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249434 Thomas Conroy <booktoolcutter@y...> 2014‑07‑24 Half-round reamers for woodworking?
O Galoots:

I have a couple of what the Buck Brothers 1890 Price List called a "Half Round
Reamer." These are rather like small bunghole taper borers or tapered
chairmakers' spoon bits, but with blades only 3" long and half-an-inch wide at
their widest. This seems to be a woodworking tool, not a metalworking or
machinist's tool. Buck also offered very similar reamers with flat, square, and
hexagon or octagon sections. No choice of sizes. One of mine is unhandled, with
a square three-quarter-inch long tang and the other has a handle along the axis
of the blade. Neither of mine are marked, and their tangs are just slightly
different from the Buck ones.


In one sense, of course, it is perfectly obvious what these are for: enlarging
and tapering holes. I have had the handled one among my benchtop tools on-and-
off for years, found it very useful when I had it out and never remembered about
it when it was in a drawer. However, I have no idea what they were originally
used for, and I would like to know.

Three specific questions:

1)what trades habitually used these little reamers, and for what?

2) What kind of handle would they have had? Mounted in a brace, cross-handle,
tap wrench, or handle along the axis like mine? Are there other possibilities?

3) How sharp should they be, and how are they sharpened? Mine are dull enough to
run a finger along the edges with a fair bit of pressure. There is no sign of a
bevel from sharpening with a stone resting edge-to-edge, and no sign of a bevel
running down into the hollow. No signs of sharpening at all, in fact.

I'm afraid I don't have facilities to photograph mine, and I didn't find a Buck
catalog on line, but the reamers are on p. 98 of my reprint. Rose Antique Tools'
(courtesy of the Wayback Machine) reproductions of L.& I.J. White, Swan,
Greenlee, and Starrett catalogues don't seem to have the half-round reamers, but
the Swan catalogue has a square reamer similar to Buck's:

https://web.archive.org/web/20110916105254/http://roseantiquetools.com/
sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/1911swan.pdf">https://web.archive.org/web/20
110916105254/http://roseantiquetools.com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/191
1swan.pdf

http://tinyurl.com/kq996kg



and the Greenlee catalog has a slightly different square shape on p. 42:

https://web.archive.org/web/20111019181921/http://www.roseantiquetools.
com/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/no.33greenlee6.64.pdf">https://web.archi
ve.org/web/20111019181921/http://www.roseantiquetools.com/sitebuildercontent/sit
ebuilderfiles/no.33greenlee6.64.pdf


http://tinyurl.com/mr4sw9g

I don't want to change the handled one I've had for years, but the unhandled one
of a relatively new acquisition and I'd like to mount and sharpen it correctly.

Tom Conroy
Berkeley
249439 Michael Blair <branson2@s...> 2014‑07‑24 Re: Half-round reamers forwoodworking?
It's kinda hard to tell much without a picture.  Reamers are listed in
the 1911 Mack (D.R. Barton) catalog, square, octagon, and wood reamers.
No picture, though, of the wood reamer.  The square and octagon reamers
are bits for braces, and I assume the wood reamers are as well.

As a class of tool, they can be handled in a number of ways.  Some are
designed for use in braces, some can be mounted in handles like pin
vises, some are T handled.

> 1)what trades habitually used these little reamers, and for what?

The square, hexagon, and octagon reamers are for metal workers. There
is a reamer built like a spoon bit that was used by plumbers for
tapering a hole in lead pipe to join one pipe into another -- like
a T joint.  These are quite short and wide at the top.

What you seem to describe, however, is a wood worker's tool and most
likely used by chair makers.  It seems too small for tap augers, which
are usually at least 1" in diameter at their widest point.

These can be used to relieve a hole, or to drill a tapered hole from
the start.

> 2) What kind of handle would they have had? Mounted in a brace,
> cross-handle, tap wrench, or handle along the axis like mine? Are
> there other possibilities?

I have two, tap augers, and they are mounted with a T handle.  I have
another that is designed to be used in a brace.  All are larger than
what you describe.

> 3) How sharp should they be, and how are they sharpened? Mine are dull
> enough to run a finger along the edges with a fair bit of pressure.
> There is no sign of a bevel from sharpening with a stone resting
> edge-to-edge, and no sign of a bevel running down into the hollow. No
> signs of sharpening at all, in fact.

Regardless of intended use, these need to be sharp.  The one I have
that is designed for a brace is sharpened by rubbing it flat across
a stone.  The cooper's tap and bung augers I have (and have seen)
are sharpened a bit more radically, and require careful work with
a hard file or a slip stone.
249442 Brian Welch <brian.w.welch@g...> 2014‑07‑24 Re: Half-round reamers for woodworking?
On Thu, Jul 24, 2014 at 2:45 AM, Thomas Conroy  wrote:

SNIP


> Three specific questions:
>
> 1)what trades habitually used these little reamers, and for what?
>
> 2) What kind of handle would they have had? Mounted in a brace,
> cross-handle, tap wrench, or handle along the axis like mine? Are there
> other possibilities?
>
> 3) How sharp should they be, and how are they sharpened? Mine are dull
> enough to run a finger along the edges with a fair bit of pressure. There
> is no sign of a bevel from sharpening with a stone resting edge-to-edge,
> and no sign of a bevel running down into the hollow. No signs of sharpening
> at all, in fact.
>
>
Some good information in this thread from last year:
http://www.swingleydev.com/archive/get.php?message_id=235930&submit_thr
ead=1">http://www.swingleydev.com/archive/get.php?message_id=235930&submit_threa
d=1


I hope we get some more answers because I am also (still) interested in the
topic.

Brian Welch
who will be getting married on Sunday, so I better get back to the
preparations!
249444 scott grandstaff <scottg@s...> 2014‑07‑24 Re: Half-round reamers for woodworking?
Got to be kidding me
   So, he sends me a link to Jas Swan.
  He wants to talk about some obscure bit, and sends me a link to a 
whole Swan catalog.
As if................... we are all going to ignore the chisels and 
gouges for page after page after page.

      And BTW, just how "Extra" was the extra quality and polish listed 
as an option for almost everything, in every category? How extra?

    Its Swan!!  Jas Swan, the top dog chisel maker of the entire 19th 
century!
         Did you think it was possible to get past that, to some tiny 
bit somewhere? Think anybody would ever go that distance?

  I guess next time you will send us a link to every photograph ever 
taken of Marilyn Monroe,
and want to talk about toenail polish on page 1132.

  Sorry Partner, that ain't what we're lookin at. heeheheheheheheh
       yours Scott



-- 
*******************************
    Scott Grandstaff
    Box 409 Happy Camp, Ca  96039
    scottg@s...
    http://www.snowcrest.n
et/kitty/sgrandstaff/
    http://www.snowcr
est.net/kitty/hpages/index.html



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249452 Brent Kinsey <brentpmed@c...> 2014‑07‑24 Re: Half-round reamers for woodworking?
The one you describe with the square tang and smallish cross section sounds very
much like one in a Goodell Pratt multi tool handle I recently acquired which had
a couple of small chisels 1/4 and 3/8, a small saw blade, screwdriver and drill
bit.

Sent from my iPhone
Brent Kinsey
249453 Kirk Eppler <eppler.kirk@g...> 2014‑07‑24 Re: Was Half-round reamers for woodworking? Now Rose Tool Catalog collection
Wow, Thanks

Way to step up.  Rose Antique Tools had a great site for catalogs, I was
sorry to see them fade away.

Nice to know you were able to get their blessing to continue.

Kirk in HMB, CA


On Thu, Jul 24, 2014 at 10:26 AM, JONATHAN  wrote:

> As a side note if anyone is looking for the RoseTools old tool catalog
> collection it is now hosted on my website with Donna's blessing.  I
> still have a few more to upload, but the majority are there as well as
> a few that I and others have scanned.   The real gem is what I
> believe to be the only copy of the ACME Saw Shop Manual on the web!
> If you all have catalogs you would like to share, let me know.
>
> http://www.alaskawoodworker.com/old-tool-catalogs-and-
manuals/">http://www.alaskawoodworker.com/old-tool-catalogs-and-manuals/
>
> Thanks
> Jonathan
>
>         The Alaska Woodworker Blog has moved. I'm now at
> http://alaskawoodworker.com/
> --but the reamers are on p. 98 of my reprint. Rose Antique Tools'
> (courtesy of the Wayback Machine)
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249470 Thomas Conroy <booktoolcutter@y...> 2014‑07‑25 Re: Half-round reamers for woodworking?
Scott Grandstaff wrote:
>Got to be kidding me
>  So, he sends me a link to Jas Swan.
>  He wants to talk about some obscure bit, and sends me a link to a
>whole Swan catalog.
>As if................... we are all going to ignore the chisels and
>gouges for page after page after page.

[snips, alas]

>  I guess next time you will send us a link to every photograph ever
>taken of Marilyn Monroe,
>and want to talk about toenail polish on page 1132.

>  Sorry Partner, that ain't what we're lookin at. heeheheheheheheh>
      

Scott, Scott, Scott...

I'll see your James Swan and raise you two L. & I.J. White. 1909 and 1913. Right
there on the Rose site in the Wayback Machine. Right there in Jonathan's new
hosting of them, under "Miscellaneous Catalogues". With PSW and Sargent and
Goodell-Pratt and North Bros. and Greenlee (not transferred yet, I think)....
Marples and Melhulish. Stanley, Millers Falls, HSB. Disston and Atkins. Starrett
back to 1895... Various axe companies, though I don't know about them yet...
Seems like everything but Witherby and Charles Buck....

The world is full of Kay Francis and Garbo and Rita Hayworth and you're talking
about Monroe. I suppose someone has to like blondes.

Tom Conroy

with special thanks to Jonathan who's not just maintaining the collection, but
adding to it. In case you missed the link:

http://www.alaskawoodworker.com/old-tool-catalogs-and-
manuals/">http://www.alaskawoodworker.com/old-tool-catalogs-and-manuals/

(Mind you, I'm not crazy: of course Swan is up there at the top with White,
Charles Buck, and prewar Witherby. But if you're going to rake me over the coals
for not slavering over Swan's chisels, well, how did you miss the L.&I.J.
White?)
249471 Brian Welch <brian.w.welch@g...> 2014‑07‑25 Re: Half-round reamers for woodworking?
On Fri, Jul 25, 2014 at 4:24 AM, Thomas Conroy 
wrote:

>   Seems like everything but Witherby and Charles Buck....
>
> Josh Clark owns a Charles Buck catalog which I have been holding on to for
far too many years.  I need to work with him to get it scanned and put
online.  I'll see him on Sunday and will talk to him about it.  After this
weekend my life should be a lot less crazy.

Brian
249509 Darrell & Kathy <larchmont@s...> 2014‑07‑26 Re: Half-round reamers for woodworking?
On 7/24/2014 10:51 AM, scott grandstaff wrote:
>
 > And BTW, just how "Extra" was the extra quality and polish listed as
 > an option for almost everything, in every category? How extra?
 >

Teeny sample size here, I picked up an unhandled James Swan 1 inch gouge
maybe 10 years ago at a tool sale.  I can't swear it was NOS but it was VERY
shiney, almost a mirror polish on it from bolster to edge.  No sign of rust at
all, a marked difference to the NOS Marples gouges I picked up.
I suspect that the "extra polish" made a big difference in the rust or lack
thereof.

I put an embarrassingly plain and ugly handle on that Swan gouge and put
it to work after a good sharpening.  Someday I will make a better handle...

-- 
Darrell LaRue
Oakville ON
Wood Hoarder, Blade Sharpener, and Occasional Tool User

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