_{BLAST FROM THE PAST} Old-School Hand Tool Hacks _{By Mister Jalopy}

What I learned from the 1963 Bureau of Naval Personnel Training Course.

Hacksaw Hacks

Blade Selection

Select the most aggressive hacksaw
blade that’s appropriate for the task
at hand. For example, a 14 teeth per
inch (TPI) blade has much larger
teeth than a 24 TPI blade and will
comparatively cut much faster. But,
if the teeth are too big for thin
metal, they will hang up on the edge
of the material and the blade will
bend, spindle, fold, and mutilate
the metal like a postal worker. The
rule of thumb is that the targeted
material should be thicker than
2 blade teeth.

Avoid bending thin metal by stabilizing between two wood blocks.

180

Turn Blade in Frame

The distance between the blade and
the frame is called the throat. The
depth of the throat determines how
deep you can cut before the work
piece bumps into the hacksaw frame.
I was awfully embarrassed the first
time I saw somebody turn the 
hacksaw blade at a perpendicular angle
to the frame to create an infinite
throat. So accustomed to seeing the
hacksaw in the traditional manner,
I never thought to turn it on edge.

TIP: What a pain! Changing blades
for every job! Instead, I have
a garage-sale hacksaw frame for
each type of blade. Four hacksaws
on a single pegboard hook scream
“progress” from across the room.

File Hacks

Interior files for expanding holes and clearing corners.

SQUARE: Tapered file used to
enlarge rectangular holes.
TRIANGULAR: Open sharp angles and
the interior corners of rectangles.
ROUND: The unfortunately (but 
accurately) named “rattail” for holes
and rounded corners.