Casterman Axe and Tool Company

10/26/2026

Been waiting to process this billet. Reading the board after first rough saw I decided, with careful layout and some careful cutting,to go for a three handle yield. It’s about 50/50 chance. A lot of times the wood simply won’t produce more than one or 2 strong handles on a wide board. A reliable working handle has to check a lot of boxes at this stage. And with machines running, all these evaluations need to happen quickly. AND, you really never quite know until the handle takes shape. Wood is gonna be wood. Circling back, Tandem bandsaws is something I’ve been wanting to do for some time. Three steps become one, and I get a better idea of what the actual handle count will be much earlier in the process. Rough saw, joint face and edge square, layout pattern, cut out shape, repeat. Not turning on the copy lathe anytime soon. It’s way more fun to use the machines for the heavy lifting of material removal and leave the final shape and sanding to hand work. Been working with wood since 12-13 y.o. 61 now. First smell of walnut going through a UniSaw, I was hooked. .com

10/22/2026

This is what I mean by “hand selected”. Selected to be carved. .com

10/20/2026

Self explanatory .com

10/20/2026

10/18/2026

Calm before the storm.

10/16/2026

Dust collection cannot be overstated on a bandsaw. I remember this particular machine from shop class in 7th grade. (49 years ago, holy crap) there was really no Dust collection for smaller machines like this. It simply just had no Dust for. You just had to schedule time based on workload, when you were going to take the guard off and clean the machine out. What I’m doing here is enlarging the whole someone put in it at some point in time from 2 1/2 inches to 4 inches. Bandsaws, especially dust removal in the lower wheel cavity. It’s where all of the sawdust drops. It can gunk up the guides and caused premature wear on your tires.

10/15/2026

This machine is completed. After market Grizzly fence is Good quality and went right on the Jet.

10/12/2026

Heck of a week fighting machinery.Time to start another week!

10/11/2026

95% there with this early seventies14 # Rockwell(Delta) guide conversion. Tread lightly when trying to upgrade an older machine. The description on the Grizzly website suggests that this guide set will work. This particular design has been around a long time. I knew I was in trouble when the old adjustment guide yoke and assembly had slotted screws. The more modern versions of this model improved the mounting points for the lower guides. The upper guides had smaller issues, that required ordering a new guide post to accept the new assembly. The bottom required some engineering.

In a nutshell, I had to fabricate a mounting plate out of 3/8” plate, machine through holes. Locate drill and tap holes for the plate to mount to the machine. Finally locate the lower guide so that all the bearings were adjustable, and that the table would clear guide assembly, when tilted. It was a process. .com