Panel saw handle pattern

[lowell holmes]

I have a turn of the century (1900) panel saw. While I was cleaning the saw, I took the handle off.

While the handle was off, I traced it and had the tracing scanned. I have a pdf file that will print to scale.

If any of you would like a copy of the scan, send me a personal message and I will be happy to email a copy to you.

Tick marks are on 1/8" and 1/4" intervals.



sawhandle.jpg

[Trevor Walsh]

I like the lamb's tongue on this one, cool.

[Mike Holbrook]

Wenzloff & Sons has scale drawings of 10 or more handles. Yours looks like their Groves.

[lowell holmes]

At the time I traced the handle, I was not sure I could salvage the old one. I traced it before doing anything to it in case I needed to make a new one.

I may make one and put it on an old miter box saw. One of the guys that I emailed a copy to is looking at doing the same thing.

You don't suppose the old miter box saw re-toothed to 12 tpi rip could be a decent tenon saw do you?

[Mike Holbrook]

I am working on cracks in the handle to my Diston/Millers Falls Miter Saw that I got with my MF Langdon Miter Box. My saw has a monster 26" blade, 33.5" total length. Mine is not a great size for hand sawing tenons which I guess is what you are thinking about.

The saws the Schwarz suggests in The Anarchist's Tool Chest are: Dovetail Saw (9-10", 15-20 ppi, around .20 thick blade, no wider than 3"), Carcase Saw(11-14", 12-14 ppi), Tenon Saw ( could be up to 18" long, up to 4" wide, about .026' thick blade, 10-11 ppi) Panel Saws, 20-30", 26" is most common vintage size, furniture saws are typically 20-24", a 7 point rip saw and 7-8 crosscut saw are the basic tools, a fine, 12-point crosscut panel saw has also been popular.

Many who post on these pages like the large hand saws (26" & up}, which usually run a little larger and have larger teeth than the panel saws. The 4-5 ppi rip saws are very popular with those who do much ripping by hand. There seems to be a great deal of argument among those who study the historical records to find which tools were used for sawing. Some have even suggested that older saws were standardly all filled rip.

[lowell holmes]

I have an old Disston backsaw that is 12" that I have retoothed to 12 tpi rip that does pretty good and I probably will work on it and make it the tenon saw.

That being said, the miterbox saw is 20" and about 4" of saw plate. It is a Warrented Superior. I'm thinking that if I cut the blade off 4" and make it 12 tpi rip, it might be what I'm looking for. We'll see.

I also have an old handsaw , Warrented Superior, that was a junker saw, 26" long cross cut. I never used it. I have cut it to panel saw size, sharpened it to 8tpi rip and cleaned it up.
I like the saw, it is an easy cutting saw with no vices. I don't like the handle on it as it is handsaw size. I may make the panel saw handle for it.

Thanks for responding.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

20 inches in a backsaw (especially a heavy older one) is probably too long and heavy to wield effectively outside of a miter box, so chopping it down is an option - that said, I've got an old Disston backsaw, 11 tpi rip, with 16" of teeth (17" if you measure along the blade back of the spine, because the plate comes down at an angle by the handle) and 4 inches of cutting depth below the spine. It feels a little heavy to use a long time, but if you let the weight work for you, rather than fighting the weight it's not so bad. But I love the darn thing. It just feels so right, and the slightly taller height and the weight of the steel back really help me "feel" plumb. I was using it the other day to cut some lap joints - I cut them at my sawhorses, and just let the weight of the thing fall through the wood.

I guesss what I'm saying is if you want your saw to be a tenon saw, chop some off like you think - but remember it's going to be a lot easier to cut more off later than add some length back.

[Andrae Covington]

...the miterbox saw is 20" and about 4" of saw plate. It is a Warrented Superior. I'm thinking that if I cut the blade off 4" and make it 12 tpi rip, it might be what I'm looking for...

20 inches in a backsaw (especially a heavy older one) is probably too long and heavy to wield effectively outside of a miter box, so chopping it down is an option - that said, I've got an old Disston backsaw, 11 tpi rip, with 16" of teeth (17" if you measure along the blade back of the spine, because the plate comes down at an angle by the handle) and 4 inches of cutting depth below the spine. It feels a little heavy to use a long time, but if you let the weight work for you, rather than fighting the weight it's not so bad. But I love the darn thing. It just feels so right, and the slightly taller height and the weight of the steel back really help me "feel" plumb. I was using it the other day to cut some lap joints - I cut them at my sawhorses, and just let the weight of the thing fall through the wood.

I guesss what I'm saying is if you want your saw to be a tenon saw, chop some off like you think - but remember it's going to be a lot easier to cut more off later than add some length back.

I have the Wenzloff Large and Small Tenon saws and Dovetail saw from LV, and they're great. But every now and then I have used a 24" Simonds mitre saw as an extra-long, extra-heavy 11-tpi crosscut tenon saw. My experience has been similar to Joshua's, it's a little awkward to get started, but the weight helps sink it through the cut.

[Jim Matthews]

I have the Wenzloff Large and Small Tenon saws and Dovetail saw from LV, and they're great. But every now and then I have used a 24" Simonds mitre saw as an extra-long, extra-heavy 11-tpi crosscut tenon saw. My experience has been similar to Joshua's, it's a little awkward to get started, but the weight helps sink it through the cut.

It takes a Big Dog to bark like that. I would need two hands to keep that steady...

[Andrae Covington]

It takes a Big Dog to bark like that. I would need two hands to keep that steady...

lol

Yeah I think i used my left hand to hold the spine about halfway along for additional guidance.

Derek Cohen has shown how to make a sliding dovetail using a miter saw and an angled guide. Using a guide to rest the sawplate against definitely makes it easier to cut straight with a big heavy saw like that. But it's still tricky.