We gotta see this thing run! Is there anything I can do to help you get it ready to saw? Sharpening? Other restoration?
If it has frozen nuts and bolts then Kroil and patience are your best friends.
This is the thing right. It could be put to wood right now and I wouldn’t mind testing it out despite my two big fears of messing up the etchings on the blade or the wooden saw guide breaking.
But this really touches on the big question I have about it. What to do, if anything, to it?
My original vision was that I would take apart every nut and bolt to steel wool surface rust, and oil the metal pieces with Hoppes gun oil, and the wood I would do a gentle surface cleaning just to get the dust and bug poop off then oil it with some BLO. (Save the large concern about the BLO seeping into the paper labels.)
Now I really question whether I should oil anything at all and fear I have already done too much...
Several people I have talked to about museum pieces say the same story. Someone has the antique like a gun from the 1800’s and thinks it’s worth tons of money and the reply is always the same exasperated and disappointed, “yeah but you cleaned it”.
This poses an interesting dilemma to me. I typically look at antiques like 100 year old axes from the standpoint of being a good steward for this item. It has made it through the last 100 years but may not make it the next 100 years without some intervention. Whether it’s the wood getting so dried out that it cracks or the metal being consumed with rust scale.
However I seriously question if I should do anything to this. There is beautiful wood under there that could be brought out! But I fear that BLO would so dramatically change the look of the wood that the best thing to do might be to leave it obscured under the years of dust.
As a test I BLO’d an axe box the other night. Not the same wood but similar in age, dryness and color. It also had print similar to the saw‘s leg. This BLO did not serve the box well aesthetically. The wood might love the oil but it ruined the look.
Although the black print is still there it is barely legible and the “Perfect” in red ink was totally obscured by the dark tone.
What do you guys think? The wood certainly benefitted from the oil but like my wife said “It used to look real, now it looks like it was from the Pottery Barn.”
So now what I have already done to the saw bugs me. When reinstalling the clamps I rubbed them with oil taking off some surface rust leaving them shining and black in the photos. Later regretting having done this I sprayed them off with brake cleaner. Now dry again but clean relative to the surrounding pieces, and showing the original black paint again with newely relieved parts numbers.
Do I just stop and not oil anything? I had already touched some of the parts with a wd-40 pen to loosen up the threads and rollers but it’ll dry up.
Or should I oil the metal? There are plenty of parts that would benefit from it, especially if the saw were to be used, it could stand some grease and oil on parts.
There is a coil spring under the pressure bar.
And lots of wood that would be thirsty for oil
...and could potentially break.
Of particular concern is the vulnerability of the wooden saw guide that already has a crack.
But I’m at a bit of a loss right now...
Some voices are like “It’s a museum piece and the only thing that should be done to it is to be looked at from a safe distance.”
I kinda feel like if I am to sell it in the relatively near future I should do nothing at all to it except maybe get a new plastic shield for the stickers. But if I keep it for many years I should consider some oil? Maybe oil the metal only?
IDK
That doesn’t even get into whether the saw should be sharpened or not!?!?
That being said I’m still all for giving it some gentle use.
