708 SAWING 
differently filed,-and turned, according to the use it is de¬ 
signed for. There is also a kind of saws without teeth, used 
in the sawing of marble, and other stones. 
The best saws are of tempered steel, ground bright and 
smooth: those of iron are only hammer-hardened: hence, 
the first, besides their being stiffer, are likewise found 
smoother, than the last. They are known to be well ham¬ 
mered by the stiff bending of the blade; and well or evenly 
ground, by the bending into a bow. 
The chief saws are as follow:— Pit-saw, a large two- 
handed saw, used to saw timber in pits.— Whip-saw, which 
is likewise two-handed, used to saw such large pieces of stuff 
as the hand-saw will not easily reach.—The Hand-saw is 
made for a single man’s use; of which there are various 
kinds; as the Ripping-saw, Tenon-saw, Sash-saw: the 
two latter are stiffened by a narrow back of iron, as they are 
made very thin for fine work.—The Two-hand, or Cross¬ 
cut saw, is much longer, and is used by two men.—The 
Frame-saw is a thin saw surrounded by a wooden frame, in 
which it is stretched very tight, to prevent its bending: it is 
used in a pit for cutting deals and veneers.—The Compass- 
saw, or Turning-saw, which is very narrow, has its teeth 
not usually set out of a right line, like the above; but the 
cutting-edge is made thick, and the back thin, that it may 
freely be turned in a circular or compass-kerf.—The Hack¬ 
saw is made of a scythe jagged at the edge, and used for 
cutling off iron bolts. 
To SAW, v. a. To divide with a saw.—They were stoned, 
they were sawn asunder. Hebrews. 
SAWA, a village of the island of Ceram, in the East 
Indian ocean, at the bottom of the bay of the same name, 
on the north coast, in Lat. 2. 56. S. 
SAWARA, Lower, an Indian town of the United 
States, in North Carolina, on the Dan; 14 miles north-north- 
east of Guildford. 
SAWARA, Upper, an Indian town of the United 
States, in North Carolina, on the Dan; 23 miles north¬ 
west of Guildford. 
SAWAY, a town on the south-east coast of the island of 
Timor. Lat. 9. 10. S. long. 125. 70. E. 
SAWBR1DGE, a hamlet of England, in Warwickshire; 
7 miles north-east of' Southam. 
SAWDON, a hamlet of England, North Riding of 
Yorkshire ; 8 miles west-south-west of Scarborough. 
SAWDUST, s. The comminuted raspings of timber 
produced by sawing. 
SAW-FISH, in ichthyology. See Squai.us Pristis. 
SAWING-MILLS. There are wind-mills and water-mills 
which do the office of sawing wood, with infinitely more ex¬ 
pedition and ease than is performed by the hand. They 
consist of several parallel saws, which are made to rise and 
fall perpendicularly, by means of one of the grand prin¬ 
ciples of motion. A very few hands are her! needed, viz., 
only to push forward the pieces of timber, which are laid on 
rollers, or suspended by ropes, in proportion as the sawing 
advances. These mills are frequently used abroad; and 
were long since introduced in England; but the Parlia¬ 
ment, considering that they would spoil the sawyers’ trade, 
and ruin great numbers of families, thought fit to suppress 
them. 
The mechanism of a sawing-mill may be reduced to three 
principal things; the first, that the saw be drawn up and 
down as long as is necessary, by a motion communicated 
by water to the wheel; the second, that the pieces of timber 
to be cut into boards be advauced by an uniform motion to 
receive the strokes of the saw, for here the wood is to meet 
the saw, and not the saw to follow the wood, therefore the 
motion of the wood and that of the saw ought immediately 
to depend the one on the other: the third, that when the 
saw has cut through the whole length of the piece, the whole 
machine stops of itself, and remains immoveable, for fear, 
lest having no obstacle to surmount, the force of the water 
should turn the wheel with too great rapidity, and break 
some part of the machine. 
-MILLS. 
M. Felibien mentions a kind of long saws, invented by 
one MissoD, inspector of the marble quarries in the Pyre¬ 
nees; by means of "which stones are sawed even in the rock 
itself, whence they are taken. He adds, that some of them 
were made twenty-three feet long; but does not describe 
either their form or application: he only says, they are of 
iron, and without teeth. 
The common sawing-mill is so well known, as to require 
scarcely any description. The saw is made to work verti¬ 
cally, being stretched in a wooden frame, which slides up 
and down, within another fixed frame, exactly the same as a 
window-sash rises and falls in its frame: the motion is given 
to it by a crank placed beneath, and revolving by a wheel 
and pinion from the water-wheel; a fly-wheel is fixed upon 
the axis of the crank to equalize the movement, and the 
pinion is so proportioned, that the crank will make three or 
four turns to one of the water-wheel. The timber is fastened 
upon a carriage, which is an horizontal frame, sliding on the 
floor of the mill; and being sufficiently narrow to pass 
through the inside of the vertical or moving saw-frame, it 
will carry the tree through, and subject it to the action of 
the saw: the carriage is provided with a rack, which is en¬ 
gaged by the teeth of a pinion, and this gives the means of 
advancing the carriage when the pinion is turned, which is 
done by means of a large ratchet-wheel, with a click moved 
by levers, connected with the saw-frame. In this manner, 
when the saw-frame rises, the click slips over a certain num¬ 
ber of teeth of the ratchet-wheel, but when it descends to 
make the cut, the click turns the ratchet-wheel round, and 
advances the wood forwards just as much as the saw will cut 
into it during its descent. The trees are generally dragged 
up an inclined plane, through a door at one end of the mill, 
and being placed upon the carriage, they go through the 
mill, and are divided by the saw into two or more pieces, 
which are carried forwards, and go out at a door on the op¬ 
posite side of the mill, where a boat receives them. Some¬ 
times the saw-frame is fitted up with several saws stretched 
parallel to each other, and at such distances, that they will 
divide the whole tree into several boards of any required 
thickness at one operation. 
A great improvement in sawing-machines has been made 
by Mr. Brunei, by which they are enabled to cut more 
timber in a given time, with any given power, and also cut 
much more correctly, and without winding in the surfaces 
which the saws divide. A capital mill on this plan has been 
constructed by Mr. Maudslay, for the arsenal at Woolwich; 
it is driven by a steam-engine, which is a pattern of elegance 
in its appearance, as much as of perfection in its contrivance; 
the motion is communicated from this to the cranks of the 
four saw-frames, by leather belts, which are here very judi¬ 
ciously applied in lieu of cog-wheels, because these will slip 
and yield if any thing should get into the movements, but 
cog-wheels would in a similar case break every thing to 
pieces. Each crank has an independent fly-wheel to regu¬ 
late its motion, in addition to the great fly-wheel of the 
steam-engine. The vertical or moving frames for the saws 
are made of iron, but the sides are hollow, and filled up 
with wood, by which means they are very strong, but of no 
greater weight than necessary. The most ingenious part of 
the contrivance consists in the means of stretching all the 
saws in the frame, so that they will be exactly parallel to 
each other, and all strained to an equal degree of tension. 
The saws are so fitted in the frame, that they can be removed 
in a few minutes, and a new set of sharp saws put in. Each 
saw has a piece of metal rivetted to it at each end, which are 
formed like hooks. The hook at the lower end of the saw is 
hooked into a proper recess made in the lower cross-bar of 
the saw-frame, and the upper hook is engaged with the 
hook of a shackle or link, which hangs upon the upper cross¬ 
bar, and has wedges through it, by means of which it can 
be drawn tight to strain the saw. As there is nothing to 
determine the parts of- the cross-bars where the hooks of the 
saws shall hang upon them, they can be set at any required 
distance asunder; but to retain them, pieces of hard wood 
are 
