Panel Saw Restoration
One of the perks of moving to the Midwest is that old tools are still relatively easy to find–if you know where to look. When I lived in Alabama, it was really difficult to find old tools in local antique shops, but Ohio is awash in antiques of all kinds–especially furniture. And if you’re looking for vintage hand tools at bargain prices, antique malls in Ohio are usually worth a look.
Take, for example, these saws I picked up recently at a local antique mall. I don’t recall what I paid for them–under $10 apiece, certainly.
The saw on the bottom has been resharpened so many times that the blade is about gone. I’ll take it apart and repurpose the nuts and probably the handle. I’ll eventually cut up the blade for card scrapers. That will be another story, though.
The smaller saw on the top, however, is getting restored. Underneath the dirt and rust is a usable tool with lots of life left in it.
I first removed saw nuts and the handle from this little saw. It was pretty easy to clean the rust off the blade. I just scraped the rust off with a razor blade, using a bit of WD40 as a lubricant. I finished up with a little bit of fine steel wool and wiped everything clean. (Do this over cardboard or something. It’s messy.) I scrubbed the handle with a green scrubby pad and some Murphy’s Oil Soap. Then once it was dry I applied a coat of Danish oil. Once the oil had cured, I put everything back together.
Now that the grime is gone, let’s take a closer look at this panel saw.
I can just make out the remnants of the etch, which is the Disston company’s keystone logo. There is a “00” in the center–whatever that means. The Disston company identified different model saws by number–No. 7, No. 8, etc., and on some saws the model number appears in the middle of the keystone. I’ve never seen a reference to a model “00,” though.
The medallion is just the Warranted Superior eagle, not the more desirable Disston-branded medallion. The Disston company sold its best saws under its own brand name, whereas secondary-quality saws were sold with the generic “Warranted Superior” branding, though there are often enough distinctive features to tell that the saw was made by the Disston company. This saw was probably sold under one hardware store brand or another, which explains the odd model number. It would be hard to date the saw precisely, but the saw’s features resemble saws made by the Disston company in the 1920s.
You can also see a little number 11 stamped just above the teeth below the handle. That indicates the number of tooth points per inch. The higher the number, the smaller the teeth and the finer and slower the cut. The lower the number, the faster and coarser the cut. 11 is definitely on the fine side, which means it will be good for making relatively fine cuts.
This saw is shorter than the average handsaw you find in the wild, although a 20″-long blade isn’t exactly rare. Disston made many of its most popular saws in lengths ranging from 16″ to 28″, with some models being offered with a blade as long as 36″! The average antique handsaw has a blade that’s about 26″ long. It seems like most people who were buying handsaws a century ago preferred longer ones to shorter ones. A long saw has the obvious advantage of being able to make a cut in a thicker piece of wood. Plus, you can cut a thin piece of wood with a long saw, but it’s harder to cut a really thick piece of wood with a shorter saw. But a short saw also has advantages. It can work more easily in tight spaces, and it will fit easily into a tool box.
This saw has certainly lain dormant for a while. There is some pitting on the blade, but fortunately none of it is down near the teeth, so the pitting is really just a cosmetic issue. The decorative nib near the toe of the blade has long been broken off or removed. The saw hasn’t been resharpened very often; there is still plenty of blade left.
But whoever sharpened it last did not do a very good job. The teeth were uneven in height, so it took me a while to re-file them back to an even height. But once I did, the saw cut really well. I am already enjoying having a smaller handsaw like this available for making fine cuts in small workpieces. This may well become one of my favorite saws in my growing arsenal.
Merry Christmas to me!