Thread: Disston rip saws

Sounds like both saws are well-worn, but that doesn't mean they aren't useful. They should still be capable of doing a good job for you ripping box-making material. You can use as much of a saw as you like, they have the same hardness & temper right through the blade, so they're not like most chisels, that are pretty soft once you get an inch or two from the tang. But old saws do get a bit whippy as they wear down, because of the taper, you are left with the thinnest bits. Just check they have good flexibility & aren't kinked, which is something that seems to happen to well-worn saws more readily than when new. Whatever else, the cheapie in particular, is an excellent candidate for you to practice sharpening & setting. You can find old saw bolts easy enough, some of the members here will probably be happy to sell you replacements at a cost that won't necessitate re-morgaging your house.

How easy is it to break a tooth? Depends on how enthusiastically you go about it, I reckon. Regular saws like you're describing should not be brittle - if a tooth breaks on a saw that is meant to b set, something is wrong, somewhere. I've had a few teeth break on me during setting, and I assume they had been severely stressed in some way before I got to them, & had minute fatigue cracks that I just finished off with the saw-set.

Cheers,

Very good. If they are still available I might look to pick one up later this week. At $10 I can't go too wrong.

Thanks for you help Ian.

It's always good to have a standard to be able to compare against.
eg the modern Irwin 8-point (I think) hardened japanese-type tooth saw is a "good cutter" ... but seems very slow to me now.
It is not a "ripsaw".

Bunnings has a $66 S&J 22" ripsaw (I believe) that might be a reasonable starter (putting aside the whole 'learning to maintain a saw thing' - which is attractive in its own way). It is file-able too.
https://www.bunnings.com.au/spear-ja...d-saw_p5710387

I feel like Homesy bought a cheaper, plastic-handled, possibly hard-point, S&J ripsaw (along with another xcut saw) which we tried out some years ago - I could be wrong.
Homesy?

Going the vintage-ish saw route, you might do better having a look on ebay ... eg
5X Spear Jackson Hand Saws 25" 26" | eBay
9X Hand AND Hack Saws Distain Jack P N Sandvik Waterfrog | eBay

Cheers,
Paul

I wouldn't often recommend this seller (due to some prices), but this eg looks reasonable - and it could arrive sharpened.

Vintage Hand Tools Warranted Superior Handsaw SAW OLD Antique Tool 135 | eBay


s&s maybe - 5ppi.jpg

Cheaper ... OLD Vintage Disston Hand SAW Tool | eBay

shortened.jpg

If the saws have a skewback and are Disstons, then they're likely D8s. They made one called the No. 76, which was kind of a limited edition saw at the centennial anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 (hence the name), and it also had a skewback, but on the balance of probability it's almost guaranteed to be a D8.

If the handle looks like the one in your photo, then it was likely a crosscut saw and, yes, has been repurposed. The full length Disston D8 rip saws had a second hole in their handle for your left hand's thumb. They looked like this:

http://thumbs.picclick.com/00/s/MTA2N1gxNjAw/z/bAQAAOSwIgNXn37f/$/Vintage-Disston-No-D8-28-Thumb-Hole-_57.jpg

Repurposing the saw from a crosscut to a rip would also explain some of the loss of blade width. You'd lose a bit of material in the toothing conversion.

I, personally, tend to steer clear of the thinner saws. My understanding is that only the bottom half or so of the blade was tensioned and after being ground back considerably through years of sharpening they begin to lose their tension. This is, of course, something that you can test before buying, as well as something you can restore (although it takes some understanding of the hammer tensioning process).

Good luck. Post pics if you pick them up.

Cheers,
Luke