RH Smith small tenon backsaw

I would had normally include its history here, but it was a tad convoluted, and I ended with a post on the saw makers gang instead...

So here is the little saw that started that last post, while researching it

The vendor had identified it as a St Catharine saw from 1887, based on the medallion.

I paid Cdn $20 for it and was quite happy :-)

It is not from 1887, that patent date is for the Glover saw nut, used by many makers

We know that RH Smith started in 1870 by buying J Flint saw works in St Catharines On.
They were bought by Shurley Dietrich in 1893 then operated under that name until 1914
when it was changed to TF Shurly Co.
The patent date is telling us that this saw would had probably been made between 1887-1914.
Patents last about 17 years back then, so that script about the patent would had been gone no later than (1887+17= 1904) Early 1900s would be my best educated guess, judging from the beaver on the medallion

Tenon backsaw from Shurly-Dietrich 1902 catalog, 

who was operating the St-Catharines plant at this time

Looks a bit rough, but it fits my hand perfectly... like a glove

The plate measure 12 inch long X 2-3/4 inch deep

Making it a small tenon saw

There is some green paint remains on the handle, 

The saw plate and the steel back have lots of superficial rust on it.

The teeth line is amazingly in good condition, filed at 11 TPI

The top saw horn has a small chip, but its location 

does not affect its handling in the hand.

If I ever fix it, I'll just graft a new piece of wood and shaped it

Looks like a poor candidate? Au contraire, looks marvelous....for its age :-)

Unscrewed the handle, scraped then sanded the saw plate, paying attention to the saw back also, but being very careful not to erase the faint etch I saw on the plate. Very hard to impossible to photograph, but its there all right.

I scraped then sanded the handle, then gave it two coats of Howard Restore A Finish, golden oak
Once dry, wiped then hand buffed a coat of Howard Feed N Wax.
The handle really pop back to life and I'm happy with the coloring imparted, just about right.

The final look for now. Blade has been given a wipe on coat of WD 40 to protect it.

Not bad for a 100 years old plus saw

 Like I said the saw tooth is in very good shape, it cuts pretty good as is, but it will eventually get a tuned up.  She is a keeper

Bob who has a seemingly never ending pile of tools to restore...

Go figure :-),

Progress on a few fronts

The last couple days been helping a friend with his Christmas project for his wife.
Can't tell you what it is, it's a surprise :-)

Yesterday, end up at the wood shop from 10AM until 4PM, a long day, so I brought along a few tools rehab projects.

First up was my BBM crank handles refinishing
Long overdue, but very low on my priority list.  But its a quick job and it is taking room in the shop.
So out it came with me

Long overdue, it really makes a big difference

using a walnut stain, blending in the blemish and repairs

The next day, I gave it a coat of  feed N wax

I really like the final look

An old Smith of St-Catherine On. back saw got a quick clean up

A light scraping, sanding of the plate, followed by a wipe of WD40

The handle got a scraping, need a light sanding before being re-finished.

There is a very faint etch I want to preserve

The hardware as removed, before its bath at home

Last time I used it, I noticed a bit of rust was forming on both faces

 of my world famous Je Ne Sais Quoi Persuader, all the way from Namibia.

Gave it a light sanding to clean up the faces

What took me the longest was to shape my handle to fit inside 

the eye of my Campbell Hewing or Ship axe

As you can see it was still a tight fit

Before wedging

I am happy the way it came out

Now if I can just find my wedge kits ???

I have been working for a while on a Bailey Tool Co smoother

Body and parts have been de-gunked, de-rusted, started

 to address the sole and the blade

And yes that blade is pretty well used up

Also brought out a chisel to touch up along with a few other tools for my friend to use on his project

That was the scene Dec 10 in my yard.

In the last two days, it is pretty well all gone, but another storm is coming to replenished it.

That storm should be over Ralph as I type this

Accordingly, I better pick up my small logs to split before they get covered again.   

Forecasted up to 10 Cm of white crappola (Ralph's Tm)

And next thing you know, it was time for a visit to the WComd at home event as the Vice President of my Rotary club, so signing off

Bob, making progress on a few small fronts 

Simonds Crescent Saw Tools

Another recent Kijiji finds, this one came with the instruction sheet and the spider.

The Crescent No 340 crosscut tool set

Besides obviously the box that it came in, 

it is also missing the setting skate (in foreground)

Pic from Time Tested Tools blog 

The adjustable wedge is to set the height of the raker tooth

 showing, to be filed flat

The two screws on the sides are to hold the file, but also it is capable of slightly bending the file to accomodate the curvature of the breasted blade

My Simonds spider. 

You can see by the glare and rust still showing around the sharp area, 

that it was power cleaned by a wire brush.  So was the Saw jointer tool. 

Hopefully the critical lenght of the boss did not get muck with...too much

I wrote previously about these types of tools, here
The spider is used to check the set of the tooth, by placing it against the saw blade plate and resting the long end against the tip of the tooth.
Because there is a shorther and longer arm, when resting the lower part snug against the plate, the small gap at the end of the long arm is the clearance required. Rip cut and cross cut saws required a slightly different gap (set)

There was also adjustable spiders.

Top one is a Simonds

A No 342 complete set

A later Model No 342, complete set

Green boxes preceded the later red boxes

These 4 pics from Jon ZimmersTools

The No 342, slightly redesigned No 340, was available along with the No 340 for a short while, then the No 340 was dropped in favour of the No 342.

And not included, as part of this No 340 set of tools, would be a suitable saw wrest hammer, as illustrated in the instruction, to fine tuned the hammer set tooth, as required after inspecting with the spider.

The Simonds saw wrest hammer,

as depicted in instruction sheet

  

An early Disston saw hammer

Both pics from Jon Zimmers Tools 

A short history of Simonds

This set being made and sold in Canada, it even featured bilangual instructions.

Something rarely seen back in those days... Perhaps a nod to its majority French Canadian workers, being located in le quartier St-Henri,  traditionally poor part of town, majority French day workers at nearby factories.

To the north of it is Westmount, the richer Anglophone part of town, where most business owners lived.

Back in those days, Canada was not officially a bilingual country , they did not had to advertise nor print instructions in French...

Nonetheless, why not, it ensure penetration in the French market (Quebec), brilliant business savy...

French side

Still shows the 1899 patent date, so this was early 1900s.

They started in Canada in 1906, 

so guessing between 1906-1919 (20 years patent)

And since Vancouver branch is shown, opened in 1911, 

that narrows it down to 1911-1919

English side

The long rectangular rust imprint 

is from the missing Setting stake

Lets concentrate mostly on its Canadian operations 

For a more detailed story of Simonds, see WK Fine tools magazine

Or this one on Simonds the saw makers

Simonds started as a scythe maker in Fitchburg Mass 1832 and from there expanded into saw manufacture. In 1868 they incorporated as Simonds Manufacturing company. They were manufacturing machine knifes, sickles cutters for mowers and reapers, and planing machine knifes.

By 1878 they sold their sickles business and continued machine knifes production. They also started making circular saws and introduced a new product: Logging saws of various kinds. 

The Crescent saw tool set No 340 was patented in 1899

It these early days, there was no steel production in the US and the steel was imported from the UK, later some US tool makers would start producing steel. Disston being one of the early ones for their saws, for the same reasons: To control every steps of the process from raw steel to finished product in house.

They then started their own Crucible steel plant at the Chicago factory (which opened in 1892), starting operation on December 1900.

It was not until 1901 that they introduced handsaws, but they quickly established a reputation for the quality of their saws. They will cease manufacturing handsaws in 1926, after a short 25 years production run.

Simonds reputation for its handsaw, 

was largely due to the quality of its in house manufactured steel

Meanwhile in 1906 the Simonds Mfg. Co. established a manufacturing presence in Canada by buying the Canada Saw Co for $250,000, which itself was formed in 1904 with the merger of  The James Robertson Saw Co (founded in 1868) and the Ottawa Saw Co (founded in 1893). Canada Saw had 125 employees, all of whom were retained in the new company. 

Typical of the days, many other large US tool makers established manufacturing facilities in Canada to go around tariff restrictions and opened up the British commonwealth market

The new Canadian operation was renamed Simonds Canada Saw Co., headquartered in an all-new saw-making factory at the intersection of St. Remi and Acorn Streets in the South West of Montreal.

Corner of St-Remy and Acorn st. (bottom RH of red area) 

On top, the Canadian National (CN) railroad tracks from the Turcot yard.

Thru later expansion they would occupy the whole area depicted in red

What it looked like in 1907 and today...

Artist impression of the new factory.

1916, after the 1914 expansion.

Montreal plant is bottom LH

Notice they "recycled" the original drawing from 1907

Same building today

Corner of St-Remy (L) and Acorn (R)

These Simonds facilities were closed and sold in 1960

Further up on Acorn looking back at St-Remy

Same spot but looking the other way.

The building in the background has been refurbished 

and is used by la Mission Bon Accueil  

since 2000

The new company also acquired other facilities with the merger and keep operating factories in Ottawa and Toronto, Ontario as well as St. John, New Brunswick.

As we seen earlier, Simonds built its own steel mill in Chicago in 1900. The success of the steel mill, coupled with the company's success, was so great that demand quickly outgrew capacity.  So, in 1910, Simonds started construction on an all-new steel mill in Lockport, New York.  The new mill was placed equidistant from the Fitchburg, Montreal and Chicago factories and was able to take advantage of the new, cheap electricity being generated at Niagara Falls. The first steel from this mill was rolled on January 2, 1911. The Lockport steel mill played an important role in Simonds history until it was sold in 1978.

The business proved quite successful, growing steadily over the years. The Montreal plant underwent many expansions, including major expansions in 1907 and 1914. Another major expansion occurred in 1948, when the factory added hacksaw blades and bandsaw blades to circular saws, wide bands and cross-cut saws it had made up to this point.

Along the way the also acquired grinding stone and files manufactures companies, which are used a lot in the making of saws.

In 1911 they openned a Branch office in Vancouver BC Canada

Simonds Canada started construction on a new 112,000 square foot one story, controlled conditions plant in late 1959. But unlike the famous Fitchburg plant, the new plant did have some windows. The new plant was constructed at a cost of $1,500,000, and was located in suburban Granby, Quebec, about an hour east of Montreal.  

Simonds Canada closed the outdated Montreal facility and moved to this new Granby facility in June of 1960, transferring 200 employees and their families to the Granby area. The total cost of this move was $300,000. The old Montreal facility was sold off in November 1960. The Granby plant produced the majority of Simonds products sold in Canada until it was closed in 1988 and production consolidated into the Fitchburg Mass facility.

Today the Simonds company still exist. and the Canadian operation are still headquartered in Granby Qc.

Bob, looking for a matching setting stake... :-)