D8 Rehab in Progress

[Niels Cosman]

Hey All,

Yesterday I started my first saw rehab of a 10 ppi Disston D8 that has seen better days. The old handle was punky, cracked, and ugly so it had to go. The blade despite being rusty and pitted was straight and had no missing teeth.

I've cleaned up the saw plate with some scraping, evapo-rusting, and wire brushing.
Right now, I'm having a blast working on the handle. I've been working clockwise from the top left and working on the lamb's tongue and the surface opposite to the grip. I'm still on the fence if I am going to round over this surface or keep it simply beveled. Also the chunk of walnut, I chose is going to be absolutely spectacular, the grain is really wild.

The let-in handle on this saw presents some interesting/tricky construction and design issues. I'm liking how this saw is turning out, but in the future I think i'm going to opt for the more straightforward set back style. So far it has been a wonderful learning process and my next project will be a pair course pair of rip/crosscut's from scratch. I might have a burgeoning saw making bug. damn ;)

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Cheers,
Niels

[Klaus Kretschmar]

Hello Niels,

the handle is looking great so far! The wood looks spectacular and will turn out amazing after being finished.

What I like on the handle design especially is how the lambs tongue meets the cheeks. You did it very nicely by maintaining the proper bottom curve of the cheeks, that´s how it should be IMHO.

The edged front of the cheeks doesn´t impact the main design, it´s an pretty own appeal, you give the saw. Although it´s a little unusual to my eye. I for one would go with a shape based more on the original. It´s a matter of taste after all.

I´m looking forward to seeing the finished saw!

Klaus

[Paul Incognito]

That is a nice looking handle!
I like how you kept the basic shape of the original and added some details.
Can't wait to see it finished, that grain is going to look great!

Paul

[Niels Cosman]

Hallo Klaus,

Thank you very much for your encouragement- I am a admirer of your beautiful saws!

I'm finding forming the tongue and the cheeks challenging, but a lot of fun. It's a hard thing to visualize because I would like for the profile of the tongue to overlap the bevel of the cheeks without interrupting them. Also, the layout is pretty unforgiving having the let in saw plate dictating the overall shape and very little margin of error. Im actually glad that I took these pictures in progress because I can very clearly see the areas that need much more refinement. I'm still going to add a little notch in the bottom of the tongue after the overall shape inside the handle is complete. In the next handle, I might get a little bolder with the addition of some more little detail pieces. So viel spaß!

I cant wait to see the finished handle too! The wettened wood is just brilliant. I cut the piece from a section of scrap that had a big knot in it- the grain in surrounding area was really wild. The great part is the resawn offcut from this handle is just thick enough to make another!

Cheers,
Niels

[Niels Cosman]

More progress:
Finished shaping the handle and drilled the countersinks for the nuts and bolts.
now the handle is soaking in tung oil and turpentine, the grain revealed it is going to be fantastic.
All that's left is to sharpen the blade and assemble the saw!

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[Leigh Betsch]

Is soaking in tung oil and turpentine a standard process? I've never heard of it before.

[Niels Cosman]

i've read about soaking in BLO, it prefer tung in general so I'm using that. I want the oil to really penetrate the wood, I'll take it out tomorrow and remove the excess oil that leaches out of the wood.

[Marv Werner]

Hi Niels,

Really nice job. Appears to be a marriage between the original D8 shape and the Disston No.7. I'm curious as to how you cut the slot for the blade to match the large radius and the smaller radius below.

Thanks,

[Niels Cosman]

Hey Marv,

Thanks!
I was wondering if someone would ask about the slot- I cut it with a router plane :)

I cut out the rough pattern of the blank leaving about an extra inch on the toe end (which would act as a bridge later). I lay down my drawing for the pattern on the blank and drilled out the bolt holes. Next, I resawed the blank just ~1/32 off center. I used the bolt holes to align the saw plate and marked the outline of the profile on the fatter piece. After that removed the waste with a router plane till i had the exact thickness of the blade. afterwords, I just glued it back together making sure to carefully realign the two pieces using keys that cut in the sides. The kerf of the band saw blade is narrow enough that the seam is almost invisible.
I contemplated, cutting a straight slot or using a circular saw and filling in the kerf with a wood strips, but this seemed like the cleanest/safest solution without too much extra work.

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cheers,

Niels

[george wilson]

Good sculpture on the handle!!

[Niels Cosman]

Thanks George!

[Marv Werner]

Neils,

Very ingenious, indeed! Very impressive where the two halves match up so well. Can barely detect where the glue joint is in your picture.

Thanks much for the pictures...