Monday, December 05, 2016

Atkins Panel Saw

Several years ago a guy came through town with a trunk load of tools and a story. The story was he needed gas money to drive home to Montana. I'm a sucker for both old tools and a good story, either would have worked for gas money. I ended up with close to 100 saws, a tool tote, and a suitcase full of saw totes and parts.

For the most part the saws spent the next couple of years in the way and being moved from place to place in the shop. Several months ago I started digging through the pile and separating out the keepers from the junk and parts saws. Among the keepers I found a couple of Atkins panel saws, one filed 16 TPI and one worth the cost of the whole lot of saws filed 11 TPI.

The 11 TPI saw has been in the saw vise for several weeks waiting for me to clean up the tool room enough to get to the saw vise. Today miracle of miracles I finished a path and found time to sharpen that sucker.

What a sweet saw. The tote is still rough but that is minor. I cuts fast and true.


Another:  


And one of the cut line, you can't saw truer:


I wash I had sharpened it before I sawed the notch in the dovetail jig in the background. I've never learned to saw with a Japanese saw and as always the notch cut went off line. It's a shop appliance so not a big deal but.....  

ken





6 comments:

  1. Panel saws are great, aren't they. Around here, you can find big old handsaws in very good condition for virtually nothing, but panel saws are scarce.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ah yes, besides Disston, Atkins and Simmons made great saws, and between these 3 they pretty well cornered the market by buying out competition...

    All three of these big saw makers entered the Canadian market (and gain access to the Commonwealth countries) by establishing factories north of the border. Disston in Toronto, Simmons in Montreal and Atkins by associating themself with Shurley-Dietrich to become Shurley-Dietrich-Atkins (SDA for short).
    My favorite panel saw is a SDA

    Bob in wintery Quebec city

    ReplyDelete
  3. Close to a hundred?? And i thought i had a saw problem! I only have 67 ish... ( need update :-)

    Bob

    ReplyDelete
  4. Andy,

    Out of the pile of saw there were only 3 or 4 panel sized saws to make your point. My guess it is because panel saws are not much use to the carpenter but are more suited to the finish carpenter or cabinet maker.

    ken

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You would be correct in your quess :-)
      It is not always practical to wield a full-sized saw (from 24 to 28 in 2 inch increments)

      Bob, going to a show tonite

      Delete
  5. Bob,

    I don't think there is a Simmons in the pile, many Disston and Atkins some even worth keeping with straight and near rust free (just stained) plates and good totes .

    Don't worry out of that pile I only found about 25 worth keeping, you are still the "saw king". :-). BTW, who knows if I will ever get around to rehabbing any of the 20 or so worth fooling with.

    We are suffering from Winter down here as well....I think yesterday's high was in the low 60's/15Cish.....Burrrr.

    In your and Ruddy's travels if you need a place to warm up there is always a spare bed and glass of whisky here in Casa Choas.

    ken

    ReplyDelete