What kind of saw blade is this?

[Evertite]

Hi,

I have an old 8 foot diameter circular saw blade with riveted on segments.  I am trying to find out what it would have been used for so I can make an interpretive display out of it at the museum I volunteer at.  It has a 2" hole for the arbor and the 2 pin holes are 9 inches apart.  In the attached photo I kind of outlined the shape of the segment and the rivets or pins on each side of the segment.

Thank you,

Evan

 

[longtime lurker]

Probably not for sawing wood: a 2" shaft would be wayyyyy too small to absorb the forces involved.

So something softer than wood. Ice maybe? 

[scsmith42]

The tooth angle is totally wrong for milling logs.

[JoshNZ]

That's an awful lot of negative rake to be useful for cutting anything? Following, would love to find out!

2" hole doesn't mean the shaft was 2" right? Just the bolt fixing it to the shaft which is huge. The arbor plate could've been a lot bigger.

[Happy Sawyer]

Ice saw?

[Don P]

I'm not at all sure on any of what follows, just mind wander. In the 1902 Disston Handbook for Lumbermen that looks like their #2 style tooth for solid saws. Just prior to that there had been much experimentation with insert teeth, most of which were riveted but by that time the current style of insert teeth had pretty much taken over. At that time they had taken over American Saw Co. and were also producing replacement inserts for Trenton, Brooke, Dunbar, Prosser, Goulding and Risdon bits. What those look like I haven't a clue but it sounds like there was a lot of development going on around the turn of the century. The great advantage of the insert tooth or section was the saw diameter AND gauge remained constant. The diminishing diameter produced by repeated sharpening of a solid saw also got into the thickening gauge of the plate so at some point they would lose clearance or must have required considerable set or swage depending on tooth style. I'm just bouncing ideas, @moodnacreek might have some thoughts from his trove of old sawmill stuff.

[Bandmill Bandit]

I will say Ice Saw based on the blade that used to sit along the back wall of Grandpas blacksmith shed. Thats what he said it was for.  

My Dad and his brother helped his Dad and Grandpa harvest Ice for ice boxes in the community and for the freeze pits that butchers use to store meat and such in summer.

Can still see the old freeze pit in the hill side just behind where my Grandma's Dad's butcher shop stood on the place my Grandma grew up on. Dad says they used to put 2 to 3 feet of ice on the floor and then about the same for walls and ceiling. when done they had a walk in freezer space of about 6' wide 6' high and 12' long.  

Had a wood frame for the roof that spanned the top onto the banks made of hewn poplar 12" x 12" ish beams and 4" x 12" boards.
Oiled tarp was used to cover the roof frame and the ice inside and out. Then roof ice installed and tarp laid on the top and then about 4 to 5 feet of straw and the more tarp on the top to shed water from rain. Dad and Grandpa & I used those tarps to cover hay for quite few years after that era came to an end.    

Check with the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, AB. I am pretty sure they have a Display that details the tools and methods of that era for that purpose. I know Grandpa and his brother collected and then donated a good collection of tools including ice tools from the community along with a lot of other early 20th century life era specific material to them but I don't know how much of it was/is used or are part of the various displays.


https://www.glenbow.org/

[Evertite]

Hi All,

Thanks for the replies!!

BT suggested I add some more info (and update my profile, Thanks!!!).

I understand the blade to have come from a mill in NW Oregon.

The museum is near Salem Oregon, it is a steam powered sawmill that is part of the group of museums at Powerland Heritage Park.  The sawmill was pieced together in the early 1970's from two or three American #1 size mills.  It is powered by a steam engine that used to power a Salmon cannery in Astoria Oregon.  The boiler is from a 1906 Lima Shay locomotive.

We typically run the mill a few times a year for whatever major events we have at Powerland Heritage Park.

Regards,

Evan

[Bandmill Bandit]

I talked to dad and he said the ice saws were ground to modify teeth of a regular worn out sawblade from a saw mill, so that one may have had two lives. He said the one they had was a 36".  

[moodnacreek]

If it's a wood saw it's a cut off [or cross cut ] for sure.  Swing saws don't need rake in fact my cut off saws for the slab wood saw are what I call star [or type M or peg] They will saw all day on wood that is sitting on a rubber conveyer belt with no hold down without lifting and kicking. If you try a saw with raked teeth you need a hold down devise. 100 years ago there was a lot of small mills almost like small farms and many big ones so saw blade manufacture was big and competitive. Removable teeth was the future and most any idea was tried.  I have never seen this style and know nothing about it's actual use.