Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-04-17
Putting Saws In Order.

Putting Saws In Order.
| BEFORE a person can file any saw well,
| 1t is important that he have a correct I'M
| derstanding of the work to be performed
| by the teeth. Then he mast understand
also what particular form of teeth will re-
move given quantity of the material to
| be sawed, by the application of the least
| force, whether the saw is driven across,
| or lengthways Of the timber; and he must
| be possessed of sufficient skill to set and
to file every tooth exactly as his lively
Imagination has pictured representation
| OF a saw when put in the most complete
| order When any saw is in the best
possible order, the points of the teeth
| will all be of uniform height, and as
straight in two parallel rows as the
points of an hundred pins can be placed.
This is the theory of filing saws well.
When one or two teeth have been set
only a tritie more than those On either
side of them, the points take rank hold
of the timber on the side of the kerr
where it is not desirable to have the teeth
disturb the timber; and in consequence of
the rank hold OF one tooth, the saw will
run exceedingly hard. If one or two
teeth near the middle Of the blade be left
trit1e longer than those On each side of
them, a double and perhaps a quadruple
task is imposed On the long teeth, while
others near them do nothing at all, al
though the points may be quite sharp.
When fifty men carry a long stick of tim
Der ON their shoulders, the taller, if they
stand erect, will be compelled to bear the
entire load, while the men of shorter
statue will have nothing to do, This is
precisely the case with saw the teeth of
which are not of a uniform length. The
very points must all stand in line as near
ly as may be practicable.
The first thing to be done when one is
about to put saw in order, is to joint the
points of the teeth For this purpose,
the cheaper and more expeditions way is to
procure block of wood, say six inches
long. three wide by one inch thick,
dressed straight and true, then nail
similar piece ON one edge, thus forming
corner in which to place flat file. The
file can then be held with the fingers, or
be secured in various ways. Place the
file fatty on the teeth, and press the
larger block against the side of the saw
blade, then plane off the points of the
longest teeth until the fiat file just touches
the extremities of the short teeth. 1t is
important that the fiat file be held IN such
a position that it will dress off the points
exactly at a right angle with the side of
the blade Otherwise the teeth of one
side will be longer than the other, which
will cause the saw to run more or less.
The saw should now be secured in
convenient, portable clamp, so that the
filler may stand out of doors while filing,
where he can have the advantage of all
the light that may be requisite. When
filing where there is deficiency of day
light, the filler should provide
lamp or good candle, and place a dark
shade between the light and his
eyes, so that he can see at
glance, when every tooth is filed to a
complete point. One careless thrust of
the file, when tooth is filed just enough,
will put the saw cut Of order more than
can be restored by half an hours filing.
A beginner should always take a try
square and the sharp point Of small file,
and make hair-mark from the point of
every tooth at a right angle with the
teeth on the sides of the blade. This
should be done when the points of the
teeth are all at uniform distance apart
Such marks will enable the filler to keep
the face of every tooth dressed at the most
desirable angle. The foregoing directions
relate particularly to back-saws, panel
saws and all other saws which are filed
for cutting only one way across the grain
of the timber.
AS soon as the teeth are all filed nearly
to point, they should be set with some
instrument that will bend every tooth
exactly SO far and no farther. Any saw
will operate with more efficiency when
the teeth are set just enough to allow the
saw to move easily through the kerr, than
when the teeth have so much set that d
kerf is cut twice the thickness of a saw
blade
After the teeth are set, let the blade be
returned to the clamp, then proceed to
file one tooth at a time to perfect point.
The face of the teeth of rip saw she ID
always be filed square across the blade,
for the reason that the grain Of the tim
Der on each side of the kerf does not re-
quire much force to sever it. On the con-
trary, when saving across the grain, the
first thing is to cut the grain loose before
it can be removed. For this purpose, the
points of the teeth on the face must be
filed diagonally, for cutting off the fibre.
Beginners must always exercise unusual
care when fling the back of each tooth,
lest the file damage the face of a tooth
that has been finished. After the teeth
are filed to complete points, it is always
an excellent practice to go over them
carefully with file that is nalf worn out,
for the purpose of bringing the points to
a more perfect cutting edge.-Ame7Tcan
Builder.