1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



83 



FiGl. 



p The clamp 

 is to hold the 

 saw in posi- 

 tion while it is 

 being treated, 

 and is indis- 

 pensabl e. I 

 know whereof 

 I speak, be- 

 cause in a fit 

 of smartness I 

 held the saw, 

 on my maiden 

 effort, in the 

 bench-vise. I 

 have just fin- 

 ished making 

 a clamp like 

 one I borrow- 

 ed, every bit 

 of the sawing 

 being done 

 with tools of 

 my own sharpening, which worked clean- 

 ly and smoothly; so before the reader does 

 any thing else he must make a saw-clamp. 

 Fig. 1 shows the front elevation. 



The classifications are: uprights, 2 pieces, 

 2x4x50; cross-pieces, 3 pieces, 1x4x21; 

 vise, 2 pieces, ^4 X2^4^X30. 



I '^2 



Fig. 2. 



'%^" 



The lengths of the uprights will depend 

 upon the height of the man who is to use 

 the clamp. I find in my own case it is about 

 six inches shorter than the distance of my 

 armpit from the ground. 



Begin work on two 2X4 stuff by drawing 

 on the face at one end of each piece the 

 design shown in Fig. 2; then saw out the 



center piece and cut off the corners; then 

 nail on the three cross-pieces. The two 

 pieces that form the vise are to be held in 

 the V-shaped cut, and must, therefore,' be 

 planed to a suitable shape. 



Fig. 3 shows the pair in j 



cross-section with exaggerat- 

 ed space between. To lay 

 out the work on one face of 

 each piece, draw a line ^4 inch 

 from an edge; then on the op- 

 posite edge draw a line right 

 down the middle. Plane the 

 marked face until the new 

 surface is bounded by the 

 pencil Hues; then plane the 

 other edge until a new surface extends from 

 the pencil-line to the margin of the unmark- 

 ed face. 



Last of all, sufficient from the ends of each 

 piece must be cut away to give room for the 

 handle of the saw. Fig. 4 illustrates this. 



Fig.3. 



Fig. 4- 



When you use the clamp it is better to be 

 out of doors, because you will need lots of 

 good light. There is no chance work in fil- 

 ing a saw; you must know exactly the shape 

 of tooth you want, and see that you get it; 

 so, set your clamp up against a fence and 

 rope it tight to the railing so that it can not 

 move. 



SAWS AND THEIR TEETH. 



The use to which a saw is to be put deter- 

 mines the shape of its teeth; consequently, 

 for the proper sharpening of any particular 

 saw one must know to what purpose it is to 

 be put. This article is not intended to cover 

 the whole field of saw-sharpening, but only 

 such phases of it as may come within the 

 scope of the average bee-keeper or farmer. 

 The essential saws for such a one are cross- 

 cut, rip, and back saws, for soft or medium 

 hard woods, and buck-saw for the firewood 

 pile; hence only these will be considered 

 here. 



The rip saw is used to cut in the direction 

 of the wood; the other three, across the 

 grain. 



A saw-tooth has two functions — paring and 

 scraping. The rip saw acts like a chisel, 

 each tooth cutting out a piece of the fiber, 

 which lodges in the throat of the tooth and 

 is carried forward until free of the wood, 

 when it falls to the ground. Since one tooth 

 alone is responsible for each bit of fiber, 

 both sides of each tooth must be equally 

 sharp; in other words, the forward face 

 must be at right angles to the body. 



So much for the paring action of the tooth. 

 Let us now consider its duty as a scraper. 

 Scraping is done with a sharp tool held at 

 right angles to the surface that is being oper- 

 ated upon. The bottom of the groove in 

 which the saw runs is the surface that is be- 



