For $2, acquired a new book. What a book it is. Measures over 3” thick printed on vellum. I estimate over 1,000 pages. Printed in 1959.
It contains everything you never knew you needed to know about metal and wood.
From the perspective of the late 50’s, that is.
It contains answers to some things that I wanted to know. For example, remember back when I collected broken hand planes and cleaned them up for an engine turning test?
We were going to put to the test the claim in an old benchwork book on basic metal working that engine turning makes metals prone to rust resistant to corrosion.
This book has an entire section dedicated to something called superfinishing which it goes into great detail to explain that very phenomenon.
This basically proves to me that if we engine turn a hand plane, it will be rust free for eternity. This book is gold! Can’t believe I got it for only $2
Nice find! I'd like to see the section on engine turning resulting in corrosion resistance. My Machinery's Handbook has a lot of info, but that isn't in there. I'd've liked to had this back when I was working. I used to design tools as well as ground support equipment, though my actual title was "Test Engineer", which, where I worked really meant a person who wrote procedures on how to install equipment, with a side order of actual testing of materials.
Engine turning uses the same materials (Al2O3 or SiC), in the same configuration (cup wheel or stone cylinder), applied to produce similar scratch patterns, in similar (albeit interrupted) traversals, to similar depths on the scratches.
