I was at an antique mall yesterday and one of the vendors had a booth full of old tools and everything he had was severely discounted so I got some good deals. I bought a Starrett combination square, Disston D-8 in beautiful shape... and this thing:



I'm very new to the hobby, but at first glance it appears to be a Disston dovetail saw that's about 60-90 years old (correct me if I'm wrong).



However there are some things which definitely are wrong... almost all of them are in the handle (the blade seems to be in great shape and totally undamaged). You notice that the medallion is covered in red paint. It was completely covered, but I was able to rub some of it off with some acetone and a cotton swab. I rubbed off enough to see that it reads "Warranted Superior" and not "Disston" like it should. I know W.S. was a later and cheaper brand designation made by Disston. This would leave me to believe that this is not the original medallion, since the back of the saw still reads Disston.



The other issue is the handle itself seems to be totally wrong. It's in the approximate shape but it looks and feels really inferior. If you look at it from above it doesn't seem to fit the saw. Also it's very flat with almost no rounding anywhere. It looks like someone cut it out of a flat board and didn't possess the proper tools to smooth out the edges. Additionally, the brass screws and medallion stick right up on the top of the surface, as if they hadn't be countersunk. That's not normal is it?



If I were to guess I would say that someone had a Disston saw with a broken or missing handle, and then attempted to make their own own handle (poorly) and attach it to the saw. They probably lost the medallion (maybe the screw as well) and used one from another saw. I have no idea why it was covered in paint, maybe they tried to sell it as a complete Disston and wanted to hide the fact that it wasn't hoping nobody would notice. Also I suppose they could have just put a Disston saw on a Warranted Superior handle, but the handle still looks too poor quality for that.

Luckily it was cheap and the saw looks perfectly usable. What do you think I should do with it? I want to make it beautiful and functional again and add it to my toolbox.