Little Saw Stool

[harry strasil]

I use what they used to call a Saw Table with a V notch in one end, this is the companion Saw Stool. Joinery is all dovetail and pins.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/irnsrgn/wood/sawstool1.jpg

Leg to top joinery.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/irnsrgn/wood/sawstool2.jpg

Stretcher joinery.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/irnsrgn/wood/sawstool3.jpg

In use ripping a 100 yr old pine plank at the steam show.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/irnsrgn/wood/ripping.jpg

[Marc Waldbillig]

Hey Harry,

It's late in the evening, but the last pic, you sit on a board, a beautiful frame saw between your hands and you're making a rip cut in your saw stool, no in the board with stool legs, ey, you have to explain. :confused:

BTW nice frame saw collection at your right. :cool: I'd like to see more details!

Marc in Luxembourg

[harry strasil]

Marc, sorry about the confusion. A Saw Table evolved into what we in US now call a Saw Horse that is a little taller and has a narrower top than the old fashioned Saw Table.

A Saw Table was used a lot to set on the board as is shown in the last picture you referred to before the new hand saws came along. It has a V cut in one end of the top so you could saw the lumber you were working on and still have support under it. A Saw Stool was a shorter version used to help support a long board when ripping it as shown in the picture.

This is the only view I have of the Saw Table more or less by itself with the Saw Stool stored upside down underneath it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/irnsrgn/wood/sawtable.jpg

Dimensions on my Saw Table are 21 inches high, 7 inches wide and 35 inches long.
The Saw Stool is 21 inches high, 7 inches wide, and 14 inches long.

Most people don't know that in the hayday of Hand Tool Construction when you applied for a job as a carpenter, you were given a test. Said test being to build a pair of Saw Horses. The Superintendent or Boss was able to tell a lot about you from this test. How fast you were, how neat you were and your ability to measure and use tools.

The standard dimensions in those days were 24 inches high, 4 ft long, legs splayed out 10 degrees both width ways and length ways and they had to be stable and set on all four legs and not rock on a level floor.

[John Timberlake]

Great table. Love the wood. Is that Southern yellow pine? Grain looks like the saw horses that I have been using for thirty years.

[harry strasil]

The 2 by 8 was given to me by the lumberyard, it was about 14 feet long and had lain in the mud and bird ofal at the back of the lumber racks for about 20 years the fella said, it was there when they bought the yard 18 years earlier, it is quarter sawn pine and smells when cutting like the old pine of years ago.
It had a knot clear across about every 3 feet and thus was unsellable, in fact it fell into 3 pieces when I picked it up, I was a good boy and toted it off for them as they were about to burn it. It cleaned up nice.

[Roger Nixon]

There is more to that little stool than just a saw support. It is also just the right height for working at Harry's bench, i. e. some detailed sawing on a board in the end vise. When using Harry's stuff, I am amazed at how well it all works together.

[Jeff Horton]

I have got to build me one of these! That is too cool! Just what I have been looking for. It can server double duty in my shop. I need bench for sawing on and a bench to sit on too.

First post here in Neanderthal Haven but I am a hand tool lover. Actually I love old tools corded and cordless and I use them. My only disappointment at SMC has been the lack (or apparent lack) of active galoots on here. Glad to see some activity lately.

[John Timberlake]

Harry,

When you talked about the smell, it reminded me of a bed I made for my (then) two year old son (now 25) out of pine that came from a 100 year old house in NC that was torn down. Had to cut the post from 12" x 12" sills to get the 6"x6" posts. Not only did it smell good, I actually got rosin oozing out of some of the pores. It was a pleasure to work with other than being too much for the Craftsman lathe I was using. Wish I had more of the old Southern yellow pine to use.

[Jeff Horton]

Wish I had more of the old Southern yellow pine to use.

I live in the south were pine trees outnumber cows and people and I wish the same thing! Every once in a while I see a a really nice piece of pine in the tooby's rack. I guess it comes from an old pine that somehow escaped harvest all these years. I have rescued them but it is so rare.

[harry strasil]

John, I lucked out again, the lumber used for the legs started out its life in about 1896 as shelving in the finished basement of a clothing store, and I was asked if would like to dismantle and remove the shelving as the store was closed. I ended up with several hundred board feet of the shelving and it was clear old growth yellow pine 15 and 16 foot long with 10 nails to a board. It really makes my little suitcase thickness planer howl removing the old shellac finish on it.

[Denise Ohio]

Hey Harry,

BTW nice frame saw collection at your right. :cool: I'd like to see more details!



Harry, I'm with Marc from Luxemborg. What about those saws?

I got my first bow saw about six weeks ago. I made myself saw scrap 4x12 DF (and some not-scrap for a tool bench) until I got the hang of it.

So, what you got going on there?

P.S. The saw stool is a useful and pretty thing.

[harry strasil]

Mark, Denise --- http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=35432

[Bernhard Kühnen]

Mark, Denise --- http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=35432


Harry,

very, very nice saws. I like the smaller bow saw most:)

Bernhard

[Marc Waldbillig]

Thanks for the explanation Harry! Haven't yet seen a european version of the saw table or stool. Looks more like furniture if not marked that much by work.:cool:

I admired your bow saw collection when you posted, but didn't realize it was the same as that in this thread and sure I didn't remember your name. Sorry, I am obviously a forum newbie.:o The veneer saw is the one I like most, because never seen before and because of its purpose. I'd like to know more about it.

I'm learning alot here on handtools. Thanks, Marc

[harry strasil]

Marc, A veneer saw it just basically a narrow frame rip saw, mine is short because that's the length of blade I had, and a smaller one is easier for one person to handle. Originally veneer saws were much longer and were two man saws as they wood they were sawing to make veneer was wide. Generally a veneer saw has rip teeth but not the larger teeth, I have found the best to be 6 or 8 ppi using the saw by myself as the larger teeth make the saw jump around or vibrate a lot. For sawing veneer the teeth should have very little set as the wood is nice and dry and less set means taking out less material, less slop in the kerf and therefore easier to follow a line. When out demoing I use a marking gauge to draw a line completely around a board and very carefully start the saw on the end grain once I have a kerf across the end grain with the board end grain up in a vise, I just start sawing and do all the sawing from one side. If you hold the saw correctly it will follow one side of the line on both sides as the narrow set won't let it wander off, people are always watching the other side, and I can tell by their faces if it starts to wander any. LOL

[harry strasil]

It always gets them when I turn the board over when near the end of the cut with the saw still in the kerf and finish the cut by sawing up. LOL