Hello from South Africa. I need some help identifying a few saws I picked up at a pawn shop for almost nothing. They obviously need quite a bit of restoration. The one has a Disston medallion but the handle doesn't look like a disston, the other one doesn't have any markings and the small one only has what looks like a "D" and "W" stamped on the handle, it also has 2 brass screws which were removed prior to taking the photo. It looks like the previous owner used it to stir tar or something, I'm still wondering how I'm going to get it off.. I'm not expecting them to be rare or anything, I would just like to know how old they are and if they are worth restoring. The main reason I bought them, apart from them being so cheap is to teach myself to hand sharpen old saws.
The first one is a fairly late Disston...yes that is a Disston handle. The second one looks like a Spear & Jackson. You will need to find some marking on the spine on the third one. Toby
If that is tar on that third saw, any solvent will work...mineral spirits, naphtha, or even WD40. Toby
Hi, The Disston medallion looks interesting and possibly someone who knows more about Disstons than I do should take a look at it. The bottom bit seems to say Disston - H R unless my eyes are playing tricks and the scales also seem to have little legs at the bottom. What the rest says, I cannot decipher even with the quality of photo that you have posted. Anyway I cannot find it in the Disstonian Institute "Medallions" section. http://www.disstonianinstitute.com/medv2.html It looks to be quite a late saw as Toby says but also with bit of a bow in the back and what looks like a hammer mark or two near to the tooth-line. But I wouldn't do anything to it until the medallion has been identified. As for the other two, I cannot help a lot at all. The bottom "tarred" one with the chunk out of its shoulder may be older than the second saw, but again, as Toby says - a name on the back would help a lot. If it had an indent where a medallion had been I would say that it too, may be a Disston - but it doesn't and so I am stuck. As for cleaning the last one, after you have looked for a name and providing that it is not a rarity, you could start off by soaking the whole saw in something like white spirit/turpentine substitute and moving up to cellulose thinner if white spirit doesn't work. This is ludicrously expensive and you may wish to go straight to a proprietary paint stripper as a far cheaper option, although slightly less kind to the wood. I think that most saws are worth restoring if they are anywhere near complete as these are, and as far as sharpening goes - all I can say is Good Luck. It is something that I have not yet done; will attempt at some time and am dreading it. Fred ps. Don't get too excited by marks on handles. They are normally user made. pps. Toby managed to put two extra replies on whilst I was doing this. It just shows that brevity wins out over ramblings. It also explains why the medallion is not on the Disstonian site.
Hey Fred, The label screw says DISSTON-HKP USA with two stars. I wish they would expand the disstonianinstitute site to include the later saws, on the other hand I'm glad they have the wealth of information that they do have. The label screw is upside-down, those "legs" are the top of the keystone. Toby
Apologies Toby, A bit of a Homer moment. Doh!!! Having said that, rather than having little legs at the bottom, the scales have little arms in the air above their head. They must be arms because the balance beam for the scales is below them. Fred
Oh that's what you meant....1940 and later had that weird scale, like this... Sorry, I thought you meant the shape of the keystone! Toby
As Toby mentioned it is a newer Disston, and actually if my eyes aren't failing me, the way the front of the back is folded looked like it might be one of the Keystone line, which was a second line of lesser quality materials. They had a back similar to the Pennsyvania Saw Works saws where it was folded but flat across the front. On the nicer Disston #4 backsaws, the nose of the back is better shaped. 2nd one is a saw plate basically, toss the handle and make one for it, that could be a decent saw, however both the Disston and the crappy Spear Jackson look like the plates might be wavy and/or kinked. That *might* have a bearing on your decision of what to do with them, I know it would *me*. The last one which you said has tar on it looks like the coolest saw of the lot. That one could be an English saw, and the plate looks straight, but hard to tell from these pics, as it is for the other two. This one saw could be very nice after cleaned and sharpened. There is a tooth missing about 3/4 of the way back, but that shouldn't effect it too much, clean it and sharpen it if it has a straight plate on it. If you get the tar cleaned off, please do post on who the maker is.
A little update on the small saw. Seems it's an old Swedish saw made by a company called Lidkopings Sagbladsfabrik, I couldn't find much info about them on the net except that they were acquired by Bahco tools in 1922. Here's a couple photos of my cleaning attempt over the weekend: First I took a blade and scraped off all the black stuff, still not sure what it was. I then took some fine grit sanding paper and started sanding some of the rust off, I stopped after seeing this: So I thought I'd try my hand at building my own electrolysis tank, something I've been wanting to try for a while now. Used some welded mesh to make the anode: Saw before going into the tank: Blade inside tank before I connected the wiring: Blade starting to bubble after I connected the wires and switched on the power: I used an old pc's power supply, my car battery charger didn't want to work.. After 3 hours: Here's what the blade looked like after 3 hours inside the tank: Close up of etching on blade: I used some brass polish and crumpled up aluminium foil to clean it up a bit. Handle after a bit of sanding: 2 Brass screws/nuts: I should probably have left it inside the tank overnight.. I'm gonna put it in for a few more hours this weekend and see if it cleans up the etching a little bit more.