E.C. Atkins & Co. - 'Circular' Saw blade

Mike Laird

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Recently I came across a pair of 'brand new' E.C. Atkins saw blades. They are about 11" across, but they are almost square. There are 4 teeth on the corners, and 4 teeth that are on a smaller diameter than the other 4. They are all carbide tipped. The major teeth have chamfers on them, the small teeth do not.
I dont have pictures that I can 'fit' as an attachment. I can email someone pictures if they might know something.

Thanks.
 
Hi Mike, welcome to the Family! :wave:

Sounds like one of those blades they had a while back so you could cut curves with your circular saw.... :dunno:

Look forward to the pics :thumb:
 
I can see this saw blade being used in like ripping operations. Its hard to picture...and this is 100% speculation, but I can see a tablesaw being equipped with these blades. The square blade would rotate with the four corners using the teeth to cut through the wood and then the middle of the blade "sweeping" out the swarf (sawdust). That would certainly explain why the teeth on the corners are shaped for a shearing cut, and the middle ones are rather straight to clean out the kerf better.

The thing to keep in mind is, these old tablesaws (or buzz saws as they were called) were beefy units with lots of cast iron for mass. They could easily handle something out of round and still not vibrate like a saw that was made today would. They also had flat leather belts so if something was hit to hard, the belt would slip long before anything broke...and speeds on these old flat belted monsters could be changed with a simple move of the cone pulleys. You could easily speed up or slow down the saw to be able to saw whatever it is you wanted...or in this case, mount whatever sawblade you wanted on it...even if it was squarish.

Again this is all just speculation:dunno:
 
I dont know what kind of arbors old table/buzzsaws had, but the 'arbors' on these are more like hubs: 4" bore with 8 bolts, bolt circle is about 0.060" thicker than the rest of the blade but only on one side. Thats why I thought it was some kinda dado, or maybe a gang saw. Pics should be on the way. Thanks so far for the info though everyone.

Mike
 
Hi Mike, welcome to the Family! :wave:

Sounds like one of those blades they had a while back so you could cut curves with your circular saw.... :dunno:

Look forward to the pics :thumb:

I recall those tablesaw blades that could cut circles were sorta triangular. Weird looking things. Of course this 'square' blade is equally weird and very scary. Hang on wall. Conversation piece.
 
Okay...not what I thought they were...my bad. I was thinking square.

I am pretty sure those are gang-rip saw blades. On a sawmill the logs go through the main saw but are not edged. They are then sent via conveyor belt to a bunch of gang saws that rip the wide boards into consistent sized lumber. I think you will find that the reason the hubs are what they are is so that they can be replaced without having to unbolt the shaft from the pillow block bearings every time. Those shafts are lined up to within a a few thousandths of an inch. Can you imagine how much time and trouble it would be to have to redo the alignment every time? Instead they unbolt the blades via the 4 holes, slide them over the shaft and replace them with new or sharp blades.

As I said I am pretty sure that is what they are, but I could be wrong.
 
Thats really what I thought they were, was part of a gang saw for cutting 'sheets' of board, into a bunch of boards. I almost had a catalog from the company that was printed in '35, but got way outbid on it (didnt need to spend $35 on a 90yr old catalog really).

Thanks for all the info everyone. I really just planned on making one or both into 'shop' clocks or something. Unless someone tells me the blades are worth something.:thumb:

Thanks again,
Mike
 
I looked around the net but could not find any in that shape. There was tons of gang saws however that had 4 inch holes and 4 bolt hole patterns, they just had less aggressive tooth patterns.

Being brand new, they may be worth something, but I am thinking at the speeds these mills run, there are a lot of them out there. I'd go ahead and use them to make your clocks.
 
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