Early 1900's Drag Saw

GASoline71

'cause chicks dig scars
Joined
Nov 13, 2005
Messages
3,594
Location
The Great Pacific Northwest
The same guy I got the old Homelite 770G from also had this drag saw in his shop. It was made in the early teens and was used in the woods up until the late 30's by none other than my Grandfather.

My Dad and I didn't even know he had it. The guy is a very good friend of my Dad's. He doesn't even remember why he even got the thing from my Grandfather. But he does remember he got it from him back in the 70's.

The wooden frame has long since deterriorated, and the fuel tank is missing. He gave me the original rusted out water tank so i could get an idea of what size i will need to either fabricate or find.

It is in pieces and in decent shape for something 80 years old. It is not frozen up and still has compression. It has the original Ford Model T coil for spark and even uses a spark plug for the same engine. The saw engine is a water cooled 2-stroke. Made to run on 10:1 mix and they could use 16:1 if the crankshaft oiler was used.

All the bearings (even the engine bearings) and movements have old fashioned "cap" greasers on them. Fill the cap with grease and screw them on to the fitting. When more grease was needed you just turned the cap a little more. You had to keep refilling the caps with grease.

The picture with the 2 brass items in it are the crank oiler and the carbuerator. The crank oiler is the one with the glass in it. The carb is an old brass "gravity" model. Both are made by Lunkenheimer. The pic with the black box is the Model T coil and spark plug.

When I get this cleaned up a little it will be easier to tell what goes where. Some of the guys like Al, Mike, and Magnus will know about this old timer. I am just happy to get it because it was used in the woods by my Gramps. A cool project with a little family history. :thumbup:

Enjoy the pics and I will keep you guys updated on the progress. :)

Gary
 
That is way cool! My Grandfather had a firewood business in Santa Barbara county in the 1930's, as far as I know they used hand saws and had a buzz saw that ran off of the tire of their old WWI truck.
 
With the personal history & type of saw. That is truly the Vanguard of COOL!!!
 
A friend of mine who is an antique engine buff has a drag saw.

My dad tells of drag saws that ran at a right angle from the back of a John-Deere B.The damned things would hang up every so often and the ass end of the tractor would shake rattle and roll.He said two good stout farm boys with a sharp misery whip could out cut it but they couldn't out last it.:)

He also told of splitting large oak logs lengthwise so they could be small enough for buzz saw fodder.

Oh,by the way I do have a 36" buzz saw that I haven't used in years .When I did use it,I could keep two men busy just off loading.I had to stop every so often to let them catch up.

Well,the buzz saw is another topic all together,good luck on the drag saw.
 
Good!!
Looks like you have most parts!

:)

A tip would be to get it up on CSCF and ask the big boy's for some pic's and messurments!
A PM to Marshal J Trevor would do the trick I think...

His collection of drag saws is more in numbers than I have owned shirts in my entire life!
 
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  • #9
Thanks you guys... This is gonna be a great project.

Yeah Al... these old drag saws were not fast in their day. But like you said, It could outlast the manpower on bigger wood.

I will be getting the pics and story up on your site later Magnus. I uploaded them here at home on Butch's site, and it takes me forever since I am on dial up. So when I go to work on Monday the computers are much faster there. Then I will upload to your site. :)

I have looked at the drag saw forum at your site and there are some on there that are exactly like this will look when complete.

Gary
 
If butch don't mind to host the pix you can just take the url of the pic and wrap
after and abrakadabra they are up on my site too but hosted on here.

:)
 
This forum's software doesn't allow hot-linking, I dunno why.

It may be because you have it set to where a person has to be logged in in order to view pictures. Visitors cannot see the pictures. If it's hotlinked, then the forum software cannot check the login status as the page is rendered.
 
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  • #24
I'm not sure if the name came from how the saws cut... or that it was from how the saws were originally transported. Drag it here... drag it there... :)

Gary
 
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