Chrome plated hand saws

[Michael Cuthriell]

I have a hand saw that appears to be chrome plated. Any idea who made plated saws?

[Brent Cutshall]

Can you maybe show a picture of it and also tell me what the medallion says if there is one. Atkins made silver steel saws but I'd hafta see it to know for sure.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Yes, pictures please..... and what kind of handsaw? I found stuff like this on a google search

http://www.amazon.com/Silky-270-33-Zubat-Professional-330mm/dp/B0014C4QMG

[george wilson]

Silver steel saws might be just carbon steel. The British still call simple carbon steel silver steel. Wrought iron is gray even when polished. Add even a little carbon (not even to the point of turning the steel into hardenable tool steel), and it assumes a bright,silvery color. No doubt considered prettier than the gray color of wrought iron back in the mid 19th. C.,when silver steel started being produced in quantity. Silver steel was free of the layers of silicon that wrought iron inherently has. It is stronger than wrought iron for making guns. So,Colt was able to slim down some of their revolver models. The 1862 Army revolver was the first made from silver steel,I'm pretty sure. It had a more slender barrel than older models,and was less burdensome to carry. If you have ever carried a large revolver all day,you'd see why a lighter model would be preferable.

I don't know if any saws were chrome plated. If they were,it would be death on filing them as chrome is quite hard. When I made banjos,I had to drill a hole through a chrome plated part,with just pot metal inside of it. I had to resharpen the drill bit 2 or 3 times to get through the chrome. The drills were HSS. The holes were only 1/8" dia.. Perhaps if the chrome plate was very thin,you might be able to sharpen the saw without too much trouble.

P.S.: I just read the link. No telling what they do to gardening tools. Probably not made to be resharpened anyway.

[Tony Zaffuto]

Didn't Craftsmen make some for a few years in the 70's that were etched "chrome steel"?

[Ray Selinger]

Sears had a line of non rusting saw during the '70s, great for leaving out in the rain on construction sites.

[Tony Zaffuto]

Dug through the tools stored away, found the saws and located what I knew I had somewhere: Sears Craftsman 9 pt. crosscut. Blade is etched "Kromedge". Don't know who made the saw for Sears, but it does not look like a Disston or Atkins.

[george wilson]

I now recall that in the 70's I had a Swedish crosscut saw that I am pretty sure was made from stainless steel. It did not look different from ordinary steel,but it just never did get rusty. A maintenance guy ended up with it years later,where I am sure it was used in all weathers and laid on the ground. It just never rusted.

"Chrome Steel" can mean many things. Ball bearings have 3% chrome in them,but they certainly will rust easily. I have an antique pocket knife that had a very worn blade. I made a new blade from a large ball bearing ball that I forged out into a strip about 12" long,enough to make 2 blades with left overs. It has proven to be one of the best knives I have made. It will get VERY sharp,and seems to just stay that way! The steel is called 52100.

To be stainless steel,I believe that steel has to have about 14% chrome in it. That's a guess from memory. I never much use stainless steel myself. Most of the things I make are antique style anyway.


Sears sold hard chrome plated files back in the 50's. But,they were not chrome steel. Just ordinary files that had been hard chromed. I wish they still offered them. You can get chromed files today,but they are much more expensive than ordinary oines. Made for filing platinum,which is a very hard metal. Rio Grande sells needle files called Valtitian. They are hard chromed. Gesswein sells their brand,called INOX.