"LamentGloat" and Henry's Guiding Hand

[C. in Indy]

[ Actual Pictures will have to come later ]

It was a pretty lousy week so far, several bad turns in a row.
Anyway, Friday after a fastfood lunch I had the "inkling" to go an Antique Mart which I usually avoid in January (not enough heat)...

Old Henry Disston hailed me from inside a nondescript box.   It will need tote repair, but otherwise a rather straight and true No. 112, sort of like this:

   


The hype on the No. 12 and 112 saws on the Disstonian Institute page is real, in my opinion.  These saws have that "Warner Bros. cartoon" type of twang; they really feel and sound different.

Feeling better already,
Chris

[CStan]

Worth a read:


http://disstonianinstitute.com/steel.html

[Bill_Houghton]

Nifty!

The hang on that saw is interesting: the handle seems to be pointing at the extreme toe of the saw, while most handsaws I've encountered point at the teeth about halfway down the saw's length.  I'll be interested to hear how it behaves in use.

[Tony Z]

At the FTJ tool sale in spring 2018, I bought a #12, with a 20" saw plate. Up until this saw, I was comvinced no saw could ever top a #16. The #12 does, beats every other similar saw I own (9 pt. cc). It just feels right!

[C. in Indy]

Now the fun begins....

I'm using a little wedge of cherry to replace the upper horn.   The color is wrong (will stain it later), but I like the closed grain on it.   I have the best luck (with hide glue) if I get the original tote and the repair wedge dead-jointed on a disk sander.  In this case the two pieces have complementary bevels, courtesy of the Shopsmith with a bit of tilt on the table:

   


A bit of 400-grit wetsanding has allowed a positive ID, Disston No. 112:

   

Chris

[C. in Indy]

With a bit of detail-sawing and rasping, it is now taking shape.
This allows picking up the saw like it hasn't been held in several decades.  A nice, meaty, authoritative feel....

   

[Mike Brady]

That is an outstanding saw.  I have a No.12 (not a D-12) also that I bought from a collector who knew his stuff.  Mine is also a favorite.  Your rehab is looking good and if you would ever want to compare, I live in Indy now.  I don't think your PM is activated, however.

[C. in Indy]

Thanks for watching!

Mike, I have now activated PM's; congratulations on your move!

I tried something a little different on that light-colored cherry repair horn.  I "burnt it a bit" with a candle.  This had the bonus of also elsewhere making the tote easier to clean up with a bronze-wool wad.  A bit of liquid hide glue squeezed out of the repair but nothing substantial.  Further on, I added some other stain and then a bit of old Tru Oil which was a congealed goo taking a long time to cure....

   

   


Now, at the end of the repairs, the Disston 112 works pretty mightily!   You could well imagine back in the day, trying out a few different models at the store, and saying, "this is the one".  
For my surprise twist, though, after horse-trading and sharpening vintage saws for the last 6 years or so, I have a couple that I will rank higher than the vintage 112, and higher than a late-model Stanley Sharptooth (very sharp, but wide-kerfed).   When I look for a fast cut, no more kerf than necessary, lack of clatter and vibration, and some nice inertia, with nice hang-angles suitable for either traditional cuts or bench-stop cuts, I go to my Disston-Porter 1960s era D-100's.   I have two of them and I wouldn't say no to having more!
Pretty amazing how nice the 1960s D-100's are, with their "Avanti" styling, and how much nicer they are than the similarly-styled hollow-plastic-handle jobs like the one at the bottom of the photo.  I did, for each of these D100's, disassemble them and did some deburring and buffing on the nice aluminum castings.

A sample of saws, my favorites at the top... and no losers here except the bottom plastic job:

   


Chris

[C. in Indy]

With a bit of enthusiasm, I got 2 more No. 12 saws off the auctions.  These were trashy, and together will make one good saw if I'm lucky.

I got a little creative with my dovetail saw and my disk-sander, and merged 2 totes with epoxy.  Epoxy is a nice tool that wasn't always around!  By the way the backdrop is another project in progress, a resto-mod on an old tool box.

   


Chris

[Admiral]

The age of saws does make a difference, I'm not at all familiar with the D-100s, but I like the 7s, 8s, 12s; I think they really did save the better steel for those models. I came across a 99 rip, excellent saw as well. I've been spending the winter sharpening saws, and have a gaggle of them that I'll be putting in the S&S shortly, all user quality, not collector grade.