Half-back saw??

[Dave Cottrell]

What is the point of having a spine on part of a panel saw. I have an old Disston 12 crosscut panel saw with the end broken off near the nib. I do metal work and can fabricate a spine for this. I was just wondering if the additional functionality would be worth the effort.

[Don C Peterson]

A half back saw was a compromise of course. It allowed a saw to have some of the rigidity of a back saw but still allow the kind of through cuts that a panel saw would.

I would suggest that you just grind the end off and make a shorter panel saw out of it. It would be nearly worthless as a collector, but it would still be a fine user. Bob Smalser had a post about a saw that had been filed down so far that the toe was pointy, he chopped/ground down the toe and made a perfectly usable short panel saw out of it.