Refinishing a saw handle

[Steven Herbin]

Hi all-

I decided to buy a couple of old saws off the Bay. My aim was to learn how to sharpen them and clean up the handles. I decided to do the handles first. I will be sharpening next week.

The handles were in good "structural" shape. 1 handle was the darker brown color and the other 2 were much lighter in color (almost a reddish blonde). (I know, I should post some pix).

One of the blondies I just threw some BLO on and it looks ok. The other I decided to sand down to raw. When I got all the finish off it, the wood was actually white. I tried a little cherry stain on it, but the stain didn't soak in at all. So now I have a white handle.

1- Is there any way to get color back into the handle.

2- Would I be better off taking a piece of walnut or cherry and just try my hand at making a new handle using a handle that I like as a model?

Thanks for any help.

--Steve.

[David Weaver]

1) I don't think you'll ever get it to look original, but some BLO covered with garnet shellac would give it a nice tone

2) probably not. Making a saw tote is deceptively difficult, at least compared to something like a plane tote. I guess your chances of success might be a little better on a hand saw than on a back saw, though. No mortise and if a poorly sawn handle with cheeks that aren't perfect flexes the saw plate a little, it's no big deal. On a back saw, it does nasty things to the tooth line.

Without seeing a picture of the tote you're talking about, it'll be difficult for us to tell if it's apple or beech. Knowing would help to recommend a fix.

[john brenton]

Is the tote beech? Usually beech handles will take the stain nicely, so that's weird. How did you prepare the wood prior to staining?

[Dan Andrews]

Any time I have had wood fail to take a stain, I had made one of two mistakes. 1. The orriginal finish was probably lacquer. It probably soaked into the grain a little bit before drying. In this case you need to either sand down below the layer of remaining lacquer. Lacquer remains very clear like the new water based polys. Another solution is to soak the surface with paint stripper keep it wet, and setting for 10 minutes. Scrub off vigorously with 00 steel wool. Then wash the surface thoroughly with mineral spirits. Paint stripper has a wax like substance in it that is left behind.
2. If you get carried away with sanding with too fine of a sandpaper, the surface will not hold the pigment of pigment type stains. 180 to 220 are as fine as I would want to go. I have never used dye type stains, but want to one of these days. I suspect the color will soak into the wood better than pigment stains. I am sure someone here can comment on the stain issue.

[David Weaver]

I should revise my statement above, it's not necessarily too hard to make a saw tote. It's difficult to make one that's tasteful AND a good user on the first try, plus it's not easy to find dry quartered or close to quartered stock in something big enough for a panel saw tote that isn't just cherry, white oak or maple or something (which makes the saw immediately look like a botchers saw - not that I don't have some of those).

I'd still avoid it unless you're bored or the saw plate is from a very valuable saw, otherwise you'll have a lot of work in something that nobody else will want to pay you for should you decide to upgrade later.

[john brenton]

I try to make the work match the quality of the item. Sometimes anything better than a run of the mill junk handle is just putting lipstick on a pig. I'm warming up to the idea of the laminated saw tote. I had seen them in catalogs and always hated them, but I used one the other day at a friends place and liked it.

something (which makes the saw immediately look like a botchers saw - not that I don't have some of those).

[Acharya Kumarswami]

I have refinished a few hundred saw handles and discovered two stain products that are foolproof. A traditional product is simple walnut shell powder. It mixes with warm water in whatever shade you want. The man who runs shop I bought it at on the web said that this is what was used in the old days. Indeed, it gives that familiar color of brown you see on the old D8 handles or the No. 4 backsaws. This is available, and inexpensive, at Shellac.net. They also carry a whole array of analine dyes. I didn't get into those yet.

Another product that works really well is leather dye, yes. I believe it is a type of analine dye. Feibings is one of the big brands. It is available on eBay from various stores, and if you do a search you can find a color chart. This gives a rich, deep color, not at all like ordinary stain.

The key, as was indicated above is to get all the old finish off, so that you are dealing with bare wood. However, if you do find that there are some spots that have not been penetrated after you have applied your color, you can go back and scrape or sand that spot and add more coloring. I found that after the dye process, let it dry thoroughly and then go over lightly with fine steel wool.

These two products will work on very light woods. It sounds like your trouble handle is beech. If you have already put a finish on it, I would advise stripping that off and getting back down to bare wood. I used 150 and 220 sandpaper. But I also go to sanding pads to get the scratches out. Even a cotton rag will be good after that. I never found that going too smooth prevented dye from penetrating the wood. Obviously, try not to round things off as you sand. Keep the crisp edges as much as possible.

[john brenton]

Wow, Acharya, that's a butt load of handles. Thanks for the info on the powder, I'll have to check that out.

On a personal note, I bet you know my cousin Katie. I'm not sure if she still uses that name or has changed it, but she's kind of a yogini type (no offense, I just don't know what else to say) there in Kauai.

I have refinished a few hundred saw handles and discovered two stain products that are foolproof. A traditional product is simple walnut shell powder.

[Marv Werner]

Aloha Acharya!

Good to see you here sharing some of your many talents.

Have you posted pictures of some of your craftsmanship relating to restoring saws?

I'm sure the good folks here would greatly appreciate seeing what you do.

Some of the guys here would also find your Duo saw vise quite interesting.

[David Weaver]

...Duo saw vise ....

[Marv Werner]

Hi David,

Hopefully Acharya will post a picture of it. I'll let it be a surprise.

[lowell holmes]

Is that Van Dyke Brown.

You can put Van Dyck Brown on cherry to make it similar to mesquite.

The rockers on a mesquite rocker I built were cherry and I was told to use The Van Dyck Brown on the cherry.

10 years later, you can't tell the difference.

Liberon has Van Dyck crystals. You disolve them in water.

I didn't mention that the Van Dyck Brown crystals are made from walnut husks. Now, maybe the post will make sense to this string.

[Steven Herbin]

STP60969.jpgSTP60967.jpgSTP60968.jpg

These are the blade and the front and back of the handle. It's a POS saw except that it's pretty clean off the bat. I haven't done anything with it yet. The handle has whatever of the stain I put on it and a layer of poly. I'm consigned to sanding / scraping off down to bare wood -- not more that 180/220 grit. But can anyone tell me what kind of wood it is?

Thanks in advance.

[Jeff Polaski]

I'm about to refinish a handle of a 28" Disston D8 Rip saw, complete with the thumb hole. Wood is in good shape. Since some of is down to bare wood, I'm taking all of it down to bare wood. This thread scares me because it's time to use this saw, I have work to do.
Flexner's new revised finishing book told me that stain just sits on top of everything else that was put on first, and dye actually soaks into the wood. I'm going to use dye, and I'm going to put a little itty bit of the dye into shellac. I'll maybe use amber shellac as a first coat, because as long as the coats are shellac, they are supposed to blend into each other. I think. I'll test it on a couple scraps, because Flexner said in his book that the species of wood just affects the resulting color tones, not the actual dye process. (Make a little exception here for blotchy wood, like pine, basswood, and the like.)
I'll post the results.