Slippery Slope Support Society

[James Mittlefehldt]

Okay true confession time here, I figured I had it licked I am not, repeat NOT a collector. I can easily go to an antique store or garage sale and wave my hand dismissivly at planes I do not need. (except for that type 13 sweetheart no.5 for $12, but I digress.)

I have suddenly been brought up short by my attraction to saws, yes saws, not planes but saws. I was in an antique store today and saw this really cool rip saw (26 inch 6 ppi) and figured $20 was more than I wanted to pay until the store owner, who seems to have me marked, said $15 will do. Well what the heck, the saw was straight no kinks and fine toothed, for a rip saw.

On the way home I thought wait a minute I have at least six or seven rip saws, why do I need that many, maybe I need to tune them for special applications, hard wood, soft wood resawing and then it hit me, I AM A COLLECTOR, how did this happen, I try and buy only from two companies, (Shurley & Dietrich or R. H. Smith) both local to this area, (of course there was that really neat Grove and Sons from Shefield England, but once again I digress.)

The problem is as I see it the two companies I buy as mentioned above have two of the most prominent Canadian national symbols on their medallions, maybe it is patriotism, nahhhhh I am a collector.

My name is James Mittlefehldt and I am a saw a holic. (sigh)

Did I say the new saw cuts really nice without rehabbing?

[Gary Herrmann]

There is something alluring about handtools. They're like potato chips. I'm fighting the saw slide myself. I'm also fighting the brace slide. The hand drill slide, the brace bit slide, the plane slide...

I keep looking at match planes and dado planes. I need to build a saw till and a plane till. Should probably just build a large tool chest so I can store everything together. Where will I put it? Now I need a larger shop...

[Phillip Pattee]

Since you actually used the saw to cut wood, you are NOT a collector. A collector purchases a item and keeps it simply for display. A guy can own several shirts. He wears one while all the others are stored in a closet. He wears the others as the occassion requires but this does not make his a shirt collector. There, I hoped that helped. Now go out and buy another saw.

[Marcus Ward]

As long as you use the tools, it's okay. I find I am able to pass on most things that are reasonably priced if I have one already. It's when I run across the nice #4 1/2 for $12 that I can't resist. Even if I turn around and sell it to a friend or give it away, I still gotta buy it. As for support... pfffffft, push me down the slope! I like it.

[Thomas Knighton]

Uh oh.

I just bought my first two old saws the other night. I'm hosed

That's just so freakin' cool!

Tom

[Mike Cutler]

Uh oh.

I just bought my first two old saws the other night. I'm hosed

That's just so freakin' cool!

Tom

Do you have any idea how many different lengths and tooth configurations Disston had to their saws??, not to mention styles

Best to start building a large capacity sawtill now.,

[Thomas Knighton]

Well, hopefully I'll be able to sneak future purchases in past the wife since I get home before she does

Tom

[Mike Cutler]

Well, hopefully I'll be able to sneak future purchases in past the wife since I get home before she does

Tom

Yeah, me too.
I got a thing for carcass and backsaws. They're uhh,,,, starting to collect around here.

[Thomas Knighton]

Back saws are on my list too...I'm so screwed!

Tom

[Brian J. Williams]

I was in a very rural Montana antique store this summer. The guy has a pretty decent collection of relatively common (and not-so-common) old Stanley's. I told him I wasn't a collector and that I only used them when I was "puttering" in the shop. He asked me how many planes I had. I replied "well let's see, theres the #3's, the 4"s, the 4-1/2" and which point he cut me off and said "admit it, sonny, you're a collector".

Really, I can quit any time I want to- I just don't want to.

Brian

[Gary Herrmann]

Ooh, I don't have any duplicate planes. No two saws of the same size and tooth configuration. I do have 2 10" braces tho.

Handtools are still the best way for me to get shop time when the fam goes to sleep.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Look folks enough of this collector business. Phillip has it right and his justifi....explanation is all you need. To carry the analogy further, just like shirts, saws can get dirty with sawdust and you need to have another one ready that's clean. You can't doing your sawing with a dirty sawdust covered saw can you?

[Mike K Wenzloff]

Well, James...Alice Frampton (aka Alf and UKAlf on WoodNet) once wrote the following bit of humor--with the inevitable bite of truth.
**************

So you want to get into using old saws...?

Speaking as someone with, erm, a "few" old saws 'cos they're so cheap, I have to say DON'T DO IT!

You start with one beater rip because everyone tells you that it's easy to learn to sharpen them and large teeth are the way to start. Now I don't know how it is in your neck of the woods, but rip saws are usually in the best shape 'cos no-one was mad enough to rip saw anything by hand if they could possibly help it.

You make or buy a vice (vise, guys), you track down a source for saw files (easier for you fellas in North America), you rip open you hand jointing the teeth down (might just be me, that one... ), you make little blocks for rake angle as per Mr Taran's advice, you buy every saw set you see not knowing which one will work best for which tooth size. Two or three months later, you're ready to start.

So you sharpen the saw and lo', 'tis true, it's easier than it looks. Your sawing arm feels like it's going to drop off if you don't stop saying "Hey, come and look at this" and demonstrating how fast it is to everyone who comes to the house, but it's all Good. That's when the rot sets in.

You start buying up virtually every saw you see 'cos they SO DARN CHEAP. But how many rip saws are you really going to need? Exactly. So you start buying handsaws, and what the heck, the joinery saws are the ones I'm going to use most so I'll get those too, you think.

So you have a big pile of beautiful old saws - and we get some really good ones here in Blighty. You all get excited about infills, but man, the handsaws. Hand-shaped handles, none of your Disston factory stuff, split nuts 'til your eyes pop, gorgeous beech handles, sunken medallions - Kangeroos for Robert Sorby, Elephants for Tyzack, Spear & Jackson's Royal Coat of Arms.... Oh boy.

Sorry, where was I?

Oh yeah, Pile O' Saws. So you pick up the coarsest handsaw to attempt your first crosscut; sort out your fleam angle, get the right little rake angle block on the end of the correct size of file and go to work.

And you have the finest example of Cows & Calves in the Western Hemisphere. No, it's worse, it's not even that regular. Bum. Evidentally you need to reshape the teeth, so you retop the teeth and get to work.

And retop the teeth.

And again.

And again.

Meanwhile your lovely saw is getting smaller and smaller. You think of the 150 years its survived; two world wars, decimalisation, Mrs Thatcher, and you're going to kill it in a couple of hours. Why can't you do this?!

You go away and order more files to replace the ones you've used up trying to reshape the teeth and find your supplier can't get them any more. You start searching for a new source and turn your attention to the backsaws while you're waiting for the 8-10 week order delivery time.

After all, you want some backsaws to be rip, right? And you can do rip, right? You turn to a likely specimen.

For the love of Norm, who shrank these teeth?!

You go in and search out a magnifying visor via Google, and wait for delivery. A week later it comes and you start again. Except you can't see anything through it unless your nose is virtually resting on the teeth. But you persevere 'cos you can do rip teeth, right?

Oh, seems someone let the teeth on this one get in a bit of a state too. More shaping - only three times smaller scale. I'll just rest my nose here and get on with it then.

Meanwhile the LOYL (Love Of Your Life) is adding more and more items to the Tuit/Honey Do list and asking pointedly what you need all these tools for if you never use any but those little files. And incidentally what was that bill for a saw vice on the kitchen table and do you know the builder's coming in tomorrow to do the blurfl you promised to build six months ago before you bought that saw?

But you stick to it, because old saws are CHEAP and SHARPENING THEM IS EASY. Too bad no-one ever lays any stress on SHAPING THEM and occasionally COMPLETELY RECUTTING THEM.

So eventually YOU GET IT, and you can shape and sharpen a back saw in under an hour without your eyes bossing. That's great. Well now you can do it naturally it'd be foolish to let all those CHEAP SAWS go unbought, right? So you buy them.

Occasionally you get out a board and a favourite plane to make a few shavings, just for old time's sake, and tell yourself you'll make something again soon. A saw till perhaps? Mebbe two...

Old CHEAP saws have started to take over your life, so everywhere you go, you talk about it. You become a saw sharpening bore. People start to shuffle away at the mere hint of a mention of fleam. Or worse - much worse - someone asks you if you'd sharpen their saw. Or saws. And yes, they were my grandfather's so there's sentimental value, you're told, just to pile on the pressure. So now you're getting parcels labelled "Saw Doctor" and having to go to the post office whenever you're not sharpening, setting, or - dear lord - reshaping - ruddy saw teeth.

The LOYL has left you and sold all your Lie-Nielsens to fund his/her therapy, you can't focus on anything further away than 10 inches, you have a permanent groove in your finger from pressing on a saw file and you're still waiting for that 8-10 week saw file order to show up.

But on the other hand, they are cheap.

[Jay Jolliffe]

Since this thread is about saws....on some old saws I've come across they had a small nub on the top at the end like a sight or something. Everyone I've asked can not come up with what it is. I thought it might be for making a nick in the wood so the blade had a place to start. Maybe someone here knows what it's for.

[James Davis]

While I was at the Woodworking Show in Baltimore this past weekend I picked up a sweatshirt that says it all.

He Who
Dies With
The Most Tools
Wins


My wife and Daughter swear this shirt was made just for me and I try to explain that I am not alone there are others.

James Davis