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Saw Talk with Philip W. Baker
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The Nineteenth-Century American
Backsaw
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2 of 5
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The Back
The backs were most
frequently made of blade steel. Occasionally they were left
untreated. There is a Disston, (circa 1874) and a Bishop (circa
1885) saw in the collection that are nickel-plated. Brass backs are
usually an indication of a maker's top quality tool. Based on the
saws in the collection,
 brass was used more often between 1835 and
1855. After this time, the use of brass diminished markedly.
Wood has been used
for backs, but it is quite rare. C. E. Jennings and affiliated
companies used wooden backs on small dovetail saws circa 1890-1900.
The Henry Disston & Sons catalog of 1876 includes movable backs that
fit on handsaws converting them to backsaws. (If anyone knows of the
existence of one of these wooden backs, please contact me.)
Beginning in the
1830s, and continuing for an estimated span of thirty years, many
makers imprinted double eagles in the saw's back. M. Schwartz
(before he moved to Bangor, Maine) was the first that I know of to
do so. Schwartz used an eagle that I have seen only on Boston saws.
An early saw marked Richardson (but not the Newark, N.J.,
Richardson) and one marked Welch & Griffith have this same wretched
looking bird. W & C. Johnson - circa 1834 - is the next oldest company
to use it. H. Disston started out using a single eagle circa 1843,
and within a short time, went to the double eagle. This practice was
used by many Philadelphia makers. The last use of the eagles may be
on a saw (circa 1855) by H. Disston.
At first, all backs
look alike. Older saws may not have the workmanship found on later
models. The back may provide clues in dating saws by a particular
maker. Check the back at the nose, as well as its width and
thickness and how the top was treated. Once etching became prevalent
circa 1866, many companies began omitting the mark on the saw's
back.
The Blade
The English did not
allow the Colonists to produce steel. Although freed of that
stricture following the Revolution, Americans were not very good at
steel production until Henry Disston began to produce steel in 1855.
Although American steel soon equaled Sheffield products, some
manufacturers, like Atkins, used English steel into the twentieth
century.
In his book on
American handsaws, Erwin Schaffer lists the thicknesses of blades
taken from Edward Knith's American Mechanical Dictionary (1876). All
blades seem to fall within the range of 22/1000 to 12/1000 inch.
Disston's Handbook
on Saws (1907) includes metal-cutting backsaws among its products.
The 1876 catalog has no reference to this type of saw. The
information in the 1907 book says the metal-cutting saws were taper
ground and could be sharpened with a good file. I would like to know
when the manufacture of metal-cutting saws commenced.
There is a 12-inch
saw (circa 1895) in the collection whose blade is 1/10 inch thick at
the teeth. It has twelve teeth to the inch filed straight across.
EAIA member Tom Lamond has examined it and believes it was used for
cutting leads and slugs for the printing industry. Disston's book
states that the metal-cutting saws were taper ground as is the
above-mentioned saw. A conventional backsaw is rarely tapered unless
it is a no-set saw.
The width of blades
varies. Usually the larger saws had wider blades, but it is easy to
find an exception. Before 1845, I estimate that 60 percent of blades
were not parallel to the back. They varied from ¼ inch to 1 inch
less at the toe than at the heel. The average difference is ½ inch.
The open-handled saw is more apt to have a parallel blade.
The last
half of the century saw a marked decrease (about 20 percent) in the
nonparallel blade. The manufacturers seemed to produce the
unparalleled blade randomly. An 1890 brass backsaw made by Disston &
Sons for the British trade is 2 ½ inches at the toe and 3 inches at
the heel. The etching shows it to be a no. 5 made expressly for John
Hall Ltd Cardiff, Birmingham, Bristol, Newport, Swansea.
There are four types
of handsaws.
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The tenon saw is sixteen to twenty inches;
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the sash saw
fourteen to sixteen indies;
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the carcass saw 10 to 14 inches; and
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the
dovetail saw six to ten inches.
The number of teeth per inch varies
to a considerable extent. In the collection, there is a 10-inch saw
having twenty teeth to the inch and there are two 6-inch saws having
twelve and sixteen teeth per inch. There are 16-inch tools that are
mostly twelve teeth to the inch with a few at ten to the inch.
The Handle
All of the early saws that I have
seen-American or English-have beech wood
handles. One way to help identify a
Sheffield saw is their handles, which
are highly figured. Rarely is an
American saw found that contains the
streaks and flecks prevalent in an
English saw handle.
Somewhere around
1830, applewood came into use in
handlemaking in America. The earliest
saw with applewood in the collection is
a W & C. Johnson. Henry Disston used
apple on all saws with the exception of
a special pair of three cove-handled
saws-one open and one closed
handled-made circa 1855, which are
walnut, and an open handle beech saw
circa 1860.
Johnson & Conaway, Courtland
Wood, and Shotwell (made by Checsman)
used Cuban mahogany (circa 1851). Cherry
was also used, but it is often very
difficult to tell it from apple. Makers
in the last half of the century
frequently used apple rather than beech
on special models. Peace and Richardson
were two that did.
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