Saw Sets

[Fred Page]

I'm looking at my 1964 copy of the Buck & Hickman catalogue regarding Saw sets.
I understand the use of the hand and plier sets but I'm unsure about how the Pit saw set was meant to be used. Can someone on this forum please enlighten me? Thanks.
Fred.

 

[MikeW]

Hi Fred,

One of the first places I go when at least identifying sets is Mark Conley's web site.

Without a picture of what you are looking at, I cannot help as I don't have the catalog. Hopefully someone will be along who can...

Take care, Mike

 

[Alf]

Not the 1964 edition, but I assume not dissimilar to the one here? Mike's your man for this stuff, but I assume it's the basic slip-over-the-tooth-and-lever-it-over type of device - just bigger? Often referred to as a "wrest" despite it all being in the "wrist"... :wink:

Cheers, Alf

 

[MikeW]

Ah, well then. Thanks Alf!

The tooth being set is merely slipped into one of the slots on the wrest and the handle is either move down or up, depending on whether one is setting the near or far side.

Here is a link to the US government's pages on filing, setting etc. cross cut saws, which are done in the same manner.

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/fspubs/77712508/toc.htm

Spring setting using a wrest is difficult, which is why wrests were always being modified to include stops in an attempt to create an even set. In the lumber camps my great uncle worked in, the hammer type were mainly used. Even those took great skill until someone figured out one could add a moveable fence to them for determining how far the tooth would overhang the anvil, thus helping to control the set from tooth to tooth.

Take care, Mike

 

[Alf]

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/fspubs/77712508/toc.htm

Thanks, Mike, I knew that one was out there somewhere but blessed if I knew where to start in order to find it. #-o

Cheers, Alf

 

[mahking51]

Hi All
Does anyone know a source for the instructions for a Stanley No43 set?
One of which I have just acquired this morning, a real monster of a thing!
Regards
martin

 

[MikeW]

Hi Martin,

The instructions for the 43 are the same as for the 42 series--link below.

http://www.vintagesaws.com/library/42x/42x.html

It is the relationship between the slide on the bottom as to how it holds the saw plate against the anvil, in conjunction with the position of the stop and the anvil position which create the amount of set.

Take care, Mike

 

[mahking51]

MikeW
Printed and pdf'd!
Many thanks,
Regards
martin

 

[Fred Page]

Not the 1964 edition, but I assume not dissimilar to the one

Thanks Alf.
Yes, exactly the same. Just for your information Buck & Hickman catalogues are fetching reasonable prices on the second hand market (I'm near to Hay on Wye).
Presumably the 'Pit' designation comes from its early use in the saw pit?
It must have been a rough and ready means of setting - I don't think anybody would use the method these days - after all, set equals energy equals sawdust.
Fred.

 

[Alf]

Just for your information Buck & Hickman catalogues are fetching reasonable prices on the second hand market

I think they always have, haven't they?

It must have been a rough and ready means of setting - I don't think anybody would use the method these days - after all, set equals energy equals sawdust.

Rough and ready wasn't an option; skill was the watchword I think. From The Village Carpenter by Walter Rose:

"The sharpening of the saw was no mean act of skill, no duty that could be entrusted to another. The sawyer's regard for his saw cannot but be something of a mystery. To one accustomed to the handling of many tools, it is difficult to understand what it must be like to use a single tool from morning to evening, from end to end of the week. But it is easy to believe that such continual use would be reason enough for his devotion to its welfare., his meticulous care to keep it ever in perfect condition. Constant use, together with such tireless care and attention, and I know not how much inherited knowledge - for our sawyer's forefathers had been woodsmen before him - all this, together with the native sense and experience of many other simple men, sawyers and toolmakers, working towards a common end, had perfected and established the shape of the teeth of that saw: the log serrated edge, with each tooth keen and correct in line with its neighbours: each with its gullet before, in which, as in a pocket, the dust created by the tooth's onslaught on the wood was conveyed and discharged into the pit below. Our sawyer's duty was to follow and maintain that tradition, proved correct by centuries of usage. This he undoubtedly did without question, yet it remained to him to regulate the cut of those teeth in proportion to the combined strength of himself and his mate. Only a little too much slant to their edge and the saw would bite too readily into the wood, beyond their power to force it downward. Continual practice and care taught him how to maintain the exact proportion, the ability of the saw to cut an amount just equal to the expenditure of their strength."

See? It's easy really... :roll: According to The Wheelwright's Shop (which has an even longer passage on the subject, including set, but who's author doesn't have the same love of the thing that Rose evidentally had) while the top sawyer was busy exercising all these centuries of knowledge his mate would exercise his elbow and nip off to the pub...

Cheers, Alf

 

[bugbear]

Sturt never actually worked as a wheelwright, Rose DID work as a carpenter.

Makes a lot of difference in the POV.

BugBear

 

[Alf]

Sturt never actually worked as a wheelwright, Rose DID work as a carpenter.

Egg - grandmother. Grandmother - egg. Round and round and round they go, which sucks what nobody knows... :lol: Sturt was an extremely unwilling boss, IIRC? Certainly his education-driven opinion of the craftsmen in his employ can leave a slightly bitter taste in comparison with Rose's view through, ha hum, rose-tinted eyeware. Between them they probably strike the truth of the thing pretty well. But Rose makes for nicer reading I reckon.

Cheers, Alf