Saw on the wall

[Shawn Stennett]

I was wanting to make sure that this wasn't a bad idea before a remake this for my small saws. I just made a quick version to work some things out, the next one won't have any visable fasterners and angle them alittle more.


179652179653

[Bill McDermott]

Shawn,

Cool. Maybe hang them in your front hall the way the swords were kept in the castle.

While still in test mode, I wonder if removing and especially replacing them would be easier if the slots widened. I reckon you could flair the top of the slot in an interesting curve all the way around to the horizontal. Bottom stays flat. You would just need to leave the back inch or so tight to keep things in.

I also agree on increasing the slope.

Simple, clean and useful. Nice.

[Jim Koepke]

The biggest problem I see is there is no room for expansion.

jtk

[Tom Scott]

A saw on the wall shouldn't be there at all.


[For those not familiar, Dr. Suess' book Wacky Wednesday starts out, "It all started with that shoe on the wall. A shoe on the wall shouldn't be there at all."]
Sorry, I couldn't resist. It was a favorite in our house.

[Shawn Stennett]

Thanks Bill, opening the first part of the slot would help get it started in. Jim, the next will have extra room for a few more I just got started in saw gathering (I like the way that sounds better than collecting) and I still want a few more like the LN's and the Gramercy saw.

[Johnny Kleso]

I like to keep tools like saws in a inclosed case or cabinet..
If you shop is some waht climmate controled you might be OK but I worry about as Niel Young said Rust Never Sleeps :)

[Adam Cherubini]

I can think of a couple things you could think about (since you asked):

First, you don't want to support a saw by it's blade like that. There's a chance you can kink it just putting it in or if something falls on it. Second, the top surface of the saws will gather dust, the dust will attract water ,and the blades will corrode. Third, you don't want your teeth (or any part of the blade touching a piece of wood for extended period of time. Some woods will corrode the teeth immediately (any high tannin wood like the oaks certainly will).

For a store display this looks cool, so I can see what you are shooting for. And you could fix each of the points above with small tweaks if you have your heart set on this design. Try to grab the saws' spines for support, use plastics or alternate materials where you contact the steel, consider locating them under a small shelf that may serve as a sort of roof for keeping off dust (I haven't had great success with this).

But ya know, I see ergonomic issues too. I try not to touch my saws blades or spines with my hands. I often have stuff on my hands, dirt, sharpening residue, oil etc etc, and all of these will promote stains and corrosion, especially to brass spines. if you leave the brass alone, it turns brown and develops a pleasing patina. If you touch it, it will look blotchy. So you want to place these saws in this rack without touching them, if possible.

Another, admittedly not as sexy, idea may be to simply hang your saws from wooden pegs. My shop walls are wood planking and I simply bored holes at an angle and hammered in maple pegs. Each peg sticks out about 3". Some open handled DT saws may require an extra peg. Locate it so that it hits the handle only. This can be tricky on some saws. In my shop I have saws stacked on on top of the other. If I had space, I think I'd prefer one saw per peg.

Some guys (Duncan Phyfe for one) stored his back saws upside down (resting on their spines) in wooden slots. That's an option too, tho possibly not as convenient as simply hanging them from a peg.

Others made custom cleats that had the shape of the inner part of the grip and a then a toggle/cleat you rotated over the handle to hold it in place.

Adam

[Paul Saffold]

Adam, thanks for your comments. I too, have my back saws stored like Shawn's. It isn't as easy to just grab one as it is when they are hanging. I had wondered about corrosion.

[Jim Paulson]

Shawn,
I like the visual aspect of what you are doing. I have my saws hanging from some Shaker pegs I mounted on a 1x4 attached to the wall. What I don't display now are my open handle saws and your idea has got me thinking. I've got those in one of my trays in my tool chest.

Listening to Adam's comments, and not trying to address all of the wear and tear aspects, it seems that you could always cut the slots wider and glue in a plastic strip as an insert. Plastic strips are being sold as blade protectors and often come with new saws. You could reduce any possibility of corrosion by dropping some oil in the slots periodically as well. It seems that there might be all sorts of possible materials you could use for an insert. Perhaps polycarbonate/polyethylene stock could be cut as an insert as long as there is no tendency for corrosion.

Food for thought,
Jim

[Dan Andrews]

I have made quite a few wooden tool racks. Where steel touches wood I oil the wood. Slots need to be loose enough to allow air circulation. Polyurathane coating the wood should help as long as the urethane coating remains intact, but in your application that wouldn't be too long.

Your design displays the saws very nicely but for shop use I would do something different for all the reasons others have stated.

Below are my user saws in the shop.
Only the top tooth of each saw touches the wooden back. The slots are cut wide and only guide the saws into place. Easy to remove and replace. Does not dispay saws nearly as well as your design Shawn.

[Frank Drew]

I have made quite a few wooden tool racks. Where steel touches wood I oil the wood. Good advice; I didn't do this on a chisel rack I made and during one extended period out of the shop all the chisels developed small rust spots on the part of the shanks touching the unfinished wood.

I like to hang saws by their handles on short lengths of dowel, as Adam suggests.

In my experience with rust prevention, I had no issues with tools kept in some kind of enclosure, as noted by Johnny.

[Andrew Gibson]

Here are my saws.
I keep my back and panel saws in a till, and my hand saws inside the lid of my tool box.

I am working on a design (for the last couple years) for my next tool chest. It will not allow for a saw till, so I am trying to figure out how to make the lid to hold all my saws and have room to grow... something in the neighborhood of the Duncan Phyfe style is what I keep coming back to.

I find it convenient to be able to bring the till to the bench or wherever I am working, it keeps all my most used saws close at hand.

http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/handyandy3459/100_1435.jpg
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/handyandy3459/100_1438.jpg

[Jim Paulson]

Andrew,

Beautiful set of saws there. Wow. Did you make some of them or the handles?

Jim