Making Saw Handles
The saw cannot be classified with any other tool.
Paul N. Hasluck, The Handyman's Book, 1903
I inherited my grandfather's Warranted Superior crosscut panel saw quite some time ago - it is twenty inches long, 10 points per inch, the original handle must have disappeared on some worksite accident in the 1920's (he died in 1952, ten years before I was born). "Pop", my mother and her siblings always referred to him as such, made a replacement handle for it from a piece of oak board. He liked the saw well enough that he used a punch to punch an "R", for Rufus, his first name, into the blade near the handle. Just look it the photo, you will see it. My grandfather, I was told, was an excellent carpenter and when he could afford it he bought the very best tools, or he traded for them. This saw lived in workshop out back of the house when I was young, it was used only to cut down that year's Christmas tree.
A couple of years ago, I removed the original handle with the intent of making a replacement which I never got around to. The dry air of the Colorado Rocky Mountains shrunk the original handle so much it no longer fits the saw.
I do need another panel rip saw, the teeth on my brand new Lie-Nielsen panel rip saw is too aggressive for ripping thin pieces of wood, there was an older Disston "Rancher" crosscut saw left behind by the previous owners of our house. I cut that saw down to match the size and shape of my grandfather's saw.
A friend gave me a short mahogany board which I really had no use for, it was completely flat sawn, but I figured that it would make a good working handle for both saws.
I cut out a piece of that mahogany, thinned it one inch thick, drew the pattern on it and went at it with a brace and bit...
...cut out the handles with a jigsaw..
...then cut the slots with a back saw.
This morning I shaped one handle using files, finished it up with sand paper and applied a coat of Howard's Feed-N-Wax and attached it to the Disston Rancher.
After attaching the handle I discovered I need to teak my design a bit, the lower horn needs a little more depth and sweep and the "finger" that houses the top most nut needs to be a little longer and deeper.
I think I will make those adjustments and make another handle for my grandfather's saw. I would like to find a nice piece of quarter sawn Honduran mahogany to make the handle, I would settle for a pretty piece of alder. I don't plan on using the saw, I do want to build a tool box/chest shrine to house all of my grandfather's tools, to honor him and all those old carpenters I knew when I was a kid.
A nice looking handle! Now, I just need to re-file the teeth on this saw from crosscut to rip.
Now, turn off your computer and go make something!
Paul N. Hasluck, The Handyman's Book, 1903
I inherited my grandfather's Warranted Superior crosscut panel saw quite some time ago - it is twenty inches long, 10 points per inch, the original handle must have disappeared on some worksite accident in the 1920's (he died in 1952, ten years before I was born). "Pop", my mother and her siblings always referred to him as such, made a replacement handle for it from a piece of oak board. He liked the saw well enough that he used a punch to punch an "R", for Rufus, his first name, into the blade near the handle. Just look it the photo, you will see it. My grandfather, I was told, was an excellent carpenter and when he could afford it he bought the very best tools, or he traded for them. This saw lived in workshop out back of the house when I was young, it was used only to cut down that year's Christmas tree.
A couple of years ago, I removed the original handle with the intent of making a replacement which I never got around to. The dry air of the Colorado Rocky Mountains shrunk the original handle so much it no longer fits the saw.
I do need another panel rip saw, the teeth on my brand new Lie-Nielsen panel rip saw is too aggressive for ripping thin pieces of wood, there was an older Disston "Rancher" crosscut saw left behind by the previous owners of our house. I cut that saw down to match the size and shape of my grandfather's saw.
A friend gave me a short mahogany board which I really had no use for, it was completely flat sawn, but I figured that it would make a good working handle for both saws.
I cut out a piece of that mahogany, thinned it one inch thick, drew the pattern on it and went at it with a brace and bit...
...cut out the handles with a jigsaw..
...then cut the slots with a back saw.
This morning I shaped one handle using files, finished it up with sand paper and applied a coat of Howard's Feed-N-Wax and attached it to the Disston Rancher.
After attaching the handle I discovered I need to teak my design a bit, the lower horn needs a little more depth and sweep and the "finger" that houses the top most nut needs to be a little longer and deeper.
I think I will make those adjustments and make another handle for my grandfather's saw. I would like to find a nice piece of quarter sawn Honduran mahogany to make the handle, I would settle for a pretty piece of alder. I don't plan on using the saw, I do want to build a tool box/chest shrine to house all of my grandfather's tools, to honor him and all those old carpenters I knew when I was a kid.
A nice looking handle! Now, I just need to re-file the teeth on this saw from crosscut to rip.
Now, turn off your computer and go make something!
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