Manual,
I got started sharpening crosscut saws much later than the 50’s. I had the opportunity to spend a week in Olympia, Washington with Martin Winters who was the expert saw filer of those early days. He filed saws for almost all the world champions from the late 30’s until he retired. His saws usually won first, second and third places at all the major shows. He was also a major contributor to a book that was sold through the Government Printing Office “How to Sharpen a Crosscut Saw”. He taught many people such Ron Hartel, Paul Searls, Sven Johnson as well. He made them raker gauges that were calibrated to certain numbers not thousandths. I’m enclosing a picture of the gauge he made for me. The sloped part of the gauge is set at a constant 17° and the gauge itself is set on number 9. For instance, on a certain saw for a certain sawyer, it was marked 7X8 or 9X9 depending if the sawyer pulled a flat saw or rocked it. Also, he would have a 9X8 for the “lead” where one side of the raker was higher than the other. For instance, he would have the middle raker the same, say 8X8, then going toward the handle side, the front part of the raker would be higher than 8 with the following side of the raker being 8. This allowed for a bigger bite. Then going from the center raker to the other end, the same setting would apply but in reverse, the front point of the raker would be slightly higher than the trailing side of the raker. Unless you had one of his saws, you wouldn’t have any idea what the rakers would be set at. He handmade the gauges and matched each gauge to a master gauge so they would all read the same. There is much more to the entire procedure and many steps involved, such as jointing, setting, swagging and straightening the saw. A whole series could be done on this subject.
Art Martin