Is stainless steel any good for hand saws?

[Adam Woznicki]

There's a estate sale near me that has a full size stainless steel hand saw.
I don't remember the name on it, but it wasn't one of the common names.

It has a plywood handle that is delaminating a bit(one of the reasons I didn't buy it.)

The back side of the blade has a diamond shaped polishing pattern on it.

I know stainless steel is no good (to soft) for knifes and irons, so I assumed it's no good for saws. Am I right?

I may go back and see if i can get it for a couple bucks. Make a new handle for it, and it would at least look cool. What do you think?

[Bruce Page]

Adam, there are a zillion different kinds of stainless steels including heat treatable ones. If the price is right, go for it.

[Bob Smalser]

It has a plywood handle that is delaminating a bit....

Sandvik of Sweden is the only saw in that category I can think of that's worth owning. You can make a new handle.

[James Taglienti]

I don't think stainless is exactly praised for it's use in hand saws or edge tools.

[David Keller NC]

As Bruce noted, there are lots of different stainless steel alloys. 316SS would be nearly useless for an edge tool, as it's prone to chipping. However, there are lots of high-end, superb kitchen knives made of so-called "high-carbon stainless". One such brand is Wustoff.

If the saw's a Sandvik, it's got great steel in it, though as Bob noted, the handles suck.

[Erik Manchester]

I picked up an Atkins SS saw a little while ago and it was unused and cuts quite well. It has this diamond finish similar as well, which makes it easy to see that it has not been used. It isn't an old saw, but it is interesting.

Erik

[Bob Strawn]

Some stainless steel is wonderful and work hardening. I bought some cheap rulers once, and have made some of the most amazing scrapers. Usually good saw blades make good scrapers. I have some Japanese saws that are stainless, and they are also pretty amazing.

Bob

[James Taglienti]

Wow- I had always just discounted stainless - very informative - I would love to get my hands on a stainless saw, every time I touch mine I have to wipe it down

[Steve Dallas]

There's a estate sale near me that has a full size stainless steel hand saw.
I don't remember the name on it, but it wasn't one of the common names.

It has a plywood handle that is delaminating a bit(one of the reasons I didn't buy it.)

The back side of the blade has a diamond shaped polishing pattern on it.

I know stainless steel is no good (to soft) for knifes and irons, so I assumed it's no good for saws. Am I right?

I may go back and see if i can get it for a couple bucks. Make a new handle for it, and it would at least look cool. What do you think?

The type of saw you use is almost of no consequence. Bench woodworkers knife crosscuts and plane wide of the mark on rips finishing both cuts with planes to the marked lines. A plane is the last thing to touch the cutline. I knife deeply on crosscuts and simply cut just wide of the line with an 8pt. Disston (later model, a "POS" in most people's opinion) and finish to the line with a few swipes of a No. 3 smoother. You can just as easily use a rip saw to crosscut if speed is an issue. The saw, in either case, does not produce the finished surface. That is produced by the knifed line and a hand plane of your choosing. Even the most expensive, rare and 'fine' Disston saw (from panel size on up) does not produce a finished surface suitable for cabinet and furnituremaking.

In certain cases, namely the inability to saw at 90* to the face, having a taper ground saw is helpful. Otherwise, you're just moving the saw up and down in the kerf the blade itself creates and as long as the blade is not thicker at the back than the set of the teeth (a practical impossibility), sawing ought to be more or less a breeze.

[Chris Friesen]

The type of saw you use is almost of no consequence. Bench woodworkers knife crosscuts and plane wide of the mark on rips finishing both cuts with planes to the marked lines. A plane is the last thing to touch the cutline.

How do you get a plane inside lap joints on stretchers?

[Steve Dallas]

How do you get a plane inside lap joints on stretchers?

I use a router plane to finish lap joints.

My post is about full-size saws, you know the ones pictured in the thread, not about joinery saws like dovetail and tenon saws whose cuts are not usually cleaned up with a plane (but may be cleaned up with a chisel).

I still knife half laps and depending how deep they go finish the shoulders with a chisel back to the knifed line and all the way to depth. Ian Kirby does the same thing on tenon shoulders. The tenon saw never gets closer than a weak sixteenth to the knifed shoulder line. You don't need a $400 saw to work that wide of a line. You do need good marking out implements. That's where your accuracy is - in your square and understanding how to make a V-cut. The saw actually doesn't have diddly to do with anything in this method of cabinetmaking. If you can lay out a project and put knifed and gauged lines down on the work, all the rest should be downhill. People are too fixated with what brand of tool they're using. Those knifed and gauged lines don't know. And a great saw won't help you with poorly knifed and gauged lines.

[Jonathan McCullough]

Too true! But true also is the pleasure in using old saws, especially when you grew up using, and being accustomed, to all the bad stuff that US manufacturers and retailers have heaped on us since those good old saws were no longer the standard.

[Steve Dallas]

Too true! But true also is the pleasure in using old saws, especially when you grew up using, and being accustomed, to all the bad stuff that US manufacturers and retailers have heaped on us since those good old saws were no longer the standard.

The old saws were made well. That said, even the ones fetching fairly high prices today were mass produced in their day.

[Adam Woznicki]

Well its to late now, i should have gone back right before closing time sunday and made a low offer.

Thanks for all the good info guys, I'll have to give it a closer look next time I see one.

BTW, It definitely wasn't a Sandvik, or Atkins. The design of the etching didn't install thoughts of quality in me. I think it was a hardware store brand.