Subject: Sawyers Anvil

From: "W.M. Durrett" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 6 May 1996 20:58:01 -0400

As a blacksmith and a sawmiller (among other pursuits), the purpose to which
I put my saw anvil is to periodically hammer my circular saw.  The term
"hammer" is a sawyer's slang to indicate the process of placing compressive
force in an inner area of the saw plate.  This is necessary if the saw is to
"stand up" or run in a stable mode at the speed operated.  Rotational force
distorts the plate and causes it to wobble, if the saw is not properly
tensioned.  Properly tensioning a saw plate by hammering is somewhat a black
art.  There are few around who commercially do it now, so most saws are
tensioned with compression wheels in a hydraulic fixture.  Saw anvils vary
in size and style, but most of those I have seen are dead flat, squat (less
than 8" high) and mostly rectangular up to 20" x 30".  They are used with a
flip post to rotate the plate from vertical to horizontal, allowing it to be
rotated during the hammering process.

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From: Page Thomas <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 7 May 1996 08:30:36 -0500 (CDT)

According to Knight's American Mechanical Dictionary, 1876,
The first circular saw was made with Blacksmiths' tools was by Benjamin 
Cummins, at Bentonsville, N.Y. about 1814. This is supposed to have been 
the first made in America.

	Making a circular saw involves the following processes:--
	1. Cutting out the blade from the sheet
	2. Toothing with a press and appropriately formed dies.
	3. Hardening, by plunging while heated in an oil-bath.  In this 
state the metal is extremely brittle.
	4. Tempering and straightening; THE LATTER IS EFFECTED BY 
HAMMERING ON AN ANVIL OR BY COMPRESSING SEVERAL BLADES, WHILE HOT, 
Between TWO DIES WORKED BY A HYDRAULIC PRESS.
	5. Grinding and polishing with emery-powder
	6. Filing and setting the teeth
	7. Reheating to restore the elasticity lost in tempering.
	8. Removing the scale by immersion, first in dilute acid,
and afterward in alkali to remove the acid.
	9. The handle is attached and the blade tested

The plates for saws are made of ingots of steel, carefully prepared to 
secure uniformity, and reduced to the proper thickness by rolling ...

Straight saws are made in a similar manner, regard being had to the 
difference in shape ... HAMMERED ON THE ANVIL OR SMITHED, ground to a 
gradually decreasing thickness from front to back, RE-HAMMERED ON THE 
ANVIL, grained with emery, the teeth set, the blade stiffened by a heating 
process, and discoloration thus occasioned removed by acids, and finally 
oiled."

[email-masked]

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From: Jim McCarty <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 08 May 1996 13:55:31 -0500

> rotated during the hammering process.

Got to see this done once at a saw shop in Poplar Bluff, Mo. The man 
was working on a 6-foot blade when I was there. He is died not long 
afterward. Wonder what happened to the tools? Still several of these 
shops in southern Missouri.
Jim