OldTools Archive
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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 |
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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. |
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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! |
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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 ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2014.0.4716 / Virus Database: 3986/7906 - Release Date: 07/23/14 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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?) |
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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 |
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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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