Originally Posted by
Cliff Rohrabacher
Quite so. There is a shop built angle iron break used in the Norse Woodsmith's PDF on this very topic. He does end up hand hammering it afterward. Clearly I have not contemplated such a direct approach. In my mind's eye I had the bending process and then a high pressure compression of the brass onto the blade after the blade was inserted. I saw that - of a necessity - taking place as a one shot operation along flat parallel plated in a press.
The application of hammer blows is a way to also do it. I wonder how long it took the Norse Woodsmith guy to learn how not to warp or bend the saw blade?
Gentle, gentle, gentle is prolly the order of the day.
I've never made a back saw, but I have rehabbed a few that needed to have the backs removed. I was initially afraid to undertake this at first, but using wooden blocks and a deadblow mallet it wasn't that hard to either remove the back or put it back on without damaging the back or the blade. A sturdy vise and some patience is required, but it really wasn't that bad.
"History is strewn with the wrecks of nations which have gained a little progressiveness at the cost of a great deal of hard manliness, and have thus prepared themselves for destruction as soon as the movements of the world gave a chance for it." -Walter Bagehot