Rehabbing a Henry Disston & Sons No. 4 Backsaw

A close friend of mine has a garage that I envy. Partly because I live in a one bedroom apartment (I don’t have a garage), and secondly because it’s filled with a impressive tool collection. At the end of his workbench hanging on the wall are several backsaws that I’ve always been curious about. They are flea market finds, but in remarkable shape and simply beautiful. In an attempt to be just like him I decided that I needed backsaws.

Since immersion into the world of antique tool hunting, my weekends have been spent visiting flea markets and antique shops. This weekend was no different. We set out Saturday morning and headed towards Alabama to explore the antique and flea markets in the Foley area. I was specifically looking for Stanley planes and Henry Disston & Sons handsaws. At our 2nd stop I passed on a Disston keyhole saw hoping that I’d find something more appealing as the day went on. I looked and looked and was convinced that the day was going to be a wash. Take note, that the antique shops in South Alabama really aren’t geared towards antique woodworking tools. We headed back into Florida disappointed that we wasted an entire day looking at shelves stocked with happy meal toys from the 1980’s. It was 4:45 PM and minutes before the doors locked when we decided to run into one of our local shops to see if they’d rotated in any new tools. As I approached the tool section, I immediately noticed a basket  containing three or four saw tucked deep under a table in the corner. There was hope!  The last saw in the basket was exactly what I was looking for. I quickly checked to make sure it was in usable shape and rushed to the counter. After some haggling, I walked out with a Henry Disston & Sons No. 4 backsaw for $25! Deal!

So here is what I got. The rust and crud didn’t look this bad in the store. I guess I was just mesmerized by the shear size and weight of this beast. She’s approximately 34 inches from tote horn to the toe of the plate and solid as a rock.

I did a quick search online to attempt to establish an age for this saw. http://www.disstonianinstitute.com/ is a great resource for anybody wondering about Henry Disston and his famous production of handsaws. From this site I was able to determine that this saw was manufactured between 1896 and 1918 based on the medallion and deep v-joint in the tote (handle).

So let’s rehab this beast! My goal in this is to bring the saw back to a usable state while removing the rust, dirt and crud that will eventually destroy it. I use products and procedures that remove the least material to do this and keep the patina and history in the tool. Also, this is my first post, and in the process of working through this got excited and forgot to take a few pictures. Sorry for any confusion. I’ll get better, promise.

What am I going to use? I stopped by the local hardware store and picked up a bunch of supplies for this task.

1. Simple Green
2. 0000 Steel Wool
3. Scotchbrite pads (green ones)
4. Paste Wax (Minwax)
5. Brasso
6. Mineral Spirits
7. Abrasive Buffing Wheels for a Dremel (3 or 4)
8. Wet/Dry Sandpaper (220, 500, and 1000 grit)
9. 36″ marble slate
10. Boiled Linseed Oil

First thing is to disassemble and clean everything to remove the loose crud and actually see what you’re working with. Make sure that when removing the nuts, to use the correct size screwdriver. The nuts are made of brass and are very soft. Using the wrong size screwdriver can damage them.

Check that out! I was really surprised to see how dirty the plate actually was. This is probably the first time the tote has ever been removed. The plate went straight into an electrolysis bath to remove the rust. If you don’t have access to an electrolysis bath, then there are several commercially available products that I’ve used with pretty good success. Evaparust and Krud-Kutter both work very well. Follow their directions and you can’t go wrong.

While the plate was cleaning, I went to work on the tote/handle. I started by wiping the handle down with mineral spirits using the steel wool to remove any loose wax, oil and loose debris. There are several methods to restoring a saw tote. I did a lot of reading before I decided which method I was going to use. Some people swear by the scraping method, others think that sanding is the way to go. I decided to try and use an abrasive buffing wheel with a Dremel tool and was very happy with he results.  This method seemed to leave the nicest finish and removed the least material. Note: These wheels don’t last very long. I used three to clean up this handle.

This is where I got carried away. I was so impressed with how the tote looked that I forgot to take a picture before moving to the next step. When it was done, all of the built up gunk, paint and varnish had been removed. The handle retained the owner mark and wear from years of use. The next step for the tote was to stick it in a bath of boiled linseed oil (BLO) to soak for 24 hours. I decided to flip the tote every few hours to ensure that each side got the same exposure to the BLO.

The next step for me was to start deep cleaning the saw plate. Once the electrolysis has done it’s thing, you have to scrub the black residue off. I use a Scotchbrite pad and a little Simple Green. The electrolysis does a remarkable job! After a few minutes of scrubbing the plate was actually silver. Rinse the plate in water and dry it very well.  Once again, I didn’t get a picture of this step-sorry.

Next step in the process is to lap the plate to bring back the shine. Lapping is a machining process in which two surfaces are rubbed together with an abrasive between them. Pictured below is my setup and supplies for lapping (this is what a plate looks like before lapping). I use a 36″ long marble slate as my lapping surface. You can get these in any hardware store in the flooring section. They are traditionally used as door entry plates and are fairly cheap.

Lapping can be a tedious  process and takes some time. Before you begin, make sure that you are wearing gloves and have towels or rags handy as it gets messy quickly. You want to start with a low grit wet/dry sand paper and work through your highest grit. For the backsaw, I started with 220, went to 500 and finished with 1000.

To begin, pour a little mineral spirits onto the plate. Start by wetting the sandpaper in the spirits and then make long strokes applying medium pressure from one end of the plate to the other. Long strokes will reduce leaving transition marks where you repeatedly switched directions with the sandpaper. After 3 or 4 minutes rotate (not flip) the plate and continue to rub for an additional 3 or 4 minutes. This ensures that you are applying even pressure across the entire saw plate. The plate should start to look nice at this point. Flip the plate and repeat this process for the other side… Now that you’ve been rubbing for almost 20 minutes and your arms are getting sore, it’s time to do it all over again with the 500 grit sandpaper and then finally with the 1000. When your done, rinse the plate in Simple Green and water and dry thoroughly. If you’re happy with the result, apply a good coat of paste wax. This will keep the plate from flash rusting.

This is what my plate looked like! Looking at the blade you can see some patina and a little pitting, but the rust is gone and the shine is back!

My research indicated that all Disston saws had either a stamp or etch on the blade. Some backsaws have both a stamp and etch. The stamp on the spine of my saw reconfirmed that it was manufactured between 1896 and 1918. Unfortunately if there was an etch on my saw it did not survive the test of time. The etch can be fairly delicate – there are methods for preserving them that I will address in a future blog post. Now that the plate is finished, it’s time to turn our attention to cleaning the brass medallions and nuts.

I clean the brass hardware using Basso and a nylon brush. My rule of thumb when cleaning something is to use a softer material than the material being cleaned. The nylon won’t scratch or mar the brass. The picture above shows the hardware after cleaning. I didn’t intend on removing all of the patina but underestimated the effectiveness of the Brasso. I think the patina adds a nice touch to the finish. Once I determine a good method for cleaning the brass I’ll make a future post about it. For now, it will just have to look like a Chinese reproduction until a little patina develops.

Let’s take the tote out of the BLO bath! Grab a screwdriver or something and pick the tote up and let the BLO drain back into the container. By now, the tote should have darkened up significantly and gained some weight. The old dry wood will absorb quite a bit of the BLO. That’s fine though because it’s going to extend the life of the tote another 100 years.

After a minute,  grab a rag and wipe off the remaining oil.  At this point I was getting very excited. This handle looked and felt amazing! I couldn’t wait to get everything reassembled. So Let’s do it!

Gather all of the piece parts and a the flat head screwdriver and reassemble your saw. Be careful not to over tighten the nuts. You can break a post off by doing so, requiring a replacement which might be difficult to find. Once you have the saw assembled, apply a coat of paste wax on every surface to keep things clean. Now, step back and admire your work. This was my first restoration and I’m extremely pleased with the result.

And I believe this concludes my inaugural blog post (It’s a lot longer than I had anticipated). I learned a lot during this project and look forward to sharing my knowledge and discoveries in the future. Since purchasing this saw I have acquired a Disston D-8, No.7, and a No.12 – so check back to see how they turn out.  Thanks for stopping by One Tool at a Time!  If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below.