Disston saw any ideas?

[mr]

lo again,
Ive inherited a couple of saws 3 in all, 1 unbranded, 1 spear and jackson and this one which claims to be a Disston. Does anyone have any thoughts about this Disston? Ive looked through the disstonianinstitute site but can find no mention of a D8 backsaw. As you can see its sufferering with some quite bad rust and is none too sharp. Is it worth the effort in trying to clean this up or has the rust you can see here (other side is similarly bad) put an end to its useful life? The battery on my camera died as I was taking this otherwise I would have graced the post with a pic of that too.

thanks
Mike

 

[MikeW]

Hi Mike,

Disston began in the late sixties, seventies or early eighties changing the numbering of the backsaws. I no longer remember when.

Yours is probably in that timeframe--broad as it is. My guess would be the late sixties or early seventies judging from the handle as it still has some rounding of the shape. As well, I could be off a decade--I'm date challenged.

The patent date may well be a key if it is for something that can actually tie the saw to a date range. But I don't know whether the blade or the medallion has one. The lettering style of the Disston name is a later style Roger Nixon may know more should he pop in.

The rust is "young" by the looks of it, at least the patch by the tooth line. It would clean up enough to use, I'm sure. How strong the teeth will be in that location you won't know until you get the rust off.

I personally use citric acid to remove rust. Where you would get it over there I do not know, but I know Alf has a thread somewhere in the forum where she used some. If you cannot find it [thread or at a store] and if someone doesn't suggest a place, send her an email and ask.

If you do keep it, clean it up and sharpen it and find the handle is less comfortable than you like, you can either rasp, file, and sand it to a more comfortable shape or make a new handle. It isn't difficult.

Take care, Mike

 

[mr]

Thanks Mike
I suspected mainly from the typeface of the logo that the saw was a recent model. The medallion I did find on the Disston site and it appeared to date from somewhere after 1940. Ill have a shot at removing the rust and then Ill look into sharpening the teeth up. It appears to have them all and other than the rust they dont seem to be damaged in any way. The handle as you have said is less than comfortable, seems to make the whole thing quite unwieldy really so I may end up attacking that with a rasp as well. THanks again
Mike

 

[Scrit]

Mike's correct. That is a 1970s or later period Disston with the handle designed to be used wearing a rigger glove I reckon. From my experience these are universally much poorer saws than similar period Tyzack "Nonpariel", Spear & Jackson or Sanderson-Kayser "Pax" saws - so nothing to write home about. Patent Disstons always had brass medallions - this saw has silver plated/aluminium ones.

Scrit

 

[Anonymous]

H. K. Porter bought Dission in 1955, IIRC, and the lettering was changed to what you see on your saw. I haven't done any research on the Porter era stuff so I'm no help :lol: .

 

[mr]

Thanks all for your responses. Have to say I was thinking the saw felt rather clunky and the handle in particular feels odd, what you say about a riggers glove Scrit makes perfect sense. I might yet have a go at restoring it on the basis that a saw in the hand is better than none (or one in the face if todays other events are anything to go by). :shock: