190 ?. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
397 
SHARPENING A DISK HARROW. 
We have the Monarch disk sharpener; 
we have tried it on our disk and are 
pleased with the result. We expect to try 
it on the Cutaway, and when we do will 
report. The price is $2.60, which seems 
reasonable. howland burdick. 
Rhode Island. 
Turn bottom up, and block up so the 
disk can revolve easily. Attach a strong 
crank to disk shaft, and after straighten¬ 
ing the edges of all the disks with two 
hammers, one heavy and one light, hold a 
file against the disk edge, while the hired 
man turns the crank. This will fix them 
fairly well for once or twice; after that 
they are best taken off, heated and ham¬ 
mered thin, but not too thin. N. s. f. 
Berlin, N. D. 
W. R. S. asks the question about sharp¬ 
ening disks on a disk harrow. This, it 
seems, is a problem that confronts nearly 
everyone who uses a disk harrow or culti¬ 
vator. If you live near a city or good- 
sized town you will find plenty of ma¬ 
chine shops, all of which have several 
emery wheels, and by paying a very small 
item you will be allowed to use the emery- 
wheel when they are not using it, you 
can sometimes use them without paying, 
on a very small job if you 'are known, 
but much grinding wears the wheel away 
considerably so you should be careful not 
to do any unnecessary grinding. Of 
course, to grind the disks in this way it 
would be necessary to remove them from 
the harrow frame or axle, which can be 
easily done with the wrench that always 
comes with the harrow, for that purpose. 
If you cannot loosen it pour on a little 
gasoline (or else use some spirits of tur¬ 
pentine, which is very good) and strike 
the nut lightly with a hammer. If you 
do not wish to take the disks ofif to sharp¬ 
en, get from a junk dealer or elsewhere 
some broken pieces of emery wheels 
about three or four inches square, and 
place them on a heavy piece of board or 
scantling long enough to go the length 
of one section of the harrow; then clatpp 
these pieces of emery to the board by 
using bolts to go through the board just 
at the side of the emery, having an old 
piece of tire iron with holes bored to 
take the bolts. Then place each piece of 
emery at just the angle you wish for 
each disk; next lay the tire iron on top 
of the pieces of emery, and put in the 
bolts and screw them up tight. After this 
is done prop up harrow the height you 
wish and secure it well, and also the 
board, but so that you can move it up 
enough as you grind. Now fit on a crank 
on the outer end of the disk section, and 
you are ready for business; this is some¬ 
times a slow process but is very effective, 
and easily done if you fix up the above 
device as outlined, properly. j. K. T. 
Virginia. 
A reader recently made an inquiry 
about a method by which the disk of a 
Cutaway harrow could be sharpened, hav¬ 
ing failed to get a satisfactory result from 
an emery wheel. This man will find that 
a carborundum wheel will cut these hard¬ 
ened disks down to a fine edge and with 
great expedition. We have one of these 
little wheels, with a bicycle mount, and 
find it will grind anything “shown” to it. 
We grind everything with it from chilled 
iron plow points, to stone tools; things 
that an emery wheel makes little or no 
impression upon, are easy for the carbor¬ 
undum wheel. Just take the disks out of 
the gang, and one is surprised how fast 
they are edged up, and that without start¬ 
ing the temper, nor is wet grinding 
needed, a dry contact being all that is 
required. JOHN gould. 
Portage County, 0. 
The following is not information, but 
a suggestion. You know that a soft iron 
wheel, or disk, run at a high speed will 
cut a bar of steel perfectly smooth. Why 
would not a small iron wheel run at the 
same speed sharpen the harrow disks? 
The apparatus to be like what the dentists' 
use for cutting teeth, if a flexible tube 
like that of the dentist’s could be strong 
and light enough. If not, rig up an ap¬ 
paratus or machine as you may call it, 
on a wagon and carry it from farm to 
farm. Of course, this would first he 
tested in a machine shop, unless some 
farmer had necessary machinery to test 
it at home. R. F. R. 
Richmond, Va. 
A picture of the “Little Wonder” disk 
sharpener is shown at Fig. 187, and in- 
THE LITTLE WONDER. Fig. 187. 
dicates how the tool is used. It is said 
to work well, and can be attached to a 
power or turned by a crank. 
Another form of grinder is shown at 
Fig. 188. This is said to work with great 
speed and power, and will grind disks, 
TOOL AND DISK GRINDER. Fig. 188. 
plow points, coulters and tools. The 
picture quickly shows how the machine 
works. 
There are a number of disk sharpening 
machines advertised suitable for the farm¬ 
er’s own use, but I have never used any 
of them. I have a disk which is rented 
around the neighborhood, and used on all 
kinds of ground, from clear clay to very 
stony gravel, and hauled over all kinds 
of roads. When it needs sharpening I 
simply take a big wrench and take the 
nut off the end of axle, and slip the axle 
out; then take disks and hammer them 
out cold on anvil. They are made of 
very thin and very hard material, but the 
edges will turn somewhat, and if ham¬ 
mered out in this way will be about as 
sharp as new. F. b. f. 
Galena, Ohio. 
LIKES THE CUTAWAY HARROW 
In reply to your request for informa¬ 
tion about the relative merits of plain 
disk and Cutaway harrows, I can say that 
my experience leads me to favor the Cut¬ 
aways, as they dig into the ground fur¬ 
ther, owing, of course, to the cut-out 
portions allowing more weight to fall on 
the rest of the disk. I esteem the Cuta¬ 
ways very highly, having three; and they 
are used more than any other tool on the 
farm for preparing the ground for almost 
all crops. For the orchards they are usee 
exclusively, and one could not ask a bet¬ 
ter dust-mulch maker than the double¬ 
action Cutaway. It goes down in my soil 
about four or five inches, and leaves the 
ground very smooth and level. I would, 
however, warn the intending purchasers 
that the harrows require considerable 
power to draw them. This to me is no 
objection, as it is evidence that they are 
moving the soil, and that is what I want; 
but the persons who believe too implicitly 
in the statements of the makers, will find 
that he has too large a size for his team 
to handle. I find that the A4 is the larg¬ 
est size that a good pair of horses can 
draw all day, and they will be glad when 
night comes, while the Ac is a heavy load 
for four horses. h. w. heaton. 
Rhode Island_ 
Wife: A month ago you said my hus¬ 
band couldn’t live, and now he’s quite 
well.” Doctor: Madam, I can only ex¬ 
press my regret.”—London Opinion. 
-i 
BUILD WITH 
KNOWLEDGE] 
If you are a House-Owner or planning to build, this set of 
books will save you many times its cost. For the young 
man no better opportunity could be offered. If you are a 
Carpenter, Contractor, Builder, Architect, Draftsman or 
Mechanic, it offers you an exceptional chance to ad¬ 
vance In your present occupation. The truest test of 
your present efficiency Is the amount earned by you 
from week to week. Unless you are advancing and 
earning MORE AND MORE money as you grow older, 
there must come a time when younger and more am¬ 
bitious men will crowd you out. Learn now to turn 
your spare time into money. 
Cyclopedia of 
Architecture, Car¬ 
pentry and Building 
Compiled from representative instruction papers of 
American School of Correspondence. This offer is 
made merely to advertise the School. We believe 
this great work will easily demonstrate the superiority 
of our method of instruction. If you mention this 
paper, a 200-page hand-book describing the Schools, 
60 regular courses, will be sent FREE. 
Wo Increased the size of the first edition In order 
to make a saving In co3t, and will dispose of 
1,000 sets by a 
□ □ D 
0 Q U 
0 Q D 
r r 
Special Advance Sale 
Less Than l /3 Regular Price 
each nearly one foot 
morocco. 
Ten Massive Volumes, each nearly 
high. Handsomely bound In half red 
Over 4,000 pages. 1,900 Illustrations, full page 
plates, plans, sections, etc. Printed on highest 
grade paper; entirely new type—DE LUXE books 
In every particular. 
!hkI al *19.80 
REGULAR 
$ 60 
pric 
1907 
r [g£c S( 
kiss* 
mr*i 
“6 S ! .1 
jES J 5 1 
litt < s\ 
"'"I, I (—f —/I if 
Sent by express, prepaid. Send 82 within five days 
and $2 a month until paid for; otherwise notify us to 
send for them. In any case you lose nothing. 
Absolutely no orders accepted at 
if postmarked later than June 15th, 
Among the Chapters: 
Reinforced Concrete— 
Carpentry — Superintend¬ 
ence — Estimating — Con¬ 
tracts — Speclllcatlons — 
Strength of Materials— 
Mechanical Drawing— 
Architectural Drawing- 
Masonry—Electric Wir¬ 
ing— Plumbing— Steam 
Fitting —Gas Fitting — 
Heating — Ventilating — 
Cornice Work—Skylight 
Work — Roofing — Steel 
Construction. 
American School 
of Correspondence 
3368 Armour Ave. 
Chicago 
“MAIL-ORDER” 
CREAM SEPARATORS 
Many inquiries are made as - to whether the sale of “mail¬ 
order” and the various other so-called “cheap” separators 
seriously hurts the sale of DE LAVAL machines. There is 
undoubtedly a good deal of general interest on the part of 
separator buyers in this respect. 
The answer is NO, that it certainly does not. On the con¬ 
trary, the sale of “mail-order” and other “cheap” machines is 
helping the sale of DE LAVAL machines, which is larger from 
year to year regardless of all kinds of attempted competition. 
The people who buy “mail-order” and other ‘‘cheap” sepa¬ 
rators at from §20.- to §50.- are almost invariably buyers who 
could not have been induced to pay §40.- to §100.- for a 
DE LAVAL machine to begin with. They would either have 
gone on without a separator or bought one of the fake “dilution” 
contrivances termed “extractors” or something of that kind. 
But having once bought a “cheap” CENTRIFUGAL separa¬ 
tor they find enough merit even in it to satisfy them that they 
cannot afford to be without one, though they soon learn that 
in separators at least the best is the cheapest. So when their 
first machine is worn out within a year or two. and frequently 
within a few months, they are almost sure to he buyers of 
DE LAVAL machines the second time. 
Then they have come to appreciate the importance of 
skimming clean and being able to run a heavy cream, as well 
as of having a machine of ample capacity and one that will 
last from ten to twenty years, even if it does cost a little more. 
Thousands upon thousands of buyers of low-grade separators 
thus become second time converts to the use of DE LAVAL 
machines, and the DE LAVAL Company looks upon the 
“cheap” separator manufacturers and “mail-order” concerns 
as doing the best kind of missionary work for them to this end. 
When the buyer wants to cut out this expensive 
“primary school” separator experience he pays the 
price and buys a DE LAVAL machine in the first 
place, usually saving its cost twice over while the 
“cheap” separator buyer is being educated to the 
point of doing so. 
A DE LAVAL catalogue or any desired, information is to 
be had for the asking. 
The De Laval Separator Co 
General Offices: 
74 Cortland Street, 
NEW YORK. 
Ranuolph 4 Canal Streets 
CHICACO 
1213 4 1215 Filbert Street 
PHILADELPHIA 
Drumm 4 Sacramento Sts. 
SAN FRANCISCO 
173-175 William Street 
MONTREAL 
la 4 16 Princess Street 
WINNIPEG 
107 First Street 
PORTLAND, OREO. 
