The Summer Saw Stravaganza continues.  I took another set of three sad looking saws and gave them a run through the bath.

The saw in the middle is a real mixed bag.  It is very old and has a nicely carved handle.  On the other hand it is badly rusted and pitted in places.  Looking at a close up of the blade you can see two neat features.  First, that carved dip of the handle as it comes around your little finger to meet the plate again.  That is called a lamb’s tongue.  Totally for decoration.  It needed some gluing back together.

The other is that number 10 near the teeth of the blade (left side of picture).  You can barely see the 1.  They would typically stamp the number of teeth per inch there on the blade.  The trick is it was usually 3/8″ or further from the teeth.  This saw has seen a lot of use and resharpening.

Like last time the saw plate got a bath in Evapo-Rust, the handles got sanded and a coating of boiled linseed oil.  The middle saw needed a little banging on my anvil to straighten out, but it looks quite true now.  The transformation was quite stunning.

The only thing that has me worried about these saws is the heavy pitting on some.  A saw should be tapered, wider at the bottom than top, and will have the teeth flare out (called set).  This means that only the business end should really be touching the wood.  That having been said, the plate is going to do a lot of sliding in the cut, and a smooth plate will slide better than a pitted one.  I really hope they work out, these saws are gorgeous, even with all the pits and stains.