First Panel Saw (Rehab) Question

[Niels Cosman]

Hey All,
Delving deeper and deeper into the dark neandering depths- I have gotten my first two old panel saws: One a Harvey Peace no. 45 (I think) Crosscut and the other a Disston D-8 rip.

The Peace has a beautiful handle that couldn't fit my hand any better, but the blade (while straight and sharp) is probably missing about 1"-2" of width, and i suspect the end was cut off at some point. The D-8 has a fine blade with a decent etch, but the handle is split in couple of places. The plan is to make a new blade for the Peace and a New handle for the Disston. I think it is very fitting to start with the Peace first, considering that this saw was made at the Vulcan Saw Works which was located half a dozen blocks away from my studio in Brooklyn!

I was wondering if anybody had any thoughts about a source/alloy for the steel for a new sawplate?

Also has anybody ever tried to sandblast a new etch on blade? I sandblast glass all of the time using a photo-resist and I was going to attempt the same technique to create a "new" etch.

peace1.jpgpeace3.jpgpeace2.jpg

[Jim Koepke]

What am I missing about the Peace saw that requires a new saw plate? I would keep the old one at least through another sharpening or two.

As for the photo resist and sand blasting, I would be surprised if something similar wasn't used originally. They may have used a photo resist and acid, but similar methods.

jtk

[Andrae Covington]

Looks to me like there's more than enough steel left to resharpen a few times, why not use the blade you already have?

Mike Wenzloff sells sawplate blanks, optionally with teeth cut to whatever you want.

Alternatively, you could buy some 1095 spring steel from McMaster-Carr and file the teeth from scratch.

[Niels Cosman]

Hey guys,
Nothing wrong with the blade, and I am definitely not getting rid of it. I am more interested in the process of making a new one from scratch. Sort of a stepping stone into making others Also I would like to add a couple of inches to the blade bringing it to 24"
Cheers,
Niels

[Niels Cosman]

Here's a mockup of my "peace-plan" har har har

[Johnny Kleso]

Etching is done Ellecto-Chemicaly and is a very shallow depth and depending on polarity it is Black or Clear..
I have a http://www.markingmethods.com/mark300a.html etcher though I have not used it in a few years and should sell it to someone that can put it to use marking saws and blades..