Thread: Old saw - show off, detail and question

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The photo is very blurred so cant make it out but with Jackson in the name its likely Spear and Jackson. The British answer To Disston. Good quality saw. I have an S&J thumb hole rip saw and at the risk of using a pun, it's a ripper. Mine is 4 tpi not progressive.
Its well worth cleaning up, sharpening and using. A couple of broken teeth is not a big deal. After sharpening saw will still cut and after repeated sharpenings those broken teeth will blend in to be sharp teeth.
Regards
John

I second John's advice, you are unlikely to feel the missing teeth unless they are right near the starting point, or you use it in substantially thinner material than it's intended for. Re-toothing a saw like that is a very tedious job & will likely eat up a couple of files. If it were the same pitch from toe to heel, I'd say take it to a saw-sharpener & let a machine do the hard yards, but not sure any saw sharpening machines can handle progressive pitch. I think it would need a pretty sophisticated machine.

It will take quite a few sharpenings to bring the broken teeth back into play, but they'll get there eventually. The main concern is how they got broken in the first place. It might be that you have one of these brittle saws that have been discussed previously, so I'd go very carefully when setting. If it needs re-setting, I'd try a couple of teeth right at the heel (where they never get used anyway) & if they crack or break, then you need to try one of the recommended ways of reducing the brittleness, like leaving it out in full sun for a few hours.

Cheers,

Hi Clinton1

that should be a good saw once it is cleaned up.

I was lucky to find one in really good condition that required very little cleaning.

Graham.5e.jpg5d.jpg5c.jpg5b.jpg5a.jpg

Clinton

Despite the blurry pic, I think I can see "Spear & Jackson" around the perimeter of the medallion. Initially, I thought that the "K" in SKG could be the ampersand (&), but the pic is too indistinct. Your saw does not have the disc surround to the medallion (See Graham's rather smart saw that he posted) so it is either a lower grade model or an earlier saw all together. The surround to the medallion was used as early as 1923.

Perhaps you could post some full length pix of the medallion side of the saw as that might give more clues. Have you tried to clean up the likely etch area to see if anything is lurking beneath the grime and the rust coating? If you choose to do this, go carefully with 240g W&D paper wrapped around a small timber block to start with using some form of wet lubricant and keep watching for faint indications of etching.

As Ian hinted, the progressive saws are more difficult to sharpen by machine and it was probably why the progressive practice fell into disuse. It also points to the saw being an early, upmarket model. The broken teeth can come from careless setting or the saw may be on the brittle side. I agree with Ian that you should warm the blade in the sun before setting or you could place it in the oven at, say, 60°C if you have a large enough oven. You may want to take the handle off for this. At 60° you can only touch the plate with the bare hand for about four seconds: Depending on your thresh hold of pain.

Ian and John have both pointed out that over time and successive sharpenings the broken tooth will reappear. Particularly on the large teeth of a rip saw there is a huge amount of work involved to joint right down to level teeth. The reshaping process will send you broke with files consumed!

Regards
Paul

PS: Is there any printing on the face side of the handle grip and also any evidence of a timber dowel through the length of the grip (it was called their "non break" handle)? These were both features of S&J's high end saws, although only found in more recent times so I am not expecting them to be present.

Hey all, very helpful replies,
Bushmiller - thanks, I’ve been peering at the medallion with my old eyes, and yes the medallion says Spier & Jackson. The centre of the medallion doesn’t say SKJ. It is S X J, but the X has a vertical “post” going up from the centre of the X. A way of making an ampersand???
I’ll be able to see better once the medallion is cleaned with toothbrush and toothpaste.

No dowel

My preferred way of rust removal is by electrolysis.
However I scrape the rust off with a plane blade and use steel wool to get as much rust off before the bath to limit the time in the bath. Gurny off the gunk at the end of the electrolysis and heat dry and treat with conservators wax. If the metal surface is ‘stained’ from the electrolysis I can always go over it again with WD40 and steel wool.
I’ve never had a problem from embattlement.

The snapped off teeth - yes, I could just leave it be and eventually sharpen them out, but a well restored/shiny saw with broken teeth will make my brain hurt. Realistically I ll never use it enough to sharpen out the broken teeth… I not going to rip that many meters.

Got to love brass hardware… steel hardware would have fused by rust.

Medallion detail as per better picIMG_0353.jpeg

Graham, that’s a flash medallion. If it was you who cleaned it up, how did you get the etch raised. That’s my weak point.