Shaun PLQ
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7 years ago
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kdi8inotw6z4dve/jhv.jpeg?dl=0 

Hi, first time I've posted in donkeys years, so I'm not sure if the photo will work !

I live in the quarry workers cottages connected to the Prince Llewelyn Slate Quarry, in Dolwyddelan in the Lledr valley. This quarry used mainly sand saws, hence the amount of them we find rusting in our gardens, they were even used for garden fencing at one point.

What I would like to find is a photo of a sand saw working, google isn't cooperating, can anyone help please.

Diolch yn fawr.
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7 years ago
In "The Slate Quarries of Pembrokeshire" by Alun John Richards there are two photographs (page 87 and 89) of the Pembrokeshire hand saw. They seem to have teeth, so may not be sand saws. ISBN 0-86381-484-0.
John Griffiths
7 years ago
In the report on the excavation of the Moel Siabod Hone Quarry, there's an engraving of an Italian sand saw from the 1900's, although it's not very clear. There's also a diagram of the saw that was found in the hone quarry. You can download a copy of the report from the RCAHMW archive, (most easily accessed through Coflein mapping).
Report entitled, The Siabod Hone Quarry, Dolwyddelan produced by W.T. and A.M. Jones, October 2014.

BTW, in Alun John Richard's "Fragments of Mine and Mill " book, there's a photo of some sand saw blades, from Ty'n y Bryn Quarry, used to bind some crawiau to make a fence. Do you have any idea exactly where the photo was taken?
grahami
7 years ago
I think I have some photos of the hone quarry saw, I'll have a dig. I also have some historic images somewhere too.

Grahami
The map is the territory - especially in chain scale.
grahami
7 years ago
Here are a couple of images of Frame/gang saws at work - essentially the same as sand saws, sadly none working slate! I am sure I've seen on the internet somewhere some publicity shots of the Dolwyddelan quarries and sawing, but can't remember where. Can't find my hone quarry photos either, at the moment. :(:(

Grahami
🔗114338[linkphoto]114338[/linkphoto][/link]
🔗114340[linkphoto]114340[/linkphoto][/link]
🔗114337[linkphoto]114337[/linkphoto][/link]:(:(
The map is the territory - especially in chain scale.
John Griffiths
7 years ago
GAT Report 252 - Gwynedd Slate Quarries, has a photo of "A sand saw at work in a Dolwyddelan quarry."
This can be accessed at-

http://www.walesher1974.org/her/groups/GAT/media/GAT_Reports/GATreport_252_compressed.pdf 
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7 years ago
Found this report in "Gwynedd Slate Quarries - An Archaeological Survey 1994-95. Report No.154 :-

Sawing machinery rarely survives in abandoned mills. Australia mill at Dinorwic is unique in that its thirty-six Ingersoll Rand saw tables remain in situ, mostly in very good condition, still with lineshafting and the vacuum extractor systems. A large double saw-table and a planer survive in the ruins of the Bonc yr Offis at Pen yr Orsedd, which accordingly appears in the list despite the low survival of the building itself. Broken sand-saw blades were observed at Pompren near Dolwyddelan but insufficient remained to indicate bow the saws were powered or functioned. Otherwise little remains in any site visited.
Evidence for the type of saws used in a particular quarry was sought in the sawn-end offcuts on tips, and in rubble used for building quarry structures. In most cases the saw used was a standard circular pattern, probably the Greaves patent, which involved a slotted table moving against the blade. Offcuts
from sand-saws (horizontal saws, in which blades are tensioned in u carriage suspended from a frame and then moved backwards and forwards across the block), with their distinctive smooth lay and ridge where the cut was snapped, were observed at a number or quarries in Dyffryn Conwy and its tributary valleys, particularly Cwm Eigiau (20100) and Cedryn (20106), and it is known from archival sources
that sand-saws, once general throughout the county, remained in use far longer here, because they could cope with large slabs and deal better with pyritic rock than circular saws. The Hafodlas mills include the bases for such machines, but no substantial sand-saw remains were observed in any of the sites visited. The Hafodlas mills also provide the best evidence for the use of the Hunter patent saw, with their distinctive machine bases.
John Lawson
7 years ago
I assume that these sand saws, were powered by water to rotate a shaft, which then turned a steel disc, running in water, which picked up sand from a sump, underneath the disc?
The blade, picking up bits of sand then is forced against the slate, which is rigid, and may be pushed against the rotating disc by another application of water power?
As such they would be similar to the mud saws used to cut up Jade table tops in British Columbia.
JohnnearCfon
7 years ago
Sawing machinery rarely survives in abandoned mills. Australia mill at Dinorwic is unique in that its thirty-six Ingersoll Rand saw tables remain in situ, mostly in very good condition, still with lineshafting and the vacuum extractor systems. A large double saw-table and a planer survive in the ruins of the Bone yr Oflis null at Pen yr Orsedd,50 which accordingly appears in the list despite the low survival of the building itself. Broken sand-saw blades were observed al Pompren near Dolwyddelen but insufficient remained to indicate how the saws were powered or functioned. Otherwise little remains in any site visited.
Evidence for the type of saws used in a particular quarry was sought in the sawn-end offcuts on tips, and in rubble used for building quarry structures. In most cases the saw used was a standard circular pattern, probably the Greaves patent, which involved a slotted table moving against the blade. Offcuts from sand-saws (horizontal saws, in which blades are tensioned in u carriage suspended from a frame and then moved backwards and forwards across the block), with their distinctive smooth lay and ridge where the cut was snapped, were observed at a number or quarries in Dyffryn Conwy and its tributary valleys, particularly Cwm Eigiau (20100) and Cedryn (20106), and it is known from archival sources that sand-saws, once general throughout the county, remained in use far longer here, because they could cope with large slabs and deal better with pyritic rock than circular saws. The Hafodlas mills include the bases for such machines, but no substantial sand-saw remains were observed in any of the sites visited. The Hafodlas mills also provide the best evidence for the use of the Hunter patent saw, with their distinctive machine bases.

Above post respaced and typos corrected to make more readable (I hope).
John Griffiths
7 years ago
I think the sand saws used in North Wales were mainly reciprocating saws. The sand was fed into the groove manually.
JohnnearCfon
7 years ago
Graham,

Would this be the photo you are referring to?

https://www.aditnow.co.uk/Photo/Old-Postcard_61905/ 

It is on here! :lol:
grahami
7 years ago
Oh, my aching memory - yes John, it probably is!

Grahami
The map is the territory - especially in chain scale.

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