Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Alternatively (and more commonly) one simply loops a similar double length of
wire and then, bringing the ends together, tie them. The wire is now ready to be
twisted to form a blade.
To twist the wire, to form the serrated blade, there were again several meth-
ods. The first involves tying one end of the wire to the handle of a galvanised
pail and hooking the looped end over a nail in a crossbeam in the cutting-shed
roof. One then spins the pail until the wire is twisted sufficiently. Hammond
(1889, 92-3) describes another method of twisting the wire:
Take a piece of wire, say 40 feet, double it, and hook one end into a hook or nail,
and pull the doubled wire out straight; pass the other end through a piece of
gas barrel and fasten it round a piece of wood (about ¾-inch diameter) in the
middle. Then, holding the piece of gas barrel with the left hand, and keeping
the wire straight, turn the wood round until the wire is sufficiently twisted. It can
then be coiled up ready for use.
A variation on this uses a carpenter's brace into which a hook is located to
receive one end of the wire. The other end of the wire is looped around a bent
nail, or hook, fixed to a vertical post and the brace wound until the wire has
the number of serration's required per inch or mm length of wire. This twist-
ing technique would not have been unknown, as it was a traditional country
practice used to make hay or straw ropes (see Fig. 131).
Figure 131
Making a twisted
wire blade using a
carpenter's brace.
Some craftsmen would prefer to create one long length of wire, as described
by Hammond, from which they would cut to length to fix on the bow saw, whilst
others would prepare a large number of short lengths of twisted wire blades
ready to fit the saw. Irrespective of this, the manner in which one twists the
blade will determine the number of complete twists, or serration's, per given
length of wire that permits the blade to cut more easily and with fewer passes
