Forget Nibs, the Real underbelly Mystery of old Saws is...

[C. in Indy]

Time after time after time....

A beautiful vintage saw tote, in Apple or Beech, has highly smoothed finishes everywhere,  EXCEPT, underneath the lower horn.   They almost always look like they're straight off the bandsaw in that spot.

WHY?   

[Admiral]

The same reason that the backs of furniture are left rough, you don't see it and it doesn't matter. Saws were a high volume production item and they only paid attention to what mattered. Nowadays, when you pay $200 or more for a newly manufactured handsaw, you expect perfection.

[Timberwolf]

The same reason that the backs of furniture are left rough, you don't see it and it doesn't matter.  Saws were a high volume production item and they only paid attention to what mattered.  Nowadays, when you pay $200 or more for a newly manufactured handsaw, you expect perfection.

................................
You could even say that to some folks these days,, looks are just as important as performance

[C. in Indy]

Next question:

For vintage saws, a broken-off upper "horn" on the tote shows up a LOT.   Sometimes it looks like the remaining top nub is deliberately rounded-down.   Was that actually a help to some sawyers?


Chris

[Admiral]

Next question:

For vintage saws, a broken-off upper "horn" on the tote shows up a LOT.   Sometimes it looks like the remaining top nub is deliberately rounded-down.   Was that actually a help to some sawyers?


Chris

No.  Saws fell off of saw horses, or fell out of tool boxes or totes, and if they went down on the horn, it chipped or cracked off leaving a ragged edge.  So, rasp it was to smooth it out.  BTDT......  The horn actually gives you more control during the stroke in my experience, but is not essential.

[Mike Brady]

Chris, I'll go out on a limb with some speculation:

Saw handles back in the day were all hand-sanded and detailed.  You can see that becaused the round-overs are so smooth and the shaper marks are gone.  I'm guessing that the handle was held in a vise that grabbed the handle low.  You could sand every surface except that part where the jaws of the fixture grabbed the handle --at the least visible part where the buyer wouldn't see---the underneath part of the lower horn.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Another area of interest is the wheat carving on the cheeks of some handles.  I used to think they were carved the way a chip carver does them, with a knife.  As it turns out, they were done with a stationary machine that has a pointed rotary tool for making the "carving".  That would have been fun to watch.

[Philip1231]

When it comes to nibs, its intuitively obvious. The location of every nib I've ever seen would strongly suggest that it was
intended to be an indicator to the sawyer regarding the limit of the upstroke of the sawing action. To maximize efficiency in hand sawing, the saw must be pulled back as far as practicable, without going too far. The nib allows the sawyer to use the nib to index this maximum pulled back position. End of story.

[Jim Waldron]

When it comes to nibs, its intuitively obvious.  The location of every nib I've ever seen would strongly suggest that it was
intended to be an indicator to the sawyer regarding the limit of the upstroke of the sawing action. To maximize efficiency in hand sawing, the saw must be pulled back as far as practicable, without going too far.  The nib allows the sawyer to use the nib to index this maximum pulled back position.  End of story.

Nice logical hypothesis. End of story? Not until you can furnish factual evidence to support your "thought experiment."

Obviously you are a good thinker, but do take note that many of Dr. Einstein's postulates from his thought experiments are still the subject of vast expenditures to produce objective evidence to confirm or refute his hypotheses. Notably, so far, Dr. Einstein is prevailing.

Logical consistency is not a proof. It is often a necessary first step toward a proof (and inconsistent logic can be a sufficient "disproof").

I like your story so far, but there has to be more to make an "end of story."

[Philip1231]

End of story means that is all the mental horsepower I am about to expend thinking about a saw nib

Nice logical hypothesis.  End of story?  Not until you can furnish factual evidence to support your "thought experiment."  

Obviously you are a good thinker, but do take note that many of Dr. Einstein's postulates from his thought experiments are still the subject of vast expenditures to produce objective evidence to confirm or refute his hypotheses.  Notably, so far, Dr. Einstein is prevailing.  

Logical consistency is not a proof.  It is often a necessary first step toward a proof (and inconsistent logic can be a sufficient "disproof").  

I like your story so far, but there has to be more to make an "end of story."

[bandit571]

Hmmm...a saw moving at a decent rate...

   
Quickly turns  the far end of a saw into a blur....while one is trying to saw a line....turns that hood ornament  into a blur....rather distracting to watch  the nib, and the cut, at the same time...

As for the handle...

   
Atkins called this a Perfection Handle.....note...if a hand won't be grabbing an area, no rounding/shaping was done to the edges....IF a hand would be graping a spot, it was shaped to fit.   Saw is from the 1937 era....and quite comfy to use...