More Saw Talk

[IanW]

... the ice really does last all summer, packed in sawdust!

Yeah, all 3 weeks of it!

Just kidding, Rob - I experienced quite a few Saskatchewan & Ontarian summers and you can certainly turn it on for a while. I was told there was still permafrost many feet into the ground round some of the old ice storage pits, even though they hadn't been used for umpteen years, but that may have been an urban myth.

What we have to contend with here in the subtropics is a big diurnal temperature variation, bringing temperatures down in semi-open sheds to dew point, or close to it. Any ferrous metal not protected or used regularly will rust like crazy in some areas. I noticed my father's big 7 or 8 foot crosscut (an "M-tooth raker"), which probably hasn't been used for 40 plus years, was badly rusted & pitted, after being hung up in a partly open shed all that time. I had mixed emotions about it - dad used to put us on one end of it from quite a young age & expect us to keep up. Every now and then his head would appear over the log & say "Oi, you sleeping on that saw? Just pull it back - I'm doing all the hard work..." I'd stare at the slowly-descending kerf, willing it to speed up so I could take a rest, but it seemed to take hours to creep toward the bottom of the log! I decided to leave the saw hanging there - I have enough clutter in my shed, & I certainly wasn't going to move the chainsaw out to make room for it.

Practicality over romance, in this instance.
Cheers,
Cheers,

[IanW]

My new old saws needed somewhere to sleep when not in use, & after staring at the doors of my tool cupboard for a long time, I decided there was just no way I could squeeze even one more saw in, unless I rebuilt them & added swing-out inner doors. That would have entailed a lot of rethinking & intricate fitting, which I may get around to someday, but I needed something that could be done in a day or less. So a quick scuffle through the scrap pile turned up a couple of short, wide planks of old Hoop pine, some Silky Oak with sapwood on it that I'd trimmed off a big plank, and a bit of spalted & bluestained Mango for panels. There was even a brass piano-hinge kicking about, a leftover from another project - a bit short, but close enough to do. The dovetails are strictly utilitarian, so don't sneer at my fat pins - none of your wincey little fragile things for a working case. I turned the sapwood on the SO out so it blends into the softwood sides a bit - just as well as it went quite dark when I put some oil on it.

That Mango is pretty wild stuff, & sort of calls attention to itself, doesn't it? Just as well, 'cos if people concentrate on that, they may not notice that I cut the hinge mortise too deep, which has made the left & right gap uneven. Dammit - I was sneaking up on it too - the first two goes were too shallow, the third pass too much!

So now the two 'dad' saws have a home, & there is plenty of room for a few other odd saws that needed somewhere to live, too. I think I can squeeze a couple more in, yet. Now, do I really need any more saws..... ??

My better half certainly thinks not!

Cheers,

[Waldo]

The spalted mango looks great. Looks to me like a bit more room in the lower half there for some smaller saws yet.