Handsaw restoration

Graywolf

Board of Directors, President
Richard
Staff member
Corporate Member
In my travels over the past year I have been keeping an eye out for a few backsaws. This one found its way home with me in not great shape but not the worst either.

it’s an E.C. Atkins no. 3 16” plate with an apple handle. 12ppi with an out of joint tooth line. Also, in my small amount of research I haven’t found that Atkins ever made a canted or a tapered back saw. I suspect the back has been knocked down from dropping or intentionally to give it that look. Either way I’m going to take it apart and find out.

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as you can see by the picture the back had been driven down at the toe, that is not how it was from the factory. There are lots of reasons for this to have happened, never the less, I’ll bring it back to almost factory condition. First I stripped the handle with alcohol and did a light sanding. The owners mark I left, and there are a couple of small chips in the handle that do not effect the comfort of the handle in use, so I’ll leave them. I have some shellac already mixed and I’ll pad that on over the next few days.

second, I’ll clean the plate and the back. And if you look closely at the tooth line, you can see the saw had been sharpened in the middle a lot more than the ends. I’ll have to joint that back to straight.
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my preferred method to remove the crud (technical term) is wet/dry sandpaper, a rubber sanding block, and simple green cleaner. I start with 220 grit and progress to 600 grit. I then use a metal polish. I try to careful around any etching but sometimes if you want it clean you have to compromise. This one has a very faint etch that I’ll darken some with some cold blueing. I plan to blue the back anyway I can do it at the same time.
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it cleaned up pretty well, and the one below it is 14” Disston no 4, I’ll have to re-tooth it’s tooth line is not salvageable. That one will be in a later post.
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so here is the finished product. It’s filed 12ppi 10degree rake, 10degree fleem it gives a clean rip cut and a reasonable cross cut. I like it, tracks well and smooth.
 

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