Thread: Lovely little disston backsaw

Yeah, that's a killer find. Well done.

I think I would lean toward replacement, but you may struggle to find the right one. That was the last era during which the medallions were recessed into the handles. Given that such a small percentage of their total saws made were back saws, and there were several varieties of backsaw, it further complicates things, but you may get lucky.

I suppose you could always make one though.

Post photos!

Cheers,
Luke

I'm leaning toward making one at the moment. Not sure if I'm going to copy the existing or not. I quite like the open handles but will have to mull that one over for a while.

That's an unusually severe injury to your handle, W.H. Repair would be possible, but matching the wood of the existing handle would be a challenge! I'd start from scratch & simply replace it, but it's owners choice. I like the look of open handles, too, but would probably lean towards a closed handle like the original. The grip on your saw is quite high, & it would make a good carcase saw, imo, i.e., suited to being used at bench height rather than higher up as you would use a tenon saw.

Cheers,

After a bit more clean up and re-examination of the teeth, this saw has actually been filed in a cross cut configuration rather than rip as I first thought. Ian this lends more weight to your opinion that it would best be used as a carcass saw.