
Part 1
here about its origins. The last steps in the
process were to sharpen this strange little saw and
put her to some wood.
To start, I clamped the saw in my
vise and pondered how to go about sharpening the
mixed teeth… Mixed teeth??? What the heck are
mixed teeth???
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 Making Files at Disston
from "The File in History" -
Henry Disston & Sons
In the sharpening of saws, a great many files
are used.
During the War of the Rebellion, Henry Disston & Son
(this being the firm name at the time), unable to obtain files
which would give satisfaction, found it necessary to make files
for their own use.
This becoming known, it was not long
before requests were received from customers that they be
supplied.
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 Building Gerrit Rietveld by Diego de Assis
Reproducing Rietveld
chairs in our woodworking classes bought a series of cumulative
benefits, beginning with their historical importance—making
these chairs is to participate in that history.
From the perspective
of teaching techniques, chairmaking is a complete woodworking
exercise. As Domingos Marcellini has written, “the chair is the
most difficult type of furniture to make, not one of the lesser
exercises, due to the small dimensions of the component parts.
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 Cold Blue
by Scott Grandstaff
Well, I love chrome. Especially the
really thick old school chrome that you get to really
dig into with a buffing wheel and bring it up bright
mirror hot!! Unfortunately much of the new stuff is
micro thin and most of the old stuff is worn. There
isn't much way to restore chrome at home.
You can buy small plating equipment outfits from one
or two companies. But the procedure is long and expensive. It
takes up a lot of room too with the several tanks and multiple
plating to get chrome. You have to plate copper, and then nickel,
and finally chrome.
Professional plating shops don't want to know you for a 2 dollar
pair of pliers. I mean they'd be glad to have the job but unless you
can bribe your way in with cases of beer or something, it won't be
cheap to restore old tools.
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 A Promotion
Gift
by Bob Smalser
Our youngest is a full-time college
student. But he’s also an Iraq combat veteran and National
Guardsman who, in addition to his line-unit duties, supervises a
regional Honor Guard team performing color guard honors and
veteran’s funeral details over a wide area of a large, western
state.
NCOIC’s of such details are authorized swords with the
dress uniform, and we thought a presentation sword would be an
excellent gift upon his promotion to Sergeant.
So I looked at the current crop of new-made
ceremonial swords sold by today’s uniform and
insignia companies, and after examining the plated,
soft-stainless blades, the scabbards assembled with
staples and ...
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 Meet The
SawWright in Beverly, MA!
by Matthew Cianci
A
few weeks ago I had the pleasure of setting up a space
at the
Lie-Nielsen Hand Tool Event at the
Connecticut Valley School of Woodworking in
Manchester, CT and it was an absolute blast.
I met a ton of customers and was totally swamped with
sharpening work, and it was awesome. I sharpened up a
bunch of saws and had a great time… the first day I was
so busy I didn’t even get to play with any of the L-N
tools!!!
Well I’m very excited to tell you that Deneb from
Lie-Nielsen asked me to return, and so I’ll be at
the upcoming show in Beverly, MA at The Furniture
Institute of Massachusetts on Friday December 2nd.
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 File Making by Machinery
by Modern Machinery
magazine, 1898
Generation ago, when hand looms had been abandoned, except
in Thrums, and even clock works and jewel screws were being
made by machinery, the heaviest file used by the machinist,
as well as the finest required by the jeweler and sculptor,
was still cut by hand.
Millions of dollars were spent in this country and abroad in
vain attempts to make and introduce the machine cut file.
The reasons for the repeated failures are not at once
apparent, and cannot be understood without detailed
explanation of the peculiarities of this indispensable tool
and the services demanded of it, for the file seems to
present no more mechanical difficulties...
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 Building a Roubo Bench - Part
4 by Will Myers
The last thing I did on the bench was go over the legs and
stretchers with a smoothing plane. I also did the final
flattening of the top.
I wiped on the first coat
and let it dry for three days, sanded it lightly and then added
a second coat. I really didn’t go to extremes with the smoothing
or the finish, I made this thing to use. The top had some tear
out that I didn’t get completely out in a couple of places but I
really didn’t care. There is also some checking in the top, I
did not try to fill them with anything. I am sure in time the
dings and scratches will be numerous anyway and that’s fine with
me. I think the signs of being a useful tool are the ultimate
finish.
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 Manufacture of Files
by William T. Nicholson, 1878
Files are made from cast steel,
more clearly defined as "Crucible Carbon," as distinct from the
"Siemens-Martin," or "Bessemer" Steel, and until within a few
years, it was imported almost exclusively from Sheffield,
England. At the present time, however, very little is brought
into this country from abroad; the American steel having been
found to be of equally good quality, and in every way as uniform
as the English.
And in justice to the American
makers, we will here say, that our experience and tests have
demonstrated, that the American steel contains, as a rule, a
better quality of material than we formerly obtained in the
English.
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 Little
Saw
by Scott Grandstaff
Here is the short story of a little saw
My friend Russ Allen was digging though a junk shop.
Well, the guy had saws. Backsaws.
The worst kind!! Plywood flat as a plank handle, thin
wimpy back.
Basically your Walmart quality backsaw. So he asks
the guy how much? Guy says 3 bucks. Russ is
thinking, not really very interested. Guy pops up, OK I
got a dozen, how about 20 bucks, all in?
So Russ took them. Got them home and realized no way
could I have a worse saw than this.
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 Sharpening Files
published
in Engineering, an Illustrated Weekly Journal,
June 28, 1878
Mr.
B. C. Tilghman has recently discovered another and very
interesting application of the sand blast to industrial
purposes. He has found that by subjecting worn files to
the action of the jet, the cutting edges are rapidly
renewed, and the file is made sharper than when new.
The process is as follows:
A stream of fine sand impelled at a high velocity by a
jet of steam ...
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My new table saw
by Matthew Cianci
 No, I’m not talking about that kind of table saw. I’m talking
about this kind of table saw…
That’s what a table saw was in the 19th century. Why is it called a
table saw?
Because you cut out table tops with it, of course! To be
more specific, oval and round table tops… that’s why it has such a
narrow saw plate… narrow meaning a relatively shorter depth than a
typical handsaw.
Think of it a hybrid between a compass saw and a
full size hand saw.
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Tweedale’s Directory
of Sheffield Cutlery Manufacturers
1740 – 2010
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