Help me out with this handsaw.

[MikeG.]

I acquired a few saws as part of a job lot, and in spare moments I am reviving them. One of them has me a bit puzzled, though. It's really short (the plate is 500mm, exactly....or about 19-5/8"), has a really thin plate (0.7mm), yet has an aggressive rip cut to the teeth, and 6 TPI. It has no markings, and a riveted beech handle which is horrible, and very small.

I can't think what such a saw would be any good for. Has anyone any clues?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Sawing the tongues out of flooring boards?

 

[MikeG.]

Not impossible, I suppose, but those saws are usually much shorter, I think, and often with a distinctive rounded end to aid starting the cut on a horizontal surface. This one looks just like any other handsaw.

 

[Mike Jordan]

A traditional floor saw is about that length but the blade would be thicker and the teeth are formed on an edge which has about 50mm of curve.
Yours sounds like a dovetail saw until you mention 6 tpi. Beats me but I would be interested to know.

 

[MikeG.]

.......Yours sounds like a dovetail saw until you mention 6 tpi........

It doesn't have a back. It's a handsaw.

I'm wondering if it maybe have been a child's saw. Was there such a thing? Would kids have been taught with smaller versions of tools? And if anyone can shed light on the rivets, that would be interesting, too. It doesn't have round holes through the plate, but 4-pointed holes which look like they've been punched through somehow. I'll try to remember to put some photos up at lunchtime.

 

[profchris]

I had a kid's carpentry set when I was very young. No idea how the saw was filed - from memory "non-cutting", as I never managed more than shallow scrapes in the wood.

Maybe 18 ins long, and not a backsaw. Not really a saw at all, to be honest

 

[Bod]

£ shop special?
Made in far east, shipped halfway round the world, sold profitably for a pound!

Bod

 

[MikeG.]

 

[AndyT]

There used to be far more choice of size in saws. I just glanced at the 1925 Melhuish catalogue and many of the handsaws in there were offered in lengths from 10" to 28". But that was for the quality imported Disston crosscuts. A short saw filed rip is an odd beast.

I agree that it could well have been from a boy's carpentry set. That would fit with the size, small handle and general random cheapness of it.

Maybe you have too many tools now, Mike?

 

[That would work]

Make some cabinet scrapers Mike!

 

[MikeG.]

....... I just glanced at the 1925 Melhuish catalogue........

:lol: :lol: There's only one person I've ever come across who could write such a sentence honestly. :lol:

 

[MikeG.]

Make some cabinet scrapers Mike!

There was I going to put a posh handle on it....

I have lots of plates put aside from used hardpoint saws for scrapers, and they're in much better nick than this thing.

 

[AndyT]

....... I just glanced at the 1925 Melhuish catalogue........

:lol: :lol: There's only one person I've ever come across who could write such a sentence honestly. :lol:

It's the only relevant catalogue I happen to have on this smartphone and I don't want to not help just because I'm away from my library...

I'm more modern than I look! :wink:

 

[That would work]

Apparently the number of bolts in a saws handle was considered a measure of quality. Much like hotel stars. :lol:

 

[johnnyb]

saws were made for gardening, farmers, ice etc etc etc. in umpteen qualities and sizes! no way was farmer Giles paying for a disston to cut a fence post!

 

[Trevanion]

saws were made for gardening, farmers, ice etc etc etc. in umpteen qualities and sizes! no way was farmer Giles paying for a disston to cut a fence post!

Funnily enough, I was with a farmer friend in one of his 'workshops' the other day and there must've been four or five Disston saws hanging off the wall in various conditions, his father was a farmer-turned-carpenter-turned-farmer again. He obviously had good taste when he was a carpenter but I imagine their sole purpose in life now is to cut fence posts and such :lol:

I did comment about their value but he seemed quite sentimental about them, I probably would be as well.

 

[johnnyb]

the first thing I imagined when I read this was cutting afence post with a skelton tenon saw!
may happen to them eventually.

 

[Trevanion]

the first thing I imagined when I read this was cutting afence post with a skelton tenon saw!
may happen to them eventually.

Like this Lie Nielsen Block plane?

[youtube]YC48aul2wwA[/youtube]

 

[johnnyb]

I have one that i use on site! not quite as rusty but it often rusts! i found the a2 blades are best on site. they dont rust a lot. and theyve got a tough ish edge.

 

[MikeG.]

I have one that i use on site! not quite as rusty but it often rusts! i found the a2 blades are best on site. they dont rust a lot. and theyve got a tough ish edge.

I guess you mean a Diston, not the junk kiddy saw that I've got.