General Woodworking

[john h x2]

Has anyone come up for a use of  broken, but still sharp, band saw blade ? It has sit on the outside corner edge of my bench to long, I can not come up with an alternative, but to throw it away.

[JL North GA]

A few uses.

You can make a bow saw.  Good tool to have. 

You can make a toothed tapered reamer for "widening" and expanding tapered holes - specialty tool - I use it in making chairs and tables.

Know anyone with horses?  You can dull the teeth a bit (run a file over the points of the teeth).  Have a couple of concentric loops (2 or 3).  Great for helping the horses shed their fur in Spring.

[amateur60]

These are perfect for making scratch beaders.  Just grind to the desired shape and thenput them in a slot cut in a wood holder.  A screw tightens the slot to hold the blade. 

[john h x2]

Thank fellows, I have never been inspired to make any chairs or tables, although...My long past father-in-law was German. Raised in a German community in St. Louis in the early 1900's. One of the items this  community produced and he held on to one, was hand made rocker chairs, big rocker chairs. Grace full, curved steam bent wood, carvings, very elebrate, heavy, & well made, pleasing to the eye. It made me run my hands over it, when I first saw It still in in the family to this day.

Amateur60: What is a "Scratch Bender" ?

[JL North GA]

I'm not Amateur60, but I'll answer anyway.

A "Scratch beader" is a piece of steel that is cut to a particular shape.  You use it to scratch that shape into the wood.  Sort of an old fashioned router . 

Here is an example of a fancy one from Lee Valley - http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=62030&cat=1,230,41182

[amateur60]

A scratch beader is a great hand tool to put beading or fluting or coving on boards without the necessity of using a router.  The blade scratches the shape, with the holder providing a natural depth stop.  A nearly  essential tool for making period reproduction furniture.  There are commercial varieties available, from Lie Nielsen, Veritas, and others, but you can make simple ones in a short time that will work quite well.  A "mistake" with this is generally easily fixed, a mistake with a router is an Oh sxxx, and calls for remaking the piece.