Hill LATE Howel Backsaw

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This looks fantastic. I think you have done the right thing, no good to man nor beast if it doesn't cut wood.

You have got me thinking now, I have an old brass back tenon saw with a bent blade, I wonder if I could replace it?

Nothing to lose I suppose.

Well done Jim and Pedder.

Mick
 
Yes Richard...rather a strange thing to do using an old saw to make a saw but if you equate old planes whose irons eventually wear out and need replacing with the concept of this saw finally needing a new bite...there is no real difference.

I do have another candidate for the "Carter" treatment...but that thread will have to wait a bit... 8) :wink:

Pedder and I do have this running joke about naming "Old Ladies" as he calls them...it started with my Robert Sorby "Robert"....which he calls "Roberta"....

It's fairly cut and dry (oops!)....in Europe where things have gender...but with our neutral naming of inanimate objects...it really becomes a bit of a mystery! The gag continues! :mrgreen:

Harriette is still winging its way back to England from our Teutonic Saw Surgeon.. BB but when I get it back I will certainly try meths and my toothbrush...I actually missed that little bit and it wasn't until I saw the hi-res photo that I noticed it.

It is a different solution Mick...one I am warming to by the day. Imagine...by the time the steel needs replacing the rest will be about 400 years old....and still a working tool....I wonder how many other saws will exist still sporting the ancient toolmaker's name?

More photos and tests when Harriette lands!

Jim (and Pedder!)
 
That looks to be a very satisfactory solution to the problem, and one that will give the best of two worlds - 19th century handle design and a nice, heavy brass back with modern blade steel quality (and a set of very even teeth - my compliments to The Dentist!). It shows that repair of older saws is not just possible, but practical.

I'll speculate a bit about blade steel from the mid 19th century, based on what Pedder's photographs show us. Quality control was difficult in those days because the equipment we have now to measure temperatures during heat treatment was not available, and the chemical analysis of steel samples was a slower affair - no mass spectrometers available in the steelworks of the day. Maybe this blade has fractured by the sawscrew holes, and at the teeth on setting, because the metal isn't quite as tempered as it should be; in other words, it's been hardened right out, but not tempered to a full spring temper. It's entirely possible that the teeth were originally not set at all (the carcase and dovetail saws in the Seaton chest are recorded as having no measurable set); as they are intended for relatively shallow cuts, a wide kerf is not so necessary as for a full tenon saw or handsaw. Fatigue cracks will happen sooner in harder steels. Just a theory, but plausible, I think.

It will be fun to hear how you get on with Harriette, Jimi. Do please let us know!
 
MickCheese":2yrgi0sg said:
This looks fantastic. I think you have done the right thing, no good to man nor beast if it doesn't cut wood.

You have got me thinking now, I have an old brass back tenon saw with a bent blade, I wonder if I could replace it?

Nothing to lose I suppose.

Well done Jim and Pedder.

Mick

Mick - I suspect that repair is possible. If you strip the saw down as Pedder's photos above, straightening the existing blade is a distinct possibility. There's a thread on the Hand Tools section on 'Straightening a Bent Sawblade' in which I report some success I had with a panel saw. It might be worth a shot - as you say, nothing to lose!
 
My elation today was tempered quite a bit by the recent news about Klaus' allergic reaction to wood but ALFIE and I were still proud enough to receive "HARRIETTE" back from the doctor's in one piece along with a little surprise..

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Yup....a lovely little piece of the German toolmaker's art...a little ULMIA smoother...

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ALFIE was most intrigued by this but he had to check out to see if anything from Alasace had snuck in through border control without him noticing!

ALFIE is not the only thing with fine new teeth either!....

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"Harriette"...the fine old girl from the Hill/Howell stable is sporting some lovely new knashers! And she looks so fine with them too...

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I know now that I made the right decision here...I never doubted Pedder's ability but the decision to bite the bullet and give this old gal another couple of hundred years of life was difficult.

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I'm pretty sure I didn't hear any rumblings and rollings from the Hill/Howell graves....I know for sure now they are smiling!

More later on how she cuts along with a review of this lovely little pressie....

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...But that's another day....and another thread!

Thanks Pedder my friend...I am "well chuffed" as they say north of Watford! :mrgreen:

Jim
 
Ahah! That's the picture I've been looking for. Way back here Jim you were showing us a lovely little smoothing plane you had made. In doing so, you accidentally invented what you called the 'camwedge' -

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At the time, I was thinking that I had seen something a bit like it on a plane somewhere, but I couldn't track down where it was.

Does this one work in the same sort of way?

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If it does, it's only proof that most of the good ideas are now centuries old, and I certainly don't mean to detract from your ingenuity or the quality of workmanship on that little smoother - I'm just interested how invention can go round in a circle like this!
 
Hi Jim,

I'm glade she made it! Did you test her? Fast Old ladie!

The palnes is not a smoother, but a kind of german jack plane. Schlichthobel is the term.
Low cutting angle, no chipbreaker, small blade for more power. Use after the scrub.

Thanks a lot for all things in the last year!

Cheers
Pedder
 
Ah yes Andy...I have taken Pedder's present apart and you are partially correct. The bar does rotate to come level with the wooden wedge and conform exactly to the correct angle...but then again...so do some of the early infills...the cupid's bow wedges on some of these old originals also rotates on a cross-pin to match the wedge action.

On the Japanese "camwedge" system the cross-member is the wedge and locks by reverse rotation and since it is asymmetrical it locks tighter when pressure is put on the front of the iron by the cutting action. That was in fact the uniqueness....as far as I can tell I have not see a "wedge-less" mechanism.

Pedder...Harriette is beautiful...I literally received it with just enough time to photograph it with the grand master ALFIE before I needed to go out for lunch with my mother so it hasn't been christened yet!

Don't worry...once I get my glad rags off...I shall be out there in the cave sawing up half the neighbourhood!

I really must get on with that chest now...to ensure that these beauties are well protected....at the moment they are inside...away from moisture, cold, ALFIE....woodworm...or anything which may prematurely shorten their lives!

Thanks for correcting me on the plane...I will be researching this quite a bit shortly too. The iron has not seen a stone I beileve? It looks new! Fascinating tool which I will cherish believe me...and yet another notch in my "woodie" slope!

Thank you!

Jim
 
UPDATE...and a bit predictable really...how it cuts... :mrgreen:

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....brilliant!

As Pedder has said...REALLY fast!

I wasn't trying too hard to keep to the lines in this shot...so the test is a bit out...but far better than any saw I have used so far to make joints...

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This is a lovely lovely saw....and now has history and utility...a magic combination indeed!

Oh...and ALFIE ate the off-cut! :mrgreen:

Jim
 

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