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Tate Harmann
01-09-2019, 1:33 PM
OK - so I realize that this question may be rather foolish but I'm mostly curious if anyone else has experience with these.

Are they re-sharpenable? I saw one in the local thrift store today and the teeth don't look impulse hardened or anything so I assume that they are.

However, that name throws me off - is it just some kind of marketing jargon or is it actually some kind of super hard alloy? haha

Thanks,
Tate

Tony Zaffuto
01-09-2019, 3:12 PM
I have a Craftsman Kromedge hand saw, bought in the mid 70s (by me). It is a 10pt., and I have filed it (not cut new teeth) several times. No different than the Disstons of that era.

Tate Harmann
01-09-2019, 3:35 PM
Perfect - that's exactly what I was looking for - thank you, Tony!

Bill Houghton
01-09-2019, 5:53 PM
Marketing jargon - and by someone who never learned to spell, either. Sears was big on chrome for a while as a marketing word. I doubt it means much.

Tate Harmann
01-09-2019, 9:37 PM
Awesome - thx Bill!

Stew Denton
01-09-2019, 11:04 PM
Tate,

Chromium is a metal very commonly used in steel alloys. It was also used to chrome plate car bumpers, and back in the 50s and 60s, lots of chrome on cars was a very popular thing. There are lots of other metals commonly used in steel alloys, probably the most common others being manganese, nickel, and maybe molybdenum.

The brand naming process probably went like this:

The Sears marketing folks thought long and hard about a great selling name, chrome was popular on cars then and the newer alloys used in tools like saws, chisels, etc., were promoted....the advertising guys probably debated: 1. molalloy...naw, 2. mangateeth.....naw, 3. pluggednickelalloy......naw that'll never sell.....what to do....what to do?........


Finally......4. hey guys, chrome is great for selling cars, why not saws?!...."chromedge"....YES!!!!....well...."Kromedge" looks cooler and because it has less letters it will be cheaper to put on the sawsblades!!!!.......

Hey guys, one of the engineers just told me that if you count the letters, "Kromedge" has the same number of letters as "Chromedge" but our alloy actually has chrome in it......well "Kromedge" still looks cooler...........YES!!!....That's it.....The company is buying dinner for our whole department!!!!......everyone gets the rest of the day off!!!....we'll sell a million of em!!!!!.....By the way guys, what do they use these things for anyway?

Or,..... something like that.

Stew

Thomas Wilson
01-09-2019, 11:06 PM
The steel contains some chromium. It is harder than carbon steel. It also does not rust. I have one too, from the 70’s. I think it was “Sears Best”.

steven c newman
01-09-2019, 11:51 PM
Maybe related to another company's Silver Steel line of saws.....

Always thought the Kromedge was a fancied up D-23...

Tony Zaffuto
01-10-2019, 5:38 AM
Maybe related to another company's Silver Steel line of saws.....

Always thought the Kromedge was a fancied up D-23...

I was going to mention the D-23, but I didn't have one handy to do a one on one comparison. As far as what Stewie said, I didn't find the no harder or softer than most kitchen variety saws. To my way of thinking, these Sears saws were probably made by Disston, but if found, will probably be available cheaper, because of lack of collector interest.

Tate Harmann
01-10-2019, 12:27 PM
LOL - thanks guys. Well, I bought the backsaw. 16'' crosscut filed - should work great for miters.

It appears that it was never used, still has the blade protector, and is razor sharp.

For $4 I think it was a fine deal.

Tony Zaffuto
01-10-2019, 12:48 PM
[QUOTE=Tate Harmann;2886115]LOL

Great deal, name her and treat her nice! If razor sharp, she ought to remain yours for a very long time!

Tate Harmann
01-10-2019, 1:56 PM
How about Karlie Kromedge? lol

Tony Zaffuto
01-10-2019, 3:54 PM
Just Karlie will do!