inherited old stuff.

doc henderson · January 29, 2023, 01:57:02 PM

Well I have got a few of my great uncle Bills things. he was a motor pool master sergeant in the army, went on to work at a Pontiac dealership over 30 years. worked for the county to have income and something to do after that. always worked on stuff for neighbors and friends, family. usually put more time and parts in it than he would ever charge. most of the time it was 20 bucks. He built a log splitter with all kinds of used parts, but his son Mike made first class parts at the manufacturing place he worked. and Bill sold it (gave it away) for 150 bucks. He made a jig to straiten crankshafts on vertical engines, and made extras for the likes of a John Deere repair shop, and only charged the 50 bucks. any way he passed on a hand crank forge mounted on an old washing machine base that I love. His daughter just brought me an old gas engine and saw blade to add to my collection. so I thought we could show the old stuff that has been passed down to us from folks that mean a lot to us.

sounds like this company started before 1900, and went on to have brands like Tecumseh (pronounced ta-cum-see by my great uncle), toro, craftsman etc. looks like a 2 hp four stroke engine.

Chuck White · January 29, 2023, 03:06:15 PM

Nice Keep-Sake Doc.

doc henderson · January 29, 2023, 03:40:49 PM

here is the saw blade. feels sharp. maybe for a saw buck. I know my dad did a lot of firewood off the back of a tractor, I assume pto driven. he was the oldest of 11, and his dad had polio, so he worked like a man from a young age.

moodnacreek · January 29, 2023, 04:06:32 PM

That Lawson, I have one that looks like that except it is a lever start.

doc henderson · January 29, 2023, 04:42:18 PM

Mood, any guess what the blade was for? it is very sharp. My great uncle Bill was not much of a wall hanger guy.

KWH · January 29, 2023, 08:12:57 PM

Doc, I am not Mood, only to well. I spent many of days looking at a blade like that. It was on what we called a cordwood saw. It was belt driven on the back of a ford 8N. My dad would cut wood in 6 to 8 foot pieces then when seasoned in the fall and winter use that to cut it shorter. My great grandparents powered one with a one luger. That was be for chainsaws, my dad's first saw was a reciprocating saw.

Magicman · January 29, 2023, 08:37:22 PM

We called ours a buzz saw.

moodnacreek · January 29, 2023, 09:07:09 PM

It is a cross cut blade most likely off a buzz saw. They are very common but rarely filed that nice Someone knew what they where doing.

WV Sawmiller · January 29, 2023, 09:10:13 PM

I saw lots of them in use in Norway for cutting firewood. They'd drag a bunch of small, nearly always Birch logs, to a landing and hook up a saw like that to a tractor PTO and use roller tables to move it to a pallet bag/box and sell it by the cubic meter. The logs were rarely over 4-5 inches in diameter and they cut them about a foot long. Nothing about the operation looked safe or appealing to me.

Resonator · January 29, 2023, 09:23:57 PM

Lauson RSH-737 2 HP Engine - YouTube
Restored Lauson engine running.

Resonator · January 29, 2023, 09:39:32 PM

The real old "buzz saws" around here were belt driven. Sometimes mounted to the front end of a narrow (wheel) front tractor, like a "Johnny popper" or a Farmall. I don't think they ever came with blade guards.

moodnacreek · January 29, 2023, 10:07:30 PM

Most did not have gards but not all. Real old ones would be babbit bearing and have a flywheel on the mandrel. The better ones had a 'yoked' mandrel. New Holland made nice ball bearing models for tractor fronts, flat belt driven. Last I knew they where still made for 3 point hitch, pto driven in Canada . You will find these along the northern border. The mini chainsaw pretty much finished the buzz saw.

doc henderson · January 29, 2023, 10:15:41 PM

yes, I think that is what my dad used at a young age. it had a table for the log and you pushed the table and log into the blade. it cut logs off and made into firewood. My Dad and his family sold it or did it for others more than themselves. they were poor. my dad was born in 35. He was the oldest and had a milk route before school and a paper route after school, and gave all the money to his mom. My gampy had polio as a child. played anything with strings, was in bands, and drank quite a bit. My grandma paid the pediatrician 2 dollars a month. I have never turned anyone to collections as a pediatrician, in part due to knowing that. Out of 11 kids, one died at birth and another died diving off a bridge and hitting a submerged log. my Dad was in the army and flown home. after that, my uncle Duck (Donald) got meaner than hell, and although small (about 5 foot 2 inches) he would beat 3 guys to the point that his friends would pull him off for fear he might kill someone. those were hard times.

doc henderson · January 29, 2023, 10:22:58 PM

I never saw it as it was well before my time, but I think it was on the 3 point at the rear of a ford, and I assume it ran off the pto. I know I would not let my son run one at the age my dad did, but they needed food and rent. every town has a farm house at the edge of town, with no paint on the siding and those were the houses my dad grew up in.

sawguy21 · January 29, 2023, 10:44:57 PM

@moodnacreek Yours probably powered a washing machine, the lever or kickstart allowed the missus to operate it. The comments here give a great insight into the world some of you grew up in, quite different than mine.

customsawyer · January 30, 2023, 07:02:20 AM

I've never claimed to be grown up.

Magicman · January 30, 2023, 07:34:15 AM

I was young and dumb once but I got over being young a long time ago.

moodnacreek · January 30, 2023, 08:03:14 AM

Quote from: sawguy21 on January 29, 2023, 10:44:57 PM
@moodnacreek Yours probably powered a washing machine, the lever or kickstart allowed the missus to operate it. The comments here give a great insight into the world some of you grew up in, quite different than mine.

I hadn't thought of it being off a washer. It was put away in a dry basement for a long time and when the place was sold, given to me. It had spark so I put gas in it, saw no leaks, choked and pulled the lever and away she went! That little engine had never seen gas with alcohol that ruins white metal like today.

GAB · January 30, 2023, 09:39:49 AM

My dad used one of those pulley driven cordwood saws on the back of his Ferguson TO-20 to sharpen fence posts for fence building and mending on the farm. To say they were dangerous is being very polite. Today OSHA would write a whole book of revisions needed to use one of those, and then it would be dangerous.
GAB

trapper · January 30, 2023, 11:24:28 AM

At first a neighbor came with one and a crew would gather to cut our winters wood. When that ended my father bought a blade from me Menominee saw a sponsor here and a local blacksmith made a free standing rig belt powered by a tractor. This was 65 years ago.

doc henderson · January 30, 2023, 11:47:01 AM

thanks all. please feel free to add your stuff to the thread. I will post the forge I got. Mary Jo has a couple more saw blades. I think you can still buy new "buzz saws" for a few hundred buck as recently as 5 years ago. I did not rush out to get one. A PA I worked with told me her husband had one for sale, but when I spoke with him, I do not think he was as motivated to sell it as his wife was.

Yes the saw buck was the wrong term.

Paul_H · January 30, 2023, 12:09:37 PM

3 weeks ago today I bought this old buzz saw for $50 and set about straightening the metal that could be and replacing three pieces that were twisted beyond reasonable effort. It had babbit bearings and thought about using them but the pulley side was worn too far and replaced them with roller bearings and pillow blocks. The saw is in good shape for set and sharpness. It will be used to cut small logs for woodgas fuel

Bearings not mounted yet

There is a company in Vermont that still makes these

Vermont Woodsman Buzz Saw (newhavenpower.com)

moodnacreek · January 30, 2023, 12:53:56 PM

There are still a few saw makers left. They will make any size circle saw up to 72" dia. My slab woos saw takes a 30" and I did have one new one made a few years ago. I like the M style that has no hook angle and made thick, 8 or 9 ga. They will do carbide also. With the automation in machine shops today saws are made better than years back.

hedgerow · January 30, 2023, 03:44:25 PM

I have owned and operated several buzz saws, cord wood saws over the last forty years. First one was a stake down one ran with a G JD tractor and a flat belt. Had a few with PTO shafts and gear boxes on the saw with V belts. One I currently use I built from scratch has a 13 HP Honda engine on it. Guy gave me one a few years ago that his brother used for years and hadn't ran in thirty years been sitting in a barn and the farm got sold. It's a trailer type with a Wisconsin two cylinder engine on it. Uses garage door track for the table slider. I fixed it all up and painted it.

moodnacreek · January 30, 2023, 06:14:30 PM

Quote from: hedgerow on January 30, 2023, 03:44:25 PM
I have owned and operated several buzz saws, cord wood saws over the last forty years. First one was a stake down one ran with a G JD tractor and a flat belt. Had a few with PTO shafts and gear boxes on the saw with V belts. One I currently use I built from scratch has a 13 HP Honda engine on it. Guy gave me one a few years ago that his brother used for years and hadn't ran in thirty years been sitting in a barn and the farm got sold. It's a trailer type with a Wisconsin two cylinder engine on it. Uses garage door track for the table slider. I fixed it all up and painted it.

A JD G on a buzz saw..... Reminds me of a farmer friend I used to take slab wood to. In cold weather he had this little 3 pt. hitch log splitter on a JD 4040 or something, 6 cylinder. He said that was the one that always started. Only a farmer.