The Pitted Saw

[Jim_Thode]

Nice, Jim. Thinking about all the saws out there like this, I was curious what you'll do with the saw now in terms of additional re-hab work, if any. Are the pits so deep that you won't try to take the metal down any more, just oil it up and call it good? Do you think there's any future in people using these pitted saws for regular work? Maybe dumb questions, but I'm thinking about all the once-good saws we see out there like this one.

I don't plan an any more re-hab on this saw. I just waxed it and it is good to go till it would need sharpening again.

Yes, I do believe that some saws that were considered junkers could be made to be serviceable. Like this saw it would make sense that they have to have enough thickness left to be strong enough in use. At some point a saw will be totally not serviceable.



Jim

[Jim_Thode]

Apart from having to dress/polish the outside edge of the cutting teeth every time that the saw is filed, presumably, the only long-term issue with a saw like this will be that there will be a little more friction between the saw and the side of the kerf because of the pits?
Or will this actually not be noticeable after the surface has been polished up a bit?
Brian.

Brian,
Yes, as the saw is sharpened and the teeth wear down the cutters would have to be bent over more and the back side smoothed up to maintain a good cutting edge.

In actual use I could notice no unusual dragging caused by the pitting. If you calculate the width of the kerf compared to the thickness of the back of the saw there is plenty of clearance. With the teeth side about 0.100" thick and a set of 0.012" the kerf should be 0.124" wide. The back of the saw is about 0.055". Although the saw is rough, it is not sharp or abrasive rough.

Jim

[Trailsawyer]

some pitting

more pitting

After seeing what Jim did with his pitted saw, I decided to work on a 6 ft. "wall hanger" that I had out in the wood shed.
It had lots of rust and pitting, but I had bought it to get a nice pair of handles. The tooth length indicated that it had not been used much.
I cleaned the saw with a piece of Mount St. Helens pumice and water, followed with an axe stone and kerosene. Much to my surprise I found a partial Atkins 51 logo!
I jointed the saw, tempered, shaped and filed the rakers at .012"; then filed the cutteres and set them at .012". I had one cutter tip break at and old crack.
The saw runs easily, and was pulling 3" noodles. Ready to go back to work!

A clean cut on a 22" Doug Fir

[Jim_Thode]

Gary,
Looks good! Now you can practice welding a tooth on or bring it over here and I'll weld one on.
Jim

[Jim_Thode]

A new video of the pitted saw:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYWK0bLP2fc&

Jim

[King Karri Tree]

What a great job and Well done.

The video was a pleasure to watch and study.