Atkins & co antique tool????

Re: Atkins & co antique tool????

Roger Bell

>Your photo is pretty tiny there, so its really hard to make out the details. But offhand, it looks like a swage. A swage is used for "swaging" (a form of shaping) the teeth of mill sized circular or bandsaw blades....not for carpenter's handsaws.

Re: Atkins & co antique tool????

Dale Stansbery

>Hmmm, sure doesn't look like any swage I'm familiar with. The one I have for my circular saw is a bar of steel about 6 inches long with a slightly enlarged end that has a couple indents that are used for shaping and spreading the cutting edge of the tooth. It's used with a hammer.

Re: Atkins & co antique tool????

Roger Bell

>The kind I refer to are industrial versions that are meant, I suppose, to improve upon the handheld type (an "upset swage") you have. I got to thinking upon reading your post and ended up finding both kinds in an old Atkins catalog. The "swage shapers" shown in Jim's photo cost from $50-72 in 1937 while the "neanderthal variety" that you have cost around $4-5.

I have never worked in a mill and have not used the "high tech variety" shown in Jim's photo...so, I am speculating a bit as I speak. By the way, Jim's unit looks pretty close to the Pribnow pattern shown in my catalog. As I picture how it works based on the catalog line drawing, the unit quick-clamps on to the blade. The "indents" you describe or "shaping jaws" are somehow indexed and precisely placed or aligned relative to the blade's teeth and the long lever provides the "hammer muscle" and presses (swages) the tooth into conforming into the desired shape. You then unclamp the unit, bump it to the next tooth, reclamp and swage the next one. It also appears that the jaws are adjustable to suit desired tooth shape relative to the kind and characteristics of timber the saw blade is going to be cutting. Like I said, I have never used anything like this, although I have used primitive hammer swages to shape the rakers on hand held logging saws.

The catalog shows several models and configurations of these gizmos, some more refined than others and available to fit differing sizes and types of saw blades.