Masterpiece saw

**Bushmiller** · 11th December 2015, 01:41 PM

Ok, I've used a little licence in the title, but in fact at various times the giant American saw manufacturer Disston did refer to their D-95 as their "Masterpiece" saw. It is true to say that it was the most expensive saw they ever sold.

It was introduced in 1935 at a time when the market was depressed and all the saw manufacturers were struggling to find a point of difference. Plastics were becoming all the rage and ever the master of marketing, the Disston corporation not only introduced a plastic handle, but revolutionised the composition.

It was available in at least three different colour combinations, maybe four. This was one of them and probably the most tasteful" The others were garish if you were feeling kind towards them.

Disston D95 9ppi 007.jpg Disston D95 9ppi 001.jpg

The saw below is a rather horrible orange. ( I have seen a green too) It is one of my keepers as it was made during WW2 and has the "Victory" etch, which for me is the redeeming feature.

Copy of Millmerran Saw Exhibition 013.jpg

Quite a tidy saw, extremely comfortable to hold and superb to use. Of course being plastic it either enjoyed or suffered from a reputation. As time went on it became less and less a draw card. In fact soon after Disston was taken over by HK Porter in 1955 the D-95 was re-modeled with a timber handle, but those saws are not so keenly sought after.

Not only was the D-95 plastic (Disston used their marketing nouce and called it Disstonite, but it was in reality a product named Tenite) but it came in two parts: Disassembled it looked like this:

Disston D-95 010.jpg Disston D-95 008.jpg Disston D-95 005.jpg Disston D-95 001.jpg

I had always considered the handle close to bullet proof, but as you can see, this handle was shot to pieces and no reasonable way to repair it. I had four of these saws. One came without a handle and is the plate above. The other three had badly damaged handles with the horn missing or the pastic badly distorted, apparently from heat (think flame thrower).

I had always intended to put a handle on the original saw that was a bare plate, but you can see the problem. The holes are huge as they receive the raised plastic spigots. The handle also has washers embedded in in the top half of the handle with a square hole and in the main large section of the handle more washers so a lock (spring) washer can bear upon it.

It was indeed ingenious; A masterpiece if you prefer.

However, none of that helped me to re-handle the saw. I had two options: I could drill new holes in the plate or I could try to utilise the existing holes.

Drilling more holes is OK but it offends my sense of correctness plus the holes may look a little off as there is not much metal left for optimum placing of the saw nuts.

My solution was to make up washers to suit the hole size and then drill them to accommodate the saw nuts. Not wishing to introduce heat into the plate by welding (I am not competent with Tig and I felt even Mig would still be too much heat resulting in distortion even allowing that the handle was sufficiently far from the tempered tooth line) I used a two part epoxy.

The washers were punched out using a 16mm punch in our works cropper and then filed down until they fitted.

I cut a series of small slots into the edge of the washers with a hacksaw to give a "key." Really the washers only have to remain in place until the handle is in position as they are trapped by the handle, but it is convenient to have them fixed (and unbelievably inconvenient if left loose).

26 inch D-95 MS 001.jpg 26 inch D-95 MS 002.jpg

Then it was just a question of making up handles. The handles were complete hybrids and made from Spotted Gum: Not the easiest of timber to work with, but my reasoning was that if I am going to create a hybrid, it might as well be an an Australian hybrid. The saw nuts are brass with Disston medallions of the era (Originally they were nickel plated brass, but the plastic handle is thinner than the timber handles and the nuts are too short to use in timber.

The colour of the timber is closer to the very last picture in this thread. For some reason the time of day has given the timber an orange hue.

Disston D-95 26 inch. MS 003.jpg Disston D-95 26 inch. MS 002.jpg Disston D-95 26 inch. MS 001.jpg

and it just needed a little sharpen. This keeper is 7ppi.

Disston D-95 26 inch. MS 005.jpg

and I know you want more (apologies to Demtel)

Disston D-95 group of 3 001.jpg

26", 24" and 22"all 8ppi. They will make an appearance in the Marketplace over the weekend probably.

I could have placed this thread in the saw handmade section, but I though that with the very limited input by me it would have been presumptuous.

Regards
Paul

**rob streeper** · 12th December 2015, 11:07 AM

Paul,

Thanks for the post. Interesting, bushings in the handle to take the stress. I need to get one of these so I can have a close look.

Rob

**Bushmiller** · 12th December 2015, 02:41 PM

Rob

Shame you are not a bit closer or the postal services a little more benevolent as I have at least three wrecked handles and you would be welcome to one for "research."

Let me know if more detailed pix would help you. I think a big problem would be forming a large hole in the saw plate as it was probably done before tempering with a punch. You may not need a hole as large as that of course.

It would be interesting to make up a handle from timber for a D-95 to replace the plastic. I never thought of that. It may not have sufficient strength. Perhaps next time.

Regards
Paul

**rob streeper** · 13th December 2015, 11:41 AM

Paul,

I was thinking that a two part bushing could be made of steel. First would be a washer of the same thickness as the saw plate with an OD equal to the ID of the existing holes in the plate just as you show above. The washers could ideally be spot welded in place. These washers would have an inner hole of 0.25" diameter to allow for a second bushing consisting of a short section of SS tubing 0.25" OD X 0.1875" to pass through both it and the handle. Then the shank of a standard saw bolt could pass through the stainless in the same manner as I use in building my saws.

Thanks for the offer, there are a lot of these saws available on eBay so I'll just get one for dissection. It's interesting that these post-'Golden era' Disstons seem to be good enough to garner the praises of modern users.

Regards,
Rob

**hiroller** · 13th December 2015, 01:06 PM

Here's nice one for you Rob:
Henry Disston Sons D95 Saw 26 1N 12 PT Tenite Brown Combo Handle 1950's Unused | eBay
D-95.jpg
Here's a plastic handle version with HK Porter on it. Must have been short lived:
H Disston Division HKP D 95 Masterpiece Hand Saw Vintage IE 8 7 12 23 113 4 Hike | eBay
D-95 HKP.jpg

**Bushmiller** · 13th December 2015, 02:21 PM

Gavin

Both those saws are "minty" I wasn't sure how long HK Porter continued the Disston range from before their takeover. I would suggest that second saw was a product of the transition and apart from the garish outlined "Disston" was probably the same. Why did HKP have to go and spoil it all?

I don't think Rob had either of these saws in mind for dissection

.

I couldn't find a real cheapie, but did come across one of the hideous colour combinations:

disston D-95 Red and mottled green.jpg

Generally the ugly colours do not find much favour unless they are in pristine condition when I have seen them sell for US$250.

Michael Merlo has a couple of D-95s for sale now, which he hand sharpens. He is pretty proficient at that side of things:

UGLY DISSTON D-95 "MASTERPIECE" 10PT FINE FINISH CROSSCUT SAW - HAND SHARPENED

Disston D-95 10ppi MM.jpg

UGLY DISSTON D-95 "MASTERPIECE" 5 1/2PT "R&R" RIP SAW - HAND SHARPENED

Disston D-95 5.5ppi MM.jpg

Most of his saws are "ugly." Some are "big, fat and ugly": Some just "ugly." He does have pretty saws, but he keeps those.

He also has a fairly unique and sometimes controversial way of marketing himself. I have found him excellent to deal with and would love to know some of his techniques.

Regards
Paul

**rob streeper** · 13th December 2015, 03:12 PM

Thanks gentlemen,

Now you've got me interested. I must give one of these a try.

Regards,
Rob

**hiroller** · 13th December 2015, 03:23 PM

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

I don't think Rob had either of these saws in mind for dissection

.

Agreed, but I thought they would be fun anyway.
Very minty indeed. Maybe I should have included a smiley thing!

**Bushmiller** · 13th December 2015, 04:23 PM

Originally Posted by hiroller

Maybe I should have included a smiley thing!

I knew what you meant, but my serious side came out of hiding. Doesn't happen too often

.

Regards
Paul

**Bushmiller** · 13th December 2015, 04:33 PM

I was troubled by the colour discrepancy in my pictures of the Spotted Gum handle. I had to take more pix to post in the Market Place tonight so I grabbed another. It seems more representative.

26 inch D-95 Hand saw.Spotted Gum handle 2 018.jpg

Regards
Paul

**pmcgee** · 13th December 2015, 06:28 PM

I thought you might go more 'Buck Rogers' D-100 with one of them.

Cheers,
Paul

**burraboy** · 13th December 2015, 07:47 PM

Originally Posted by pmcgee

I thought you might go more 'Buck Rogers' D-100 with one of them.

Cheers,
Paul

Looks more Batman than Buck Rogers.

**scottz** · 14th December 2015, 09:51 PM

Hi Paul,
just curious about the finish that you used on the spotted gum handles. I'm shaping my first ever handles now using Blackburn saw plate, hardware and patterns. There's some slight chatoyence in my supply of spotted gum that I would like to come through. I've got some sanded and scraped test blanks and am trying various mixes of Tung oil, or blond or amber shellac and soon a test with spar varnish. I see various forums warning about some layered finish combinations. As a man with Apparent experience in this subject, I'd thought I'd ask

cheers,
Scott

**Bushmiller** · 14th December 2015, 10:35 PM

Scott

Spotted Gum appears to have it's share of variance, as do most timbers. The Spotty I source from the Hunter Valley in NSW nearly always seems to have quite a deal of figure in it and delightful highlights: Quite subtle, but it is there. Spotty from up here in Queensland seems a little more bland and some Forum members have said it is very difficult, almost cantankerous, to work with.

Whatever the differences I like to see a little more colour in it as although it is not blonde, it is pale. To that effect I hit it with some Boiled Linseed oil first, but you could use other oils probably as the object is to darken and highlight at the same time. In fact before the oil dries it gives a good impression of what the final finish could be like.

Then after a period for it to dry out, I finish with Ubeaut's hard shellac. Several coats.

Really there is no definite recipe, but whatever works for you. Thank you for your reference to experience, but really each exercise is an experiment.

Regards
Paul

**Bushmiller** · 15th December 2015, 12:09 AM

Originally Posted by burraboy

Looks more Batman than Buck Rogers.

The Disstonian Institute refers to it as Disston's answer to the Studebaker Avanti!

Regards
Paul

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