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Restoration
PDF File
Saw Blade Restoration
by James D.
Thompson
If you haven’t cleaned a saw blade before, it looks like a
pretty intimidating piece of work. But actually it is rather easy.
Below is a picture story showing how I do it. This my way,
and other people have their way. Others use acid and/or
electro-zapping to clean their saws. I have tried these
methods, and I prefer to use the following method. My way suits me
and here is how I do it.
The first thing to do is scrape off the rust that can be
scraped off. Most of it will probably not come off if your saw is
very rusty.
I use the blades that are used in a utility knife. I buy
them in containers of 50 or 100 as shown in this picture. Other
galoots like to use single edge razor blades. I don’t like them.
This is just personal preference.
The next step is sandpaper. The coarseness of the grit
depends on how rusty your blade is to begin with. A very rusty blade
responds well to a quality 150 grit for me. I do not try to remove
every bit of the discoloration from the blade with this first
sanding. I am only breaking the rust so that the next finer grit
will have an easier time of cleaning.
Wet or dry sandpaper is next. You need to lubricate the
blade with WD-40 or paint thinner with a little oil added. You scrub
with the wet or dry using a backing piece until you can’t tell what
you are doing for the rust floating on the surface. Then you clean
the blade.
Then you do it again, and again, going to finer paper each
time. I start with about a 220 grit wet-or-dry paper and work up to
600 on a nice saw that I am trying to save the finish on. The
finished cleaning will look better if you use long strokes while
sanding. Try to go all the way from one end to the other.
On a saw which is pitted like the one in the pictures here,
I just use 220 grit and call it good. No matter how much work I do
on this saw, it is never going to look like new again. So I have to
settle for good enough.
This blade still has black on it, but the red rust is all
gone. This blade is clean enough to suit me.
I should mention the teeth of the saw now. Usually the
sharpness of the teeth is going to be gone by the time you get done
cleaning the saw. It will most likely require re-sharpening, and may
even require re-toothing. For this reason I do not worry about
hurting the teeth while I am getting the rust off.
And now for a word about saw nibs. The nibs on old saws were
put there for decorative purposes. The nib is often missing on an
old saw that you would like to restore, as it is missing on this
saw. You don’t need a nib, but it does look cool. Here is how I
restore the nib.
You need to put something on the blade that will allow you
to mark the new nib. I ran out of layout Dykem, so I used a little
red spray paint.
Nibs are anywhere from one inch back from the end of a saw,
all the way up to 4 inches back. You can move your nib back 1/2” to
3/4” and nobody is ever going to be the wiser.
I use another saw which still has its nib to mark my new
nib.
Now I can file away the material around my new nib. The
lines I have scribed on the blade guide me so I don’t cut too far.
Here is my new nib. I make sure that all the sharp edges are
gone by using very fine sandpaper to simulate wear on and near the
new nib. If you do this carefully, no one will ever know.
From start to finish, this entire job took me less than one
hour. And now you know as much as I do about this, :>)
November, 2005
© James Thompson
Email: James D.
Thompson
Web Site:
http://www.oldtoolsshop.com/Galoots/jThompson/ | 
