Vintage 1940's Gamble's 'Artisan' Hacksaw Restoration

[@jacklinks9621]

my great grandfather owned a gambles store way back when

[@ballinator]

Very cool. I never got to see one of the stores in real life.

[@brycewiborg8095]

I remember Gamble's in Hutchinson Minnesota. They also dealt Gamble's Farmcrest tractors. into the 1960s. Thanks for the memories.

[@ballinator]

You're welcome! Thanks for the view.

[@dinomares5697]

Good job love you From Dino Mares Fontana CA

[@ballinator]

Thanks.

[@rickhammar1636]

That is my favorite style of hacksaw. I'm not sure how to describe it but they way the metal makes a full loop for the handle seems to make them stronger & flex less. The plastic over the metal are comfortable to me. I have several different brands of those & can't seem to leave one behind if it's a few bucks or less.

[@ballinator]

It's very comfortable in the hand. I've been picking up old saws too. Have a few more that will be featured on the channel sometime in the future.

[@DonDyarprecision]

I have that saw! Its a good one!

[@ballinator]

Nice!

[@paulhunt598]

I have owned a variety of quality hacksaw frames over the years. I had a PROTO of your style that was a favorite about 45 years ago. Someone ran over it on a job site and twisted it beyond saving it. It was nice in that it was heavy, giving enough mass to saw effectively. I tried some other options to replace it. By then, hacksaw frame design had improved. True flush cutting and 45° blade position were options as well as blade in frame storage and much better blade tesioning systems. I really favored the Greenlee frame, but my budget only allowed the Craftsman knock-off copy. The Craftsman was a suitable option, but it didn't have the mass of the old saws. It had poor plastic grips that broke pretty frequently. I lived across the street from Sears, so exchanging often was a viable option. BUT Sears dropped the style, and replaced it with an inferior tool design. The new design didn't break, but was not comfortable to use and the blade tensioner knob didn't afford adequate purchase. I had a Lennox frame that had all the features that I liked except style. It even added a jab saw feature. I eventually purchased the Sandvik 325. This unquestionably the finest frame that I have ever used. It lacks blade storage and the jab saw features, but it is stylish, comfortable and has adequate mass. The blade tesion system is superb. I keep an old MALCO frame thinking that I will use up my 10" blade inventory, but I get frustrated with the short stroke. All of this is really rather silly since few folk use a hacksaw today with all of the cordless tool options. I keep mine in the arsenal, but I am a dying breed, and I am more likely to grab a battery or corded tool or throw something in one of the bandsaws. Your saw reminds me of how much I valued my PROTO. I think that my PROTO frame came to me second hand in a tool lot when I was 14 (1970).

[@ballinator]

Yeah, I have a newer Lenox saw, that's great, but it's also too bulky. I'll have to take a look at the Sandviks.

[@trottermalone379]

I believe that this design/style of hacksaw was produced by the Millers Falls Company. I have one marked “Millers Falls” with translucent ruby hand-grips. Otherwise it is identical to the one shown here. I have seen others of the same design that were retailer branded.

[@ballinator]

Could be. They look very similar.

[@Traderjoe]

It’s a shame that we live in such a critical world that we have to constantly preface whatever we do by explaining things like knowing that the painted blade will immediately lose the paint once you begin sawing something. We have to constantly anticipate negative comments and criticism because most people are incapable of observing a video without adding their two cents in an effort to make themselves feel superior for pointing out what their minds perceive as some kind of flaw to the logic of the video creator. And yet, 99% of them, even you look at their uploads, have zero videos posted. So that’s an interesting observation. Often I see these videos of guys in India making things in an industrial setting and 100% of the comments are obviously English speaking people being critical that they are wearing sandals and not wearing eye protection. But it’s our nanny state OSHA standards that drove industry from our shores and the main reason why you don’t see foreign language comments is because those types of people are too busy working and making things to comment. While we have very few jobs in the industrial arts anymore.

[@DonDyarprecision]

I call them cyber bullies, I confront them about being an expert and having no channel content, and having the ability to block anyone at anytime from my channel and I do use it. Now, you may know what you are doing on a subject, but making a video is a whole another thing that most skilled people will never do, and for good reasons.

[@1pcfred]

New blades are painted. It wears off as you use the saw too. I don't even know what blades are good to get these days. I used to always like either Lennox or Starrett. I don't know if they're making anything that's any good now though. All the blades I have are who knows how old now.

[@1pcfred]

@@DonDyarprecision not everyone is Stanley Kubrick making videos. I tried it and it's just not for me. Of course not having a video camera makes it harder. I edited my early videos with a command line program too. It could stitch images together into videos. Then I got potato cam. I have a camera now that can shoot OK videos and I'm still not interested. The last video I uploaded was a game play. I was just screwing around with OBS. I just got done playing through a nice megawad. I could probably make videos with it. I should see if anyone's done any walkthroughs of it, or not. Yeah, it's been done already.

[@ballinator]

@Traderjoe @DonDyarprecision - Yeah the restoration videos are the worst. One person will say you didn't go far enough restoring it, and another will say you 'ruined it' by modifiying it...

[@ballinator]

@1pcfred - I've used Lennox, Starrett and Morse with good results. Most of mine are pretty old too though.