Does anyone have any hand saw pictures ?

[Chris Hachet]

Joinery and Carcase saws I made ..



Tasmanian Blackwood (similar to Koa) handle on a halfback saw made by Mike Wenzloff ...



60th birthday presents: Wenzloff dovetail and tenon saws in African Blackwood ...





Another one of mine - the Steam Punk Mitrebox ...




The first saw I ever made ...



Enough and off to bed.

Regards from perth

Derek

That miter saw is fantastic. I would not kick the bow saw out of bed either....

[Chris Hachet]

For a man who expressed love for old tools that had seen plenty of use....I am glad you "swing both ways" and love new shiny stuff too. Fantastic!

[Chris Hachet]

Well I for one am impressed with your effort David. Mighty fine work.

Stewie;

i would second that.

[David Weaver]

Thanks for the nice comments, guys. Proof that even a cave man can do it, i guess.

Stewie, love the bevel on the back of that saw. Looks hand done, is that the case?

[george wilson]

These have been posted before. The crosscut happens to be the same model that LN choose to put into production. An old Disston design.

I like to leave the blue on my blades,and it is surprisingly durable.

[Kees Heiden]

Interesting saws you asked? How about some early models?








Or maybe even more interesting, real 17th century saws? (These are from a museum).

[george wilson]

We made several saws for Jamestown 1607,near Williamsburg,Va.. Some of them were of the Dutch style you show above,with the "umbrella" style handle. They were surprisingly comfortable to saw with. The English early 17th. C. style we also made for them were ghastly ugly. I did not bother to make pictures.

I see you have made a copy of the Cartwright saw. This was one of the models we reproduced among one batch of back saws. The earliest model saw we made for the museum was the White back saw. There is only one known to exist now,but they were known to have been popular in Va. in the earlier 18th. C.

Your Cartwright has a nicer,heavier back than the original we copied. And,one of the saw screws (the top one) was much larger than the other on the original. Its head was hammered out into the wood,so it looked a bit like a fried egg.

I have seen a few that were made outside of the museum,but no one has gotten the White saw really correct as far as I can remember. It is an odd looking saw,with a primitive looking handle. There were no saw nuts yet. They seemed to use short carriage bolts with square nuts that had notches filed into them rather roughly. They cut into the handle when tightened. The backs of both the Cartwright and the White backsaws were made of too thin folded black iron. They seem like a cheap plastic handled saw of today,as far as the backs are concerned. At least the Cartwright has fully developed saw screws.

In the era of the White backsaw,it looked like they hadn't yet decided how to terminate the folded back: It is left sticking up out of the handle,with the end of the blade emerging ungracefully from the end of the back. I did not enjoy having to make these awkward looking White saws,but they were authentic to the period,so we made what was requested.

Here is a sample of a White tenon saw we made. Note the cheap looking folded thin back. Also,there was a crudely filed little bead on the front end of the saw's back. English tool making just hadn't gotten well developed by this period. First half of the 18th. C.. The originals were not well finished,and neither are our repros,since we had to make them authentic. There were rasp marks left on the handles,and the metal was not well finished. The blade is TOO tapered.

Also seen is a repro of a Dalaway dovetail saw. It has a rather undeveloped handle,and a tapered brass back,looking somehow just not quite right. An accurate copy,though. We didn't get to do NICER work till we made the Kenyons. These earlier saws looked hammered out and tossed down. The cabinet shop loved these Dalaways because they had a .015" thick blade.

We stamped the dates deeply lest after several year's use,and rust,they became "antiques". The curators were offered an 18th. C. wafer iron. They called the blacksmith over to look at it. He said "I made that 30 years ago!!" The silversmith came upon an "18th. C. coffee pot,polished so much the maker's mark was eradicated" in an antique shop in Maryland. He had made the coffee pot himself!

[Derek Cohen]

I do love your reminiscences, George. Thank you.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Stewie Simpson]

Hi David. Yes it is.

[Stewie Simpson]

Hi Chris. I didn't purchase those backsaws.

Stewie;

[William Huver]

There are some really beautiful saws pictured here. I think they're all great! I really enjoyed George Wilson's comments on the White back saw too.

I'm not sure what you may find interesting... but I thought I'd throw in a "what-the-heck-is-this" saw for fun...

Odd Saw - Entire.jpg Odd Saw - Handle Face.jpg Odd Saw - Handle Back.jpg Odd Saw - Separated.jpg

There was a steel screw in the bottom hole that I forgot to insert before the pictures were taken. Sorry about the fingerprint in the last picture.

Regards,
Bill

[Kees Heiden]

Hi George. Actually I copied an early Kenyon handle for my big tenon saw. I saw some pictures on Matt Ciany's blog and later also on Follansbee's blog:
http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog...the-saw-wright

I allowed myself some artistic freedom on shaping the rest of the saw. I used sawnuts instead of screws and made the spine a little heavier. It is made of 2mm steel plate and is actually very light for such a large saw. I like it better then my heavy brass backed tenon saw. Both the sawplate and the spine are tapered.

My dovetail saw is a close copy of the Dalaway saws you made. I tried hard, but probably made some interpretation errors along the way . I know my taste is a little different from yours. I like this early stuff better then the later more ornamental taste of the 19th century.

I would like to make something along the lines of these Dutch handsaws with the pistol grip, but I have no idea how to make the connection between handle and sawplate. It looks forge welded or something like that? The plates are relatively thick.

[Ron Bontz]

An apple or two a day, as they say.IMG_1828.jpgIMG_1816.jpg. Best wishes.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

What took you so long, Mr. Bontz? I was waiting. That is just beautiful. You are the master.

[george wilson]

Kees,I may be wrong about the Cartwright saw. They and the White saws were not my favorite patterns,so they are not firmly remembered(Well,the White is,as ugly as it is,plus I had the picture). I'll have to check around and see if I have a picture of the Cartwrights-Actually,I do. There is a sample of each type backsaw we made laying in front of the big 16' bench full of backsaws.

As for the Dutch saws,we put 2 large,strong rivets through the part of the handle,where it extends onto the blade. A bit impossible for us to tell if they were forged from the solid or not,so rusty were the ones in the pictures we were given. It seems like forging them from the solid would have been the hard way to go. Riveting them seemed more practical. The extension could have been forge welded onto the blade. But,to forge weld onto a thin blade would have been asking the blade to melt,so I stuck with riveting. Also,forge welding carbon steel is difficult as it does start burning up at welding heat. Assuming those early saws had a decent amount of carbon in them-they may NOT have.

Edit: O.K.,here is a picture that includes the Cartwright. It is the 5th. saw from the left. Yes,it is a little different from your early Kenyon(which I was never shown when we were making saws. I think the museum did not have one.). The top edge of the handle is simpler on the Cartwright.

It's been seven years since we made these saws,so my memory isn't perfect.

You can click three times to enlarge this picture. The differences in the Cartwright vs. the early Kenyon become more easily seen after enlarging.