Surface rust on hand saws

[James Davis]

This is most likel a dumb question, But here goes anyway. I picked up a couple fairly nice Back Saws this past weekend. One is a 14" long Pennsylvania Saw Corporation. It has Number 78 etched on the blade and a fairly plain handle. The other is a Henry Diston and Sons 12" long with a slightly more fancy handle. I can't read any numbers on it, although I am sure there are some. They both have slight to moderate surface rust and I would like to remove it and not take off the etching if possible. Does anyone know of such a process? Or am I at the mercy of the rust gods and just need to sand the baldes and sharpen them and enjoy them? They will be used reguardless of how they are cleaned.

Thanks for any input you may have. James Davis

[Mike K Wenzloff]

Hi James,

Here's a good link to cleaning the saws:
http://www.vintagesaws.com/library/saw_clean/saw_clean.html

I removed the frames so just that page displays, else you would have to navigate to it. The main site is:
http://www.vintagesaws.com/

And the link for the cleaning info is under the Library menu.

The back saw is a No. 4 in all likelihood--depending on the handle shape. Disston didn't get creative on the back saws as regards numbering. A good reference site regarding Disston saws is:
http://www.disstonianinstitute.com/

Odds the Penn. back saw is newer than 1892, which I believe is when Disston bought that company. So in that sense, you have two Disstons...

Take care, Mike

[Ryan Cathey]

What Mike said as to the backsaw number. The Disston D-4 backsaw ranged in size from 8" to 26"

[James Carmichael]

I've had best luck with mineral spirits and steel wool. LOML recently brought home a $1 garage sale saw with no legible etch. 5 minutes work with MS/SW reveled an Atkins Perfection.

Guess I'll have to keep her:-)

[James Davis]

It is indeed a #4 Back Saw. I was bale to scrub enough off to read it.

The links were very helpful and informative. Thank you.

Thanks for the forum,
James

[Roger Bell]

On user saws I use a cheap palm sander starting with 220 silicon carbide with mineral spirits as a lubricant. That is after using the razor blade. I then progress up the grits. The sander really saves on the elbow grease. Continually flush the rust off with a fresh wipe of spirits and dont be stingy with the paper. On really ratty ones, I might start with a coarser abrasive...depending on the saw and the amount of rust.

[Charles Stanford]

Use it to make a nice long rip cut in some 2X construction lumber first, then clean it with turpentine and fine steel wool. Do this even if it's a x-cut saw.

Maybe make more than one cut....

This will clean it up down by the teeth where scrubbing gets to be a little dicey. And if you aren't adept at handsawing, it will clean it further up the blade, too.