Anyone got advice about old saws? Recently I was messing around with this:
Finally! A tool that doesn’t want to update it’s goddamn driver every ten minutes.
I’ve no idea how old it is, but I do know that it’s not sharp. I want to buy a new blade.
I’m well aware that the blade can be sharpened. There’s enough metal there for another 100 years. However, I know what’ll happen if I try to sharpen it. I’ll go down a three week voyage of discovery on how to sharpen old saws. I’ll wind up with a head full of all sorts of errata and buy 6 flat files and a custom raker gauge shipped from England. I’ll wind up doing research and freebasing old Foxfire books. It’ll never end.
I have to keep from going off track. (I’m well aware that using a wooden bow saw when I have a radial arm saw is already going off track but hand tools are cool!)
A new blade on the old frame is my proposed compromise with the modern world. Old saw, new blade, sounds like magic. How hard can it be? Anyone know where I can buy a new blade? Obviously, if it’s too expensive then a new blade is a deal killer. But one can hope. Also I hope it’s easy to pull the pins or rivets or whatever the hell is holding the blade. (I’m not yet clear on that.)
It’s super easy to do these things with a modern bow saw:
And even a monkey like me can replace the blade:
Incidentally, locally it’s almost cheaper to buy a new bow saw (which comes with a blade) than the blade itself. So I have a couple bow saws hanging around, tending to replace the whole saw because I need it in a hurry and why not spot an extra few bucks to get the whole shebang rather than just the blade? BUT… I’m too cheap to throw out the old frame which is perfectly good. So I just hang it up in the barn and think about other things. I’ll rectify that sooner or later. Online the bow saw is about $20 and the bow saw blade is about $10.
One more thing:
No matter how cheap you are, never mess with a dull box saw. It’s just too damn much work. There’s cheap and there’s stupid; cutting wood with a dull saw goes beyond stupid and descends into self torture.
So what you’re looking for is a bow saw blade that’s 30″ long.
https://www.amleo.com/bahco-30-inch-replacement-blade-for-930bs-bow-saw/p/XB30/
http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1953443
http://www.truevalue.com/product/30-In-Deluxe-Bow-Saw-Blade/14059.uts
https://www.grainger.com/product/WESTWARD-30-Steel-Bow-Saw-Blade-for-2RDL7
https://www.mcmaster.com/#4105a3/=1bs6ey8
I need the following information:
Overall blade length (You’ll have to drill your own mounting holes)*
Blade width (From tip of the teeth to back of blade)
Blade thickness (Not teeth width, spine thickness)
Teeth per inch
*If I can match something I tell you how to drill holes into the metal.
Working on it. I can’t remember where I put my micrometer to get metal thickness.
Man up sissyboy. Finding a replacement blade for a saw that old?
Learn how to sharpen it…
Your fingers will love you for it.
(note: keep 911 and bandages handy. Take a tetanus shot first.)
I completely agree with you. However, I’m trying to avoid spending three weeks preparation to cut a 2″x4″ in half. This is one rabbit hole I shouldn’t even peek at.
Buy a bandsaw blade and cut it to the needed length (punch holes, etc)
You will need a piece of stick for the Spanish windlass – the string at the top. Use the stick to twist the string and tension the blade and pull the stick through the loop so it rests on the cross piece once you have got the correct tension.
Normally any blade about the right length can be “fitted” like that – the guy that made it would not have demanded a blade sized to the nearest 1/8th of an inch.
I would replace the wooden pins holding the ends of the blade with bolts to make the job easier. Likely the original maker did not have any handy or could not afford the cost of such bolts – you can! >};o)
This one is more “modern”. It has a metal turnbuckle instead of the old school winding stick. The pins are metal too… probably old nails. I’ll replace em with something other than a nail. You’re right… $3 in metal isn’t a big deal to me and I sure appreciate that.
Yep, bandsaw blade. Been using them for years.
Yes, hand tools ARE cool!
Huh, left out a space between “ARE” and “cool”. Also “cool” is a link to a t-shirt that says “Hand Tools Are Cool”:-).
Fixed the space. Pondering the t-shirt. Do I need more t-shirts?
Try traditional wood worker:
http://traditionalwoodworkercom.com
or Lee Valley tools: http://www.leevalley.com/
Or Japan Wood Worker: https://www.japanwoodworker.com/
You may not find it there but if you love hand tools you will love these sites, especially Japan Woodworker in my opinion.
Good luck
Take it to a place that rents weedwackers and such. They can sharpen the blade for thirty or forty bucks. You know places that sharpen chain saws.
I got a line on an old guy who might sharpen the saw; if I can track him down. It is not easy finding retired codgers.
I sharpen my own saw chains. I even got a fancy electric deal with a jig setup in my garage. Man is it nice to have perfect “just like new” angles on the chain. Worth every penny.