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- Mar 8, 2008
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I was recently able to get my hands on a nice old snath (and not so nice blade) that was in need of some TLC and managed to get 'round to fixing it up yesterday. The snath itself is a Derby & Ball and had most of the paper label remaining, indicating that it was a No. 50 Grass model.
I carefully peeled the label off and put the fragments in a bag for safekeeping for now. I believe this snath was likely made in the 50's due to its simple mounting collar construction (stamped, folded, and welded sheet metal) and the rough casting of the adjustment mechanism and loop bolt.
I began by removing all of the hardware and components. You can see in this photo the nibs (side handles) the collar an loop bolt assembly, and the adjustment plates.
I love the adjustment mechanism that was used on these, as they allow for a wide degree of fine adjustment and remains very solid under hard use. The execution of the hardware isn't nearly as elegant or crisp as on my much older D&B snath, but it's still solid as a rock and plenty function. You can see the two plates on top of each other here as they would be when mounted on the snath. The smaller piece sits in a tight recess in the snath and the larger plate pivots to adjust on top of it. The gear-like teeth of the two mesh to prevent it from shifting in use. A carriage bolt passes through to fasten them in place.
Here you can see the "guts" of a nib. It consists of a steel band looped and welded to a rod with a left-handed thread. A nib collar, the bottom of which is textured and shaped to somewhat match the curve of the snath, slides down on top of it, followed by the wooden handle which has the interior bored out to account for the space occupied by the band. At the top of the handle a nut is embedded in the wood to receive the threaded rod. When the handle is rotated to tighten it, the steel bands are drawn up through the nib collar, constricting the band around the snath. The texturing on the underside of the collar helps grip the wood and prevent accidental shifting of position. If not properly fitted and kept tight the nibs can cause wear and damage to the wood, which prevents them from holding their position firmly.
Often nibs suffer from over-tightening, which causes the wood to split. However, this example had the opposite problem in that the nibs had been left slightly loose and the resultant slop did a number on the wood in the vicinity of the snath. There was a lot of crushed and scarred wood in those sections which you'll see in a moment. Having stripped the snath of its components, this is what I was left with.
Note the obvious spots where the nibs had formerly been. Also the ugly ancient yellow varnish. I gave the whole thing a good sanding to remove the varnish and smooth out the wood around the nib placements.
I then gave all of the steel components a good scrubbing with steel wool and a Rust Eraser rubberized abrasive block to remove rust. I reassembled and mounted the mounting collar, then turned my attention to the nibs. Sizing the snath to my dimensions, the nibs needed to be shifted higher than they had previously been. It's a good thing I'm not taller (5' 9") because the length of this snath was fairly short and anyone of taller stature than I wouldn't have been able to use it without stooping. When moving the upper nib higher on the snath, I found that the proper position for me was too narrow for the steel band of the nib to grasp. Modification was in order. Whilst a traditional method of bulking up the wood of a snath is placing a nail between the loop and snath, this strikes me as the same tradition of using roofing nails as axe handle wedges. Sloppy and lazy work at best, damaging to the tool at worst. I am fortunate enough to be in possession of a blowhorn stake anvil and I used the long tapered horn of it do the shaping work that follows. Using a ball pein hammer, I placed the loop across the face of the horn and made blows at the top of the "tear drop" to compress the loop. To facilitate this I flattened the loop slightly with a few light blows. After closing the loop more I seated it around the horn and tapped it back to a true circle, then used a few finishing blows at the neck of the loop again to further tighten it down. I then had a smaller loop that was able to grasp the section of the snath I needed it to fit. Much better than using a nail! I'll still have a little tweaking to do to true up the fit, but it grasps solidly now. The thread of the nib projects somewhat now, but I don't intend on trimming it since it doesn't get in the way.
After both nibs were installed I gave the whole thing a good spray-down with Ballistol to soak into the wood and mounted a pretty English blade on it for snapping some beauty shots of it. You can still see the staining to the wood that occurred from the bands of the nibs rusting in storage over the years, but I like the look. A great user restored to working shape!
I carefully peeled the label off and put the fragments in a bag for safekeeping for now. I believe this snath was likely made in the 50's due to its simple mounting collar construction (stamped, folded, and welded sheet metal) and the rough casting of the adjustment mechanism and loop bolt.
I began by removing all of the hardware and components. You can see in this photo the nibs (side handles) the collar an loop bolt assembly, and the adjustment plates.
I love the adjustment mechanism that was used on these, as they allow for a wide degree of fine adjustment and remains very solid under hard use. The execution of the hardware isn't nearly as elegant or crisp as on my much older D&B snath, but it's still solid as a rock and plenty function. You can see the two plates on top of each other here as they would be when mounted on the snath. The smaller piece sits in a tight recess in the snath and the larger plate pivots to adjust on top of it. The gear-like teeth of the two mesh to prevent it from shifting in use. A carriage bolt passes through to fasten them in place.
Here you can see the "guts" of a nib. It consists of a steel band looped and welded to a rod with a left-handed thread. A nib collar, the bottom of which is textured and shaped to somewhat match the curve of the snath, slides down on top of it, followed by the wooden handle which has the interior bored out to account for the space occupied by the band. At the top of the handle a nut is embedded in the wood to receive the threaded rod. When the handle is rotated to tighten it, the steel bands are drawn up through the nib collar, constricting the band around the snath. The texturing on the underside of the collar helps grip the wood and prevent accidental shifting of position. If not properly fitted and kept tight the nibs can cause wear and damage to the wood, which prevents them from holding their position firmly.
Often nibs suffer from over-tightening, which causes the wood to split. However, this example had the opposite problem in that the nibs had been left slightly loose and the resultant slop did a number on the wood in the vicinity of the snath. There was a lot of crushed and scarred wood in those sections which you'll see in a moment. Having stripped the snath of its components, this is what I was left with.
Note the obvious spots where the nibs had formerly been. Also the ugly ancient yellow varnish. I gave the whole thing a good sanding to remove the varnish and smooth out the wood around the nib placements.
I then gave all of the steel components a good scrubbing with steel wool and a Rust Eraser rubberized abrasive block to remove rust. I reassembled and mounted the mounting collar, then turned my attention to the nibs. Sizing the snath to my dimensions, the nibs needed to be shifted higher than they had previously been. It's a good thing I'm not taller (5' 9") because the length of this snath was fairly short and anyone of taller stature than I wouldn't have been able to use it without stooping. When moving the upper nib higher on the snath, I found that the proper position for me was too narrow for the steel band of the nib to grasp. Modification was in order. Whilst a traditional method of bulking up the wood of a snath is placing a nail between the loop and snath, this strikes me as the same tradition of using roofing nails as axe handle wedges. Sloppy and lazy work at best, damaging to the tool at worst. I am fortunate enough to be in possession of a blowhorn stake anvil and I used the long tapered horn of it do the shaping work that follows. Using a ball pein hammer, I placed the loop across the face of the horn and made blows at the top of the "tear drop" to compress the loop. To facilitate this I flattened the loop slightly with a few light blows. After closing the loop more I seated it around the horn and tapped it back to a true circle, then used a few finishing blows at the neck of the loop again to further tighten it down. I then had a smaller loop that was able to grasp the section of the snath I needed it to fit. Much better than using a nail! I'll still have a little tweaking to do to true up the fit, but it grasps solidly now. The thread of the nib projects somewhat now, but I don't intend on trimming it since it doesn't get in the way.
After both nibs were installed I gave the whole thing a good spray-down with Ballistol to soak into the wood and mounted a pretty English blade on it for snapping some beauty shots of it. You can still see the staining to the wood that occurred from the bands of the nibs rusting in storage over the years, but I like the look. A great user restored to working shape!
