Restoring old doctor's amputation saw - FAILED restoration, sort of

This weeks restoration project was an old amptutation saw. These were used by doctors to through a bone when something needed to be amputated. The saw has some rust on it and I was to sand everything flat and replated the parts that have been nickel plated originally plated. And of course it needs to be able to cut through a bone. As you can see I made this video in to a Halloween special.

The disassembly was really simple. It the tool only had 2 screws and 2 rivets. the screw came off nicely but I one of the rivets was a bit stuck. I drilled the top of the rivets off and hammered on e of them out with a punch. The other one was so stuck I needed to use a screw which I held with a pair of plies so I could safely just hit with full force. The cone like tip of the screw allows to use a "punch" that wont bend but fits into the small hole for the rivet.

I first removed most of the rust with sandblasting using glass bead media. I wanted to try this media and also I didn't want to use anything that would damage the surface bellow the rust. Which is why some of the rust was still left on the surface. I was going to sand it anyways, this just saves me a bit of trouble and gives me idea what I am dealing with.

The handle had tiny dents etc. on it so I sanded it all flat. Some of the pits were still left so I filled them with solder and sanded everything flat this way I should all look pretty good after the nickel plating. After the handle was polished I put it in the nickel plating. You want to plate a polished part because the nickel plating will be so this it allows some polishing but hard polishing will go trough it and you need to do it again.

I also sanded the other parts. They were not plated be cause they were not originally plated and something it's nice to do everything as close to the original as possible. However when sanding I realized that in order to remove all the pitting in the worst pitted area would need to sand it paper thin, and I would probably end up with some holes to the blade. I was not happy with this. I really wanted to see the saw looking brand new. But you can't always win. And I made it look pretty good. Also sometimes you might want to leave some signs of the age of the restored item. I could have made a new blade, but for me, the blade was probably the most important part of the item because that's the part actually used for cutting limbs etc. The old blade is the what sets this apart from old wood saw. After I realized it was never going to be brand new looking I just decided to leave the pitting and polish the blade up. This gives it an unique look.

I tested the saw on a real bone. I think it was important to actually get this in to usable condition especially since I failed with the visual restoration. Also it fit nicely to my halloween theme on the video.

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Tools used in this video:
ROTARY TOOL: https://amzn.to/2WF75I6
PRESS FOR ROTARY TOOL: https://amzn.to/2Uiv1Eu
2-AXIS TABLE FOR THE PRESS https://amzn.to/2WPkttl
CHUCK NORRIS’ TOOTHBRUSH: https://amzn.to/2YfXUj2
POLISHING KIT: https://amzn.to/31w983l
NICKEL ANODE: https://amzn.to/2J62kTy
NICKEL PLATING SOLUTION: https://amzn.to/2oW0qOk

Ready to use nickel plating kit: https://amzn.to/2J6hVlT

SOME OF MY OTHER TOOLS:
POWER FILE: https://amzn.to/2URHvPq
CORDLESS DRILL: https://amzn.to/2Wois77
SCORLL SAW: https://amzn.to/31Eblej
SCREW DRIVER SET: https://amzn.to/2F3n6kO

MY FILMING GEAR:
MAIN CAMERA: https://amzn.to/2JvtKox
MAIN TRIPOD: https://amzn.to/2OlpYgn
MICROPHONE: https://amzn.to/2I80iDz
VIDEO LIGHTS: https://amzn.to/2FpJDaB
MAIN LENS: https://amzn.to/2Fm8yMk
CINEMATIC LENS: https://amzn.to/2TmNdHH
WIDE ANGLE LENS: https://amzn.to/2U7iJha
GOPRO: https://amzn.to/2U3eqU3


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