Part 2 (2/2)

CHISELS.--I have already pointed out, in general, how to hold tools for grinding purposes, this description applying particularly to chisels, but several additional things may be added.

Always be careful to grind the chisel so its cutting edge is square with the side edge. This will be difficult at first, but you will see the value of this as you use the tool. For instance, in making rebates for hinges, or recesses and mortises for locks, the tool will invariably run crooked, unless it is ground square.

The chisel should never be struck with a hammer or metal instrument, as the metal pole or peon of the hammer will sliver the handle. The wooden mallet should invariably be used.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS.--If the workman will carefully observe the foregoing requirements he will have taken the most important steps in the knowledge of the art. If he permits himself to commence work without having his tools in first-cla.s.s condition, he is trying to do work under circ.u.mstances where even a skilled workman is liable to fail.

Avoid making for yourself a lot of unnecessary work. The best artisans are those who try to find out and know which is the best tool, or how to make a tool for each requirement, but that tool, to be serviceable, must be properly made, and that means it must be rightly sharpened.

CHAPTER III

HOW TO HOLD AND HANDLE TOOLS

Observation may form part of each boy's lesson, but when it comes to the handling of tools, practice becomes the only available means of making a workman. Fifty years of observation would never make an observer an archer or a marksman, nor would it enable him to shoe a horse or to build a table.

It sometimes happens that an apprentice will, with little observation, seize a saw in the proper way, or hold a plane in the correct manner, and, in time, the watchful boy will acquire fairly correct habits. But why put in useless time and labor in order to gain that which a few well-directed hints and examples will convey?

Tools are made and are used as short cuts toward a desired end. Before the saw was invented the knife was used laboriously to sever and shape the materials. Before planes were invented a broad, flat sharpened blade was used to smooth off surfaces. Holes were dug out by means of small chisels requiring infinite patience and time. Each succeeding tool proclaimed a shorter and an easier way to do a certain thing. The man or boy who can make a new labor-saving tool is worthy of as much praise as the man who makes two blades of gra.s.s grow where one grew before.

Let us now thoroughly understand how to hold and use each tool. That is half the value of the tool itself.

THE SAW.--With such a commonplace article as the saw, it might be a.s.sumed that the ordinary apprentice would look upon instruction with a smile of derision.

HOW TO START A SAW.--If the untried apprentice has such an opinion set him to work at the task of cutting off a board accurately on a line. He will generally make a failure of the attempt to start the saw true to the line, to say nothing of following the line so the kerf is true and square with the board.

HOW TO START ON A LINE.--The first mistake he makes is to saw _on the line_. This should never be done. The work should be so laid out that the saw kerf is on the discarded side of the material. The saw should cut alongside the line, and _the line should not_ be obliterated in the cutting. Material must be left for tr.i.m.m.i.n.g and finis.h.i.+ng.

THE FIRST STROKE.--Now, to hold the saw in starting is the difficult task to the beginner. Once mastered it is simple and easy. The only time in which the saw should be firmly held by the hand is during the initial cut or two; afterwards always hold the handle loosely. There is nothing so tiring as a tightly grasped saw. The saw has but one handle, hence it is designed to be used with one hand. Sometimes, with long and tiresome jobs, in ripping, two hands may be used, but one hand can always control a saw better than two hands.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig. 20._]

THE STARTING CUT.--In order to make our understanding of the starting cut more explicit, we refer to Fig. 20, in which the thumb of the left hand is shown in the position of a guide--the end of the thumb being held up a sufficient distance to clear the teeth. In this position you need not fear that the teeth of the saw (A) will ride up over the thumb if you have a firm grasp of the saw handle.

The first stroke should be upwardly, not downwardly. While in the act of drawing up the saw you can judge whether the saw blade is held by the thumb gage in the proper position to cut along the mark, and when the saw moves downwardly for the first cut, you may be a.s.sured that the cut is accurate, or at the right place, and the thumb should be kept in its position until two or three cuts are made, and the work is then fairly started.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig. 21. Wrong sawing angle._]

FOR CROSS-CUTTING.--For ordinary cross-cutting the angle of the saw should be at 45 degrees. For ripping, the best results are found at less than 45 degrees, but you should avoid flattening down the angle. An incorrect as well as a correct angle are shown in Figs. 21 and 22.

FORCING A SAW.--Forcing a saw through the wood means a crooked kerf. The more nearly the saw is held at right angles to a board, the greater is the force which must be applied to it by the hand to cause it to bite into the wood; and, on the other hand, if the saw is laid down too far, as shown in the incorrect way, it is a very difficult matter to follow the working line. Furthermore, it is a hard matter to control the saw so that it will cut squarely along the board, particularly when ripping.

The eye must be the only guide in the disposition of the saw. Some boys make the saw run in one direction, and others cause it to lean the opposite way. After you have had some experience and know which way you lean, correct your habits by disposing the saw in the opposite direction.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig. 22. Right sawing angle._]

THE STROKE.--Make a long stroke, using the full blade of the saw. Don't acquire the ”jerky” style of sawing. If the handle is held loosely, and the saw is at the proper angle, the weight of the saw, together with the placement of the handle on the saw blade, will be found sufficient to make the requisite cut at each stroke.

You will notice that the handle of every saw is mounted nearest the back edge. (See Fig. 23.) The reason for so mounting it is, that as the cutting stroke is downward, the line of thrust is above the tooth line, and as this line is at an angle to the line of thrust, the tendency is to cause the saw teeth to dig into the wood.

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