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Recently
I was reading several messages on OldTools Mailing list
addressing issues of handles not being interchangeable
between saw samples of the same model and approximately the
same age. Here are some excerpts from these emails: “Some may remember I posted a multiple query regarding a few saws nearly two weeks ago. Several Galoots responded on or off-list and I thank them all. Scott Grandstaff has been particularly helpful (more on that in a moment) with the broken tote problem with my grandfather's Disston No. 12, but before I get into that, I will acknowledge a good piece of off-list advice received from Steve Lineback: a tote from another saw may not fit, even if it is the same model and appears identical. Some confirmation, Steve:
Scott not
only sent a mended tote from a No. 12, but the tote he sent
is a near perfect match for the one I already had. However,
the holes for the saw screws & medallion are not drilled in
the same places. The two top screws would nearly line up,
but the medallion and bottom screw are as much as ¼" out of
position. Very interesting, as I would have thought Disston
was using jigs to drill and mount their totes, but this
suggests otherwise. Nevertheless, on to something else that
may be just as interesting for some… “
“I think
I may have mentioned previously that, on disassembling an
old English saw, I found the dumps from the blade's
punched-out holes still trapped in the handle. This suggests
that the handles were drilled through "near enough", fitted
to the saw and then the holes in the blade were punched out
through the holes in the handle. Seems a quick and sensible
way of ensuring the parts fit.” “When Andy Anderson's Old Tools store still existed in Santa Monica CA, I went there once in search of a handle for a particular saw. Andy laughed at my request, but he showed me to the back where he had hundreds, maybe thousands, of saw handles in buckets and barrels. I dumped them one at a time and compared my handle to each of them. I spent over 3 hours on the floor looking at those handles and comparing mine, and never found one that I could use. That experience taught me to believe that there are no two handles exactly alike. I could be wrong, but that is what I believe. You can open up a hole or three and make it work, but an exact fit is pretty unlikely. I have no idea how they actually made their handles back in the old days, but I don't think they had interchangeability in mind.”
The following text describes steps in saw handles production as it was done at Disston's company. At the end I included my own comments.
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