# A Mystery Tool Joined The Fleet & I Wonder What It Is



## PGB1 (Oct 13, 2014)

Hi All!

Yesterday, I saw the tool (or part of a tool) in a box of machinist's tools at a flea market. It intrigued me, so I adopted it for twenty five cents. But, I sure am stumped about what it is. Do any of you recognize it? It is perhaps a part of another tool or fixture?

The interesting part is the wedge on the top. It kind of looks like the wedge on a nut splitter tool.

I'm stumped on this one.

Thanks For Ideas!
Paul


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## george wilson (Oct 13, 2014)

That is an old fashioned saw setter. You would mount it in a stump,or clamp in a vise. The head was tapped with a hammer to set a saw tooth put under the triangular part. The amount of set was determined by adjusting that screw. The saw blade was rested on the screw every time. We used one of those old devices in Williamsburg when we made saws for the Historic Area. They work quite well. Better than the hand squeezed type if you are setting dozens of saws.

That swivel looking gadget is knocked forward or backwards to accommodate the size of the teeth on the saw you are setting.


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## dulltool17 (Oct 13, 2014)

george wilson said:


> That is an old fashioned saw setter. You would mount it in a stump,or clamp in a vise. The head was tapped with a hammer to set a saw tooth put under the triangular part. The amount of set was determined by adjusting that screw. The saw blade was rested on the screw every time. We used one of those old devices in Williamsburg when we made saws for the Historic Area. They work quite well. Better than the hand squeezed type if you are setting dozens of saws.
> 
> That swivel looking gadget is knocked forward or backwards to accommodate the size of the teeth on the saw you are setting.



Exactly!  I've got an old hand-squeeze tool somewhere. Works OK, but I can see how this larger tool would be better, especially for larger teeth.  I'll bet it's still fully functional; just needs a bit of clean-up.

Doug


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## PGB1 (Oct 14, 2014)

Thank You George & Doug!
I sure appreciate the time you both took to share information. 

After reading your posts, I held it next to my hand squeeze saw setting tools & I sure see what george meant about using this type if you have dozens of saws to set. I'll bet that in the field, a tool-tender could work in production line fashion.
This one's going in my 'mini museum' of older hand tools. (After I use it on a couple of saws, of course!)

Thanks Again & Enjoy This Day!
Paul


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## george wilson (Oct 14, 2014)

Your hands can get bloody if you set enough saws,using the regular squeezer type,especially if they tend to have a lot of small teeth. We found that out when we made dozens of saws in the toolmaker's shop for use in the museum's Historic Trades Shops. Here is one batch. I did not get pictures made of the crosscut and rip saws. One is represented at the front of the 16' bench. Nor did I get pictures of the numerous special saws we also made.

Punch the picture 3 times to really magnify it. One of each type saw is laid out nearest the viewer. The earlier styles of saws look quite undeveloped in their handle designs. The earliest type have square head nuts instead of inlet brass saw screws,which were in use up to the late 19th. C.. You had to have a forked screwdriver to adjust them.

Counting from your left,numbers 4 and 6 across are the earliest style from about 1750. Only one known original is around these days. We were loaned it to copy as that brand was known to have been popular in Williamsburg in the 18th. C.. White was the maker. They have folded steel backs. The later ones had brass backs. You can see the low-domed heads of their saw screws,which had the square head nuts on the other side. To me,they look like standard carriage bolts. Later on,special brass saw screws were developed.

#5 from the left is a later saw style from about 1770. It has brass saw screws,a somewhat less bizarre looking handle,but still has the cheap looking steel back. The brass backed saws with good looking handles are Kenyon styles from the unused(Seaton) tool chest. They are about 1780.


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## Rbeckett (Oct 14, 2014)

George,
That is a nice looking lot of various saws.  Outstanding craftsmanship too.

Bob


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## george wilson (Oct 14, 2014)

THey are all close copies of 18th. C. saws that were found in an UNUSED set of 18th. C. tools. Some rich person bought himself a complete set of cabinet maker's tools. He intended to dabble in cabinet making,but apparently did not get around to it. Even his pencils were never sharpened,and the hand cut triangular saw files were never used. The chisels are still wrapped in paper. A real time capsule from the later 18th. C.

We finished the saw handles to the same degree that the originals were: They were not as slick as those made in the 19th. C.,when machinery became more common in manufacture. Original 18th. C. saw handles still had scraper marks,and perhaps some remaining rasp marks. You can really see them better when the old tools have never been used. Those marks got smoothed over through use or by the craftsmen by the time you see original tools that were actually used hard for many decades. Also,original saws came with teeth punched,but not sharpened. We sharpened ours,but back then,the craftsman was expected to sharpen his own saws,and make handles for chisels and carving tools as they were sold unhandled. Makers were quite frugal back then,and I guess craftsmen wanted tools as cheap as possible. They never had much money.

Due to your interest,I have added much info to the initial post if you'd like to go back and re read it.


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## PGB1 (Oct 14, 2014)

Wow George! What a great write up you shared with us all!

You must have had a great time doing projects for the historic area. Those saws in the photos are amazing. Real craftsmanship, to be sure.  When viewing a tool of the age, I love to ponder about who made the item, where, why, when & especially how it was made. 
I also love to think about how, after so very many years, people can still enjoy work crafted by that person's hands.

Someday I hope my wife & I can visit the area & see those wonderful tools of the day!

Thanks again for sharing!
Paul


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## george wilson (Oct 15, 2014)

Most of the saws and planes now being used in the Historic Trades shops are ours,except molding planes,we made a few. We also made a few 6" wide molding planes for reproducing the large cornice moldings around a kitchen building the HouseWrights made by hand behind one of the buildings.

I wonder if those planes will be replaced in the museum when they wear out? I have been retired since 2009.

Here's a picture of a batch of planes. It won't enlarge,sorry. That's me on the left,and Jon,my journeyman,on the right. Same 16' bench as the saws were on. But,there are 2 -4' x 8' sheets of plywood under them.

I never made pictures of "ordinary" tools we made before this picture,because they were what I considered as just ordinary. I made pictures of retirement gifts since they were nicer. Someone accused us of "Only making retirement gifts" when they saw the pictures. Just jealousy,which was very common in the museum. We had the very best job in the whole place. After that,I began to get pictures made of ordinary planes,saws,and other things.It cost money to get the company photographer out there,is one reason we did not get more pictures made.

P.S.: Found a larger picture,but it needs rotating,which I don't know how to do. Perhaps Bill Gruby or someone who is more computer savvy can fix it.


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## gregg (Oct 15, 2014)

Would this fit in a( harde )sp  hole in a anvil???
 Love your pictures from Williamsburg.


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## hman (Oct 15, 2014)

Howzabout this?  Rotated OK.  Tried to enlarge a bit, but pixels started to show, so I decided to leave well enough alone.



Absolutely fantastic work!!!  "We had the very best job in the whole place." sounds like a *real* understatement!  Thanks for showing us your work.


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## george wilson (Oct 15, 2014)

Thank you,hman!!!!

I'm afraid I have completely hijacked the original OP's post,but his question has been thoroughly answered at least.

I thought I'd mention how I invented a way to cut the complex angled morticed escapement in all those planes. We had no special plane making equipment,and I wasn't about to spend the next several months hand chiseling those planes!!!

I had thought about it a lot,and I do have a Bridgeport slotting head that mounts on the opposite end of the ram. I made some heavy duty wood chisels that would mount to the slotting head,and a very coarse toothed saw 1/4" thick and double sided that was used to cut the mortices wider where the wedge fit. You can see the wedges going into the mortises(escapements) in the picture. We made a few templates to draw the shapes of the escapements on the sides of the plane. Then,we drilled out as much wood as possible with Forstner bits,as deep as possible. I had a long 3/16" router bit I had gotten from a machine shop that made router bits for the furniture factories in North Carolina. I picked up many a reject from their scrap bucket. You can't buy a 3/16" bit this long. It was JUST long enough to rout up from the bottom of the planes,JUST past the crooked angle down in the escapement,where the mortise changes angles. The chisels HAVE to have a cleared area to chisel into,or they just would hit bottom with a clunk,and go no further. That router bit gave the chisels the needed cleared area to slice into,and provided the bottom area of the escapement,where the plane iron could come out of the bottom of the plane: The throat,in other words.

With the slotter,we were able to efficiently mortise out those escapements,and an added benefit was,there were no modern routed surfaces left in the planes to see. The planes looked hand made as they were supposed to look,being 18th. C. repros.

Sorry,I have no pictures to illustrate how the escapements looked,but they have several angles,and it was a head scratcher to figure out how to make them efficiently. The outsides of the planes were no problem.


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## dulltool17 (Oct 15, 2014)

George- every time you take the time to type something on this forum, I get all bleary-eyed and go into a nearly-catatonic state of wonderment when I read of your wonderful experiences in Williamsburg.  I'm 56 (well, on Friday) so if I get a 10th as much tool experience as you've had, I'll be delighted!

Folks here know you're a Treasure!

Doug


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## george wilson (Oct 15, 2014)

We really DID have the best jobs. We didn't have to talk to the public all the time. The boss came out there about 2 times a year. We got to do some real nice creative work too,as well as making these "run of the mill" every day types of tools. And,I really enjoyed using lathes and mills. We even made 12 flintlock rifles and fowling pieces for a special "militia" armed with civilian weapons rather than the regularly seen troops armed with Brown Bess muskets.


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## PGB1 (Oct 15, 2014)

*


george wilson said:





I'm afraid I have completely hijacked the original OP's post,but his question has been thoroughly answered at least.
		
Click to expand...

*


george wilson said:


> Hi George & Everyone!
> 
> I'm the OP & nuthin' got hijacked here!  Quite the opposite- I asked a question & learned a whole lot of things.
> 
> ...


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## PGB1 (Oct 15, 2014)

gregg said:


> Would this fit in a( harde )sp  hole in a anvil???
> Love your pictures from Williamsburg.



Good Thought Gregg!
It fits the Haride hole in my anvil quite well. I never would have thought to try it in the anvil.
Guess who's going to be setting a saw in the morning?
Thanks!
Paul


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## george wilson (Oct 16, 2014)

It is luck that it fits the hardie hole. Ours was mounted in a short log about 8" dia. and 6" high,which was heavy enough to hold the saw setter. It could be taken off the shelf and set upon the workbench.


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## PGB1 (Oct 17, 2014)

george wilson said:


> It is luck that it fits the hardie hole. Ours was mounted in a short log about 8" dia. and 6" high,which was heavy enough to hold the saw setter. It could be taken off the shelf and set upon the workbench.



It would look great driven into a log. Maybe I'll get a slice of oak or maple from one of my brothers who cuts & splits for side-money. Sanded & oiled, the log with this sawset would look great in my Mini Museum. 

I've found this tool quite fun to use, so it will be one of my 'Use-It' antique tools. To be honest- They _all_ are use-it tools. Working with old tools imparts a kinda-sorta peaceful feeling to any project. Even woodworking projects!


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