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Saw Plate Steel Rolled from a Crucible Ingot
Saw blades start as thin steel plate. In the 1880s Disston's works cast crucible steel into flat ingots, cut each ingot into pieces, rolled every piece to the gauge of the saw and sheared it to outline; one handsaw plate was split diagonally to make two tapered blades (Grimshaw, Saws, 1882).
The picture: our diagram, ingot to rolls to plate, with the diagonal split.
Advanced
A day at the mill
Instructions
1
1
A flat ingot
A flat ingot
Start from crucible steel cast in an iron mould as a flat block. Grimshaw's ingot for 18 handsaws of 26 in weighed 48 lb and measured 6.5 × 12 × 2 in. For thicker saws, use milder steel (less carbon).
Materials for this step:
Crucible Steel2 kgTools needed:
Blacksmith Tongs
Welding Gloves
Safety Glasses2
2
Cut the ingot
Cut the ingot
Heat the ingot and cut it into equal pieces, one per plate, using Oldham's rule (step 5) for the weight each plate needs.
Materials for this step:
Charcoal5 as requiredTools needed:
Blacksmith Forge
Anvil
Hot Chisel
SledgehammerBlacksmith TongsWelding GlovesSafety Glasses3
3
Roll to gauge
Roll to gauge
Pass each hot piece through the rolls again and again, reheating as needed, until it reaches the plate size. Between passes slap the plate on a smooth iron floor to knock off scale, which would otherwise be rolled into the steel (Grimshaw).
Materials for this step:
Charcoal5 as requiredTools needed:
Rolling MillBlacksmith ForgeBlacksmith TongsWelding GlovesSafety Glasses4
4
Shear to outline
Shear to outline
Shear the plate to the outline of the saw. For handsaws, split the plate diagonally along its length to get two tapered blades.
Tools needed:
Plate ShearsWelding GlovesSafety Glasses5
5
Oldham's rule: how heavy an ingot
Oldham's rule: how heavy an ingot
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