Hello All, I recently bought this fine and early Philadelphia backsaw. When it arrived I discovered that the saw plate and back were like a winding road and probably would only cut S-curves. The handle had never been removed; the filing on the screws was all in line. So I determined to try to straighten the plate by removing the back and leaving the handle in place during smithing. When I took off the back to do the smithing I realized that I had done it again...I'd found another saw with a beveled saw plate. Even though this Johnson & Conaway was made in North America 20 to 40 years after the Burgin, Green & Co I posted a while ago, they both share the same technique of beveling the plate to enable canting the sawback. This discovery indicates to me that the previous saw probably wasn't a mistake or an anomaly (unless of course they're both accidents/anomalies, just on different continents). In any case, a nice looking saw. A shame about the horn. David
Hi Alan, Thanks for that info. It's something I didn't know. It does seem reasonable that it was a fairly common practice, since I came across two examples of that in less than a year. But I had never seen any mentions of it in the places I looked, so that's why I made these posts. What else can you tell us about who was doing it? David
You know, I can't remember exactly if any of the Disstons were like that. It is interesting that Johnson & Conaway were in Philadelphia from 1848-1857, and they were acquired by Disston in 1857. This was in the early days of handsaws in America. I wouldn't be surprised if Disston was supplying steel to them, but the front bevel (as you refer to it as) could have come from England as people were buying steel from England, and it was Disston that started producing his own steel in spite of that fact. I don't remember when Disston started producing his own steel, but this is what gave him an edge over other saw makers in America. In most cases I don't take the entire back off the saw, unless it is really in need of being straightened. This was the case for you with this if I understand it properly. I don't have any scientific data to supply you, and since I haven't taken the majority of my backs off the saws, I can't say for certain. Just that I have seen this before and not on these makers as I don't think I have a saw by them. Fred might be able to help you more, or someone else that knows American saws better. This is a great saw, I would hang on to it. Any non-Disston American saws are cool, IMO... That plus any split-nut American handsaws are keepers in my book. Especially from a company that Disston bought to chew up and spit out...not to be heard of ever again...