I hate rusty saws, but...

[Richard Hutchings]

I just saw an ad for 7 rusty saws for $25 and I may not be able to resist. One has the thumbhole but broken horn. It might be worth buying the whole lot but I'll have to get better at cleaning them up. I hate the mess. Hopefully someone will buy them before I decide to bite the bullet.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

My late friend the Artist J.J.Froese bought every rusty handsaw he ever came across just to keep folks from painting Farm scenes on them.

[Jim Koepke]

Repairing a the horn on a saw handle isn't difficult > https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?179013 < for a post on one of my saw handle repairs.

For me it would depend on how badly rusted are the saw plates. With light rust old saws can be cleaned up and put to use. Spares can be used to make scrapers or even marking knives:

478598

This is my go to knife for dovetail marking made from a piece of broken saw blade.

jtk

[Matt Hunstiger]

Timely reply Jim. Thanks for the link. I just got an old Disston backsaw with a broken top horn, and was going to ask about horn replacement! I have a piece of apple. So, looking at my handle, and the little tracing I did on my kids' white board, I'm assuming I want to do a diagonal cut, right, like number 1? Then have the grain of the repair be in-line with the rest of the handle? Otherwise it would be gluing up end grain to end grain. I was planning on using a clear epoxy. Thanks for any suggestions/tips.

478603
478604
478605
478606
478607

[David Zor]

My late friend the Artist J.J.Froese bought every rusty handsaw he ever came across just to keep folks from painting Farm scenes on them.

Maurice, I recently removed a farm scene from a two man crosscut saw and put it back into service for wilderness trail clearing where motorized chainsaws are not allowed.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Maurice, I recently removed a farm scene from a two man crosscut saw and put it back into service for wilderness trail clearing where motorized chainsaws are not allowed.

That is great! I will pass it along to the Froese family. Ironically If Prof. Froese's Health had held, his saw collection might have ended up as one of his "assemblages". It would have been an honorarium to the beloved Handsaw as he was also a skilled woodworker.

[Jim Koepke]

So, looking at my handle, and the little tracing I did on my kids' white board, I'm assuming I want to do a diagonal cut, right, like number 1? Then have the grain of the repair be in-line with the rest of the handle?

If that is the best grain alignment, then yes. Otherwise my inclination might be to go a little further with line #3:

478618

This would take a little more wood but would increase the gluing surface area.

jtk

[Matt Hunstiger]

Thank you for the reply!

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Here is the one I am trying to get my nerve up to finally try fling. The first time I visited Grandpa after having gotten engaged he quietly and unceremoniously gave me this saw and said nothing more than "This is the wedding gift given to me by your Grandmother". I do not know if it was because I was the first (not the youngest) of the 14 grandchildren to get engaged or if is is because I was the one who would keep trying to help nail down the new corrugated roofing on the chicken house roof even after I had smashed and bloodied the finger and thumb of my left hand. Or it might have been my willingness to crawl into the crawlspace that only a small person could fit into install insulation. Or maybe these things gave him a good idea that I would not be painting farm scenes on it. It has been in my kit for 40 years.

478619

[Tom Bender]

Hey Maurice, nice keepsake.

[Richard Hutchings]

I've seen saws like this before and wonder if it's a design or just been sharpened a million times. There's not much steel left out at the end.

[Jim Koepke]

I've seen saws like this before and wonder if it's a design or just been sharpened a million times. There's not much steel left out at the end.

Someone who used that saw all the time likely did sharpen it a million times.

jtk

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Thanks for the interest In Grand Pa's Saw. I am having second thoughts about filing it. Maybe a just a clean up and nice place to hang. It pre-dates my mom. Here she is, the oldest of the 3 kids.

478766

[Tom Bender]

Worn down by sharpening? Why was it sharpened only at one end.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

It was not sharpened only at one end. I broke the tip off trying to use it as a compass saw (which was a thing Grandpa said it was good for, being so skinny at the end). I am more worried about the broken teeth and lack of width.

478835

[Rob Luter]

Yup, looks like it’s been sharpened or retoothed a few times. I’ve seen these before. Sometimes the etching is touching the teeth. They work great as panel saws. Just cut the length back and rework the handle.

[steven c newman]

Some swear by using AutoSol and a wadded up ball of Foil...others will use the Auto Body Rubbing Compound and a cloth rag.....Once it is bright and shiny, again....wipe it down with a light coat of oil...to keep it from rusting again...

[Mike Allen1010]

A saw insight I think is often under appreciated is the only reason a saw has been sharpened so many time that the plate is much narrower than factory width is multiple generations of crafts people made a living using it! I’m personally a big fan of these saws, especially for finer pitch finish saws. Don’t neglect these saws as they are often great users.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

May be it is time for grand dads saw to become a 10 or 12 TPI. I could do away with the broken and weird teeth if I started from scratch?

[Mike Allen1010]

May be it is time for grand dads saw to become a 10 or 12 TPI. I could do away with the broken and weird teeth if I started from scratch?

Beware of completely filing of all current teeth. It’s really hard to create uniform tooth line from scratch.better to work off exsisting teeth to shift spacing and tooth size.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Beware of completely filing of all current teeth. It’s really hard to create uniform tooth line from scratch.better to work off exsisting teeth to shift spacing and tooth size.

SMC lead me to a video, with instructions, from an experienced guy starting from scratch. Key word Experienced. Being fairly new to saw filing, I am liking your advice.

[steven c newman]

$1 RUSTY saw, today...
479193
Disston & Sons, pre-1928 D-8
479194
Have to learn to look beneath the grime, and a bent plate...because..
479195
15 minutes in the shop later...bends are gone, rust is gone...handle has been given a wipe down with oil...
479196
And now I have a very fine cross cut saw....looks like maybe a 10ppi?

Will count the teeth later...26" length...

[Chuck Hill]

SMC lead me to a video, with instructions, from an experienced guy starting from scratch. Key word Experienced. Being fairly new to saw filing, I am liking your advice.

I'll offer a contrary view to Mike's. I did what he suggested my first time filing. The saw was not all that bad but there were several places that needed the teeth resized/reshaped. The first round of that went OK, but eventually it ended up at least as bad as it started. Doing this takes some finesse that I lack. As an alternative, I will suggest downloading the appropriate template from Blackburn Tools (http://www.blackburntools.com/articles/saw-tooth-spacing-templates/index.html). Tape it to the saw plate so that it does not move. Then take a Dremel type tool with a very thin cutoff wheel and score grooves about a 1/16" or less where the gullet is to go. That will guide the file and keep things even.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Chuck Hill, Thanks for the link to Blackburn Tools. I have that bookmarked and will be reading through while I get my plate cleaned up and thoroughly inspected.

[Chuck Hill]

A couple other pieces of advice from someone who is extremely not experienced in saw sharpening. One, it is much easier to get a good result that it seems like it will be. Saw sharpening is pretty forgiving. If one tooth is off, there is another to do its work. Even a poorly sharpened saw cuts much, much better than a dull saw. I was shocked at how well my first try cut. The set was a little uneven but I used Paul Sellers technique of using one hammer as an anvil and gently tapping out some of the set. Then it tracked nearly perfectly.

Second, start with some guides. These can be as simple as a piece of wood to show the rake and fleam angles or as fancy as the Veritas Saw File Holder (https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/tools/hand-tools/files-and-rasps/files/70465-veritas-saw-file-holder). I have the Veritas one and I have found it very helpful.

[Matt Hunstiger]

Here are the results of my first attempt at a horn repair, on a 12" Disston backsaw. Tip of the hat to Jim Koepke for his thread and advice. Comments welcome. I was a little concerned with how the epoxy bonded the repair to the rest of the handle, in terms of the seam thickness, but I think I was being overly worried. Let me know what you all think.
1. The broken upper horn
479268
2. Rube Goldberg glue up
479269
3.After shaping, next to my 10" Disston backsaw
479270
4. Back view after shaping
479271
5. Top view after shaping
479272
6. After Early American stain, to bring the colors closer together, and Antique oil finish
479273

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Nice job Matt Hunstiger! There is not a shortage of rust on any of my saws. Here is another one I look forward to cleaning up. I found it in a crawlspace under a big old church. It is a spooky spot, very dark and inaccessible, dirty, cobwebs, lonely. I spent a good deal of time in there. Finding this saw is a bit of a reward. My collector friend thinks it must be a child's saw. He made no bones about wanting to have it.

479324

[steven c newman]

No longer rusty..
479375
Brass has a shine to it...
479376
That top bolt is a smaller diameter than the other 4 bolts...
479377
And, seems to have been made that way, by Disston...
I did count the teeth....11 ppi. Appears to have been from before 1927....D8, 26" Fine Cross cut saw...

Not too bad, for just a $1?

[Maurice Mcmurry]

No longer rusty..
479375
Brass has a shine to it...
479376
That top bolt is a smaller diameter than the other 4 bolts...
479377
And, seems to have been made that way, by Disston...
I did count the teeth....11 ppi. Appears to have been from before 1927....D8, 26" Fine Cross cut saw...

Not too bad, for just a $1?

It looks right at home on your well worn bench. You are obviously a tool user who tinkers with collecting.

[Jim Koepke]

Nice looking repair Matt.

Glad to hear my input helped.

jtk

[Richard Hutchings]

Oh well, I found a saw at a yard sale that didn't look too bad and for 2 bucks, I thought I'd give it a go. It's a Craftsman 8ppi rip. I'm not a collector so this is fine for me. Took an hour and a half to clean and sharpen. It cuts great and I wouldn't mind putting that much effort into a Disston if I could ever find one that wasn't pitted right through. And, I still need to finish my saw til. Maybe this will get me going on it again.

The rust
479944
Finished
479945

The cut
479946

[Richard Hutchings]

Well this went from I hate rusty saws to friends wanting to send saws to me from my FB page. Not to re-hab them but just to give them to me. I guess I'll become an expert and learn to love the process.

[steven c newman]

These arrived, today....$0.75 total..
480184
Haven't measured the 2 bits(a Quarter for the pair) But the $0.50 D-8 is a NEVER sharpened 12 pointer....sometime before the 1928 overhaul...Once you pick up a saw with this type of handle...you just can't set it back down...( I tried...3 times, today)Intend to clean it up...and take it and the 10 pointer down to Piqua,OH...and have them both sharpened up...

[Maurice Mcmurry]

The Spirit of J.J. Froese lives on! Those look like they want to cut wood.

[steven c newman]

From the looks of that D-8....the previous owner never took it back to be sharpened, ever....he just went and bought a new saw.....there were 8 saws laying on that table....each slightly newer then the the others..

The 2 bits? Were "rescued" from a Knife Maker/Blacksmith ( think Forged in Fire).....as he would use the steel in the bits to make knives.....he had a "block" set up, welded together, waiting to be hammered out into a long knife....I sorted through the can of bits, and found 2 worth saving....cost me $0.25 total. The D-8 was $0.50...
480239

Will need a bit of clean up..

[John Kananis]

Totally amazing find.

[Erich Weidner]

In 2020, when visiting home, I found a saw in my Mother's garage I vaguely remembered. I'm pretty certain it was my Father's Father's saw. Disston, with the leaves carvings, but the wider 4 finger hand hole.
I had looked it up before, it is before the quality of Disston went to crap, but after the "golden age" of 3 finger saws. I never knew of my father to use it. But Grandpa was reputed to be a wood worker (he passed when I was 5 years old).

I'm afraid to try to sharpen it (and it needs it), but I was gifted a saw to practice on. If I ever get through a few projects I'm going to try that on the gift saw first. I have the files. :)

[Richard Hutchings]

If you have never sharpened a saw, you are in fir a treat. I did my second one recently and it cuts so well I couldn't believe it. Sawing is fun when you're using a saw that you took the time to clean and sharpen yourself.

[steven c newman]

A "Before"....
481145
Looks to be a Disston D-8...
481146

And the "After"
481147

481148
Turned out to be a pre-1917 Disston D8....with the 8 inside the D...medallion has H. Disston & Sons, Philada. and, there is no Spanish, nor French Trademarks in the readable etch.

Saw cost me a whopping $0.50.....the 2 drill bits cost a quarter for the pair.....saved those 2 from a Garage Blacksmith...who forges them into knives...( think Forge in Fire sort of thing)

Saw is a 10ppi, 26" long, still with the same teeth that Disston made. Tooth line is even "Breasted"....apparently, saw was never re-sharpened, once it got "dull"...the owner simply went and bought a new saw....the brass saw nuts all have very little threads....about 4 turns worth. One has smaller heads than the others...Medallion is 1"