Scott Winners
08-31-2021, 11:32 PM
I responded to a facebook marketplace ad, someone was looking for vintage saws at $5 each. I have a few hopeless cases in my till that might as well become wall art.
Turned out I was dealing with the daughter on facebook and met the dad/buyer today. The actual buyer was born, I estimate, between 1910 and 1930. He claimed he had been a fulltime professional house builder back in the day. Judging by his gait and his hands this claim is believeable.
Looking at one of my saws that simply cannot be restored to working order, he asked if I knew what the nib was for on top of the plate.
I mentioned (it was a Disston and sons) I had seen in writing the manufacturer says the nib is strictly ornamental, but I have heard of some folks turning the plate upside down to get a cut started with the nib.
He said back before chalk lines were invented (I don't think he is that old, but let it slide) he would use the nib to notch a board where he needed the string to go, and then pull a string, chalk it up himself with a quarter sized lump of chalk and then snap a line. I believe he did that in his career, but I think ink lines have been around in Asia for a mighty long time. Like I said, I let it go.
We are standing at the open tailgate of my pickup truck, me, the old guy and his daughter.
I paid mostly 8-12 dollars for each of the saws I just sold him at $5 each, but I got some space back in my shop, I learned something, and I might have made his day. I showed them a 5 point rip I have put back in service, the old guy said "nobody uses those anymore." I looked him straight in the eye and said "I do."
He then laid the same saw down in my truck bed and showed me how to drive a finish nail at the center of a circle, measure the radius of the desired circle across the plate to the nearest tooth, hook the nib over the nail and then draw the circle by keeping the pencil in between the same two teeth all the way around. And the muscle memory was there. I don't know how many carpenters did that back in the day, but he did. He did it all without any tools except the saw I was selling him today, but he had good form driving the air nail with the make believe hammer, he used to keep his pencil in the same shirt pocket I use for my pen, he clearly used a 12 foor tape measure (right front hip storage) a LOT, he held the (pretend) pencil square and upright while he started rotating the saw on my truck bed, once he got a little ways around he scooched over to the left to get a different grip...
This is a thing that we can still do. And you didn't lose any money selling your reject saws.
Turned out I was dealing with the daughter on facebook and met the dad/buyer today. The actual buyer was born, I estimate, between 1910 and 1930. He claimed he had been a fulltime professional house builder back in the day. Judging by his gait and his hands this claim is believeable.
Looking at one of my saws that simply cannot be restored to working order, he asked if I knew what the nib was for on top of the plate.
I mentioned (it was a Disston and sons) I had seen in writing the manufacturer says the nib is strictly ornamental, but I have heard of some folks turning the plate upside down to get a cut started with the nib.
He said back before chalk lines were invented (I don't think he is that old, but let it slide) he would use the nib to notch a board where he needed the string to go, and then pull a string, chalk it up himself with a quarter sized lump of chalk and then snap a line. I believe he did that in his career, but I think ink lines have been around in Asia for a mighty long time. Like I said, I let it go.
We are standing at the open tailgate of my pickup truck, me, the old guy and his daughter.
I paid mostly 8-12 dollars for each of the saws I just sold him at $5 each, but I got some space back in my shop, I learned something, and I might have made his day. I showed them a 5 point rip I have put back in service, the old guy said "nobody uses those anymore." I looked him straight in the eye and said "I do."
He then laid the same saw down in my truck bed and showed me how to drive a finish nail at the center of a circle, measure the radius of the desired circle across the plate to the nearest tooth, hook the nib over the nail and then draw the circle by keeping the pencil in between the same two teeth all the way around. And the muscle memory was there. I don't know how many carpenters did that back in the day, but he did. He did it all without any tools except the saw I was selling him today, but he had good form driving the air nail with the make believe hammer, he used to keep his pencil in the same shirt pocket I use for my pen, he clearly used a 12 foor tape measure (right front hip storage) a LOT, he held the (pretend) pencil square and upright while he started rotating the saw on my truck bed, once he got a little ways around he scooched over to the left to get a different grip...
This is a thing that we can still do. And you didn't lose any money selling your reject saws.