Maybe a little OT for here, but worth a try.
How can I tell a rip from a crosscut whip saw?
I've come across a two-person whip saw, about five feet long with a regular
tooth pattern, unlike every other whipsaw I've ever seen (which all have had
the characteristic large gap for chip clearance every two or three teeth,
and which I suppose all are crosscut.)
Rip saws must be scarce as hen's teeth here in Connecticut.
TIA,
Fred Klingener
Andy Dingley wrote:
> On Sun, 13 Nov 2005 21:26:43 GMT, "Fred Klingener"
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>>How can I tell a rip from a crosscut whip saw?
>
>
> Tooth shape. Even if they're too rusted (or re-cut) and you can't tell
> if they were actually sharpened for ripping, the overall tooth shape is
> different. Crosscuttting was largely in standing or green timber,
> ripping was often rather drier. As a result, rip teeth rarely have the
> huge deep spacings between them that are common in crosscut teeth (there
> are many patterns for this, they all have names, locations and often
> date periods to them)
>
> Crosscut teeth (on two-handed saws) are also symmetrical, or at least
> arranged in symmetrical pairings.
>
> Connected to this, I've never seen a "two man" ripsaw. Although two
> people worked them, they were always (IMHE) "powered" by one person and
> steered by another (the "tillerman" - Cat Stevens sang about sawyers,
> not boatswains). I've never seen a two-man ripsaw that was symmetrical,
> in the way that two-man crosscut saws are (asymmetrical crosscut saws
> are called "one and a half man" saws around here).
>
>
>
>>Rip saws must be scarce as hen's teeth here in Connecticut.
>
>
> Historically they were disappearing in favour of water-powered ripsaws
> at the time America was being colonised. You can bring logs to a ripsaw,
> you have to bring felling gear to a standing tree.
>
Two man rip saws for large timbers would probably be a pitsaw. Mine is
much larger at the top end than the bottom and has 2 square holes to
attach a handle. The lower end has a hole for a peg to hold the box on.
http://pages.videotron.com/perrons/Paul/Woodwork/Tools/Pitsaw/pitsaw.html
is similar to mine, but mine is about 7.5' long. I have some pictures
of an upper handle that uses both holes in the saw, but they're hard
copy at home and I can't find the link to the page I got them from.
Joe
On Sun, 13 Nov 2005 21:26:43 GMT, "Fred Klingener"
<[email protected]> wrote:
>How can I tell a rip from a crosscut whip saw?
Tooth shape. Even if they're too rusted (or re-cut) and you can't tell
if they were actually sharpened for ripping, the overall tooth shape is
different. Crosscuttting was largely in standing or green timber,
ripping was often rather drier. As a result, rip teeth rarely have the
huge deep spacings between them that are common in crosscut teeth (there
are many patterns for this, they all have names, locations and often
date periods to them)
Crosscut teeth (on two-handed saws) are also symmetrical, or at least
arranged in symmetrical pairings.
Connected to this, I've never seen a "two man" ripsaw. Although two
people worked them, they were always (IMHE) "powered" by one person and
steered by another (the "tillerman" - Cat Stevens sang about sawyers,
not boatswains). I've never seen a two-man ripsaw that was symmetrical,
in the way that two-man crosscut saws are (asymmetrical crosscut saws
are called "one and a half man" saws around here).
>Rip saws must be scarce as hen's teeth here in Connecticut.
Historically they were disappearing in favour of water-powered ripsaws
at the time America was being colonised. You can bring logs to a ripsaw,
you have to bring felling gear to a standing tree.
In article <[email protected]>,
Andy Dingley <[email protected]> wrote:
> (the "tillerman" - Cat Stevens sang about sawyers,
> not boatswains)
***buzzer***
Main Entry:
tillerman
Part of Speech:
noun
Definition:
a person who operates the tiller of a boat or other vehicle, such as the
rear of a fire engine.
...and if Stevens was singing of sawyers, why the seagull reference, eh?
(WTF do *I* know... Andy may be right)
"Andy Dingley" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Sun, 13 Nov 2005 21:26:43 GMT, "Fred Klingener"
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >How can I tell a rip from a crosscut whip saw?
>
> Tooth shape. Even if they're too rusted (or re-cut) and you can't tell
> if they were actually sharpened for ripping, the overall tooth shape is
> different. Crosscuttting was largely in standing or green timber,
> ripping was often rather drier. As a result, rip teeth rarely have the
> huge deep spacings between them that are common in crosscut teeth (there
> are many patterns for this, they all have names, locations and often
> date periods to them)
Thanks for the response.
The crosscut whip saws are two-directional. Were the rip (somebody pointed
out that the better term would be 'pit') saws one-directional? Would the
teeth have a directional form? Directional grind? Should I expect to see
different handles top and bottom? Are both top and bottom handles
detachable?
...
> >Rip saws must be scarce as hen's teeth here in Connecticut.
>
> Historically they were disappearing in favour of water-powered ripsaws
> at the time America was being colonised. You can bring logs to a ripsaw,
> you have to bring felling gear to a standing tree.
It seems that the first thing people built was the sawmill so they wouldn't
have to pitsaw the timber.
Cheers,
Fred Klingener
On Mon, 14 Nov 2005 18:46:39 GMT, "Fred Klingener"
<[email protected]> wrote:
>The crosscut whip saws are two-directional. Were the rip (somebody pointed
>out that the better term would be 'pit') saws one-directional?
Not all ripping was done in a pit. Boards generally were, but a log
might be squared off into a beam using a horizontal rip saw. It's less
crucial sawing so you don't need the ergonomics of the pit and it saves
some log handling.
Pit saws might be like the frameless and heavily tapered example of
which pictures were posted. The more accurate ones though were frame
saws - a narrow steel blade and a rectangular wooden frame around it.
over the years some of these lost their frames and ended up getting
re-sharpened for light felling or firewood sawing. However they never
had the extra-deep and complex tooth shapes that crosscuts developed.
>Should I expect to see different handles top and bottom?
If the saw is old enough to be interesting, it's never the original
woodwork.
>It seems that the first thing people built was the sawmill so they wouldn't
>have to pitsaw the timber.
American colonists also built log cabins, which were almost unknown in
Europe. We just didn't have the trees to spare. Only in the most rustic
forest areas with the coldest winters did we use piled-log construction.