New handle for a Tyzack back saw
Skip in Falls Church
>I finally got around to making a handle for the 10" Tyzack back saw I got a little while back. The open handle on it had broken off at the spine so all I had was the part that attaches to the saw, no grip. It was a little trickier than the other handles I've made. In the past I've always had an entire handle - no matter how badly mangled, to work with. Here I was working from scratch. Next, I'd never made a handle for a split nut saw and I understand split nuts are not made to be removed or reused. Unfortunately I don't have a supply of new split nuts handy so I had to reuse the ones that came with the saw. Also I like my grip to be about 7/8 inch thick (I have fairly big hands so I like a thick grip.) while the previous saw handle had been about 3/4 inch thick.
One of the saw bolts was bent and it appeared that it may have been hammered to be flush with the handle. Is that how split nuts were set flush? In any case, I had to straighten it to use it. Fortunately I was able to straighten it without breaking it.
I decided to make the handle out of quartersawn American beech and chose beech because the original handle had been made from beech. I took the design of the grip from another English open handle saw I have. There was a difference between the two in the angle between the grip and the blade. At least that was the interpretation I made because the piece of the original handle I have made a tighter arc at the transition to the grip. I adjusted the angle of the grip to fit that arc.
To accommodate the grip size I like but still set the split nuts flush, I planed the stock down to 7/8 inch then marked the center line for the blade and, using my mortising gauge, marked the part of the handle the blade set in to 3/4 inch. (I set the mortising gauge from the center line of the handle I had to one side of that handle. Then I used the center line of the new handle to mark each side to width.) I then planed that part to the lines. I smoothed the transition with a scraper.
I used a fret saw and brace and bit to cut out the handle then used a microplane, rasp and scraper to shape the handle. The I used 220 grit sand paper to finish it off. I drilled the holes for the split nuts with a drill press. The heads of the saw nuts and bolts are flush with the sides, but the ends of the bolts are not quite flush. However, I'm happy with the end result.
I don't know if anyone would be interested in my doing an article about how I made this handle. I checked the article section and didn't see an article about making saw handles. I did take a lot of pictures during the process.
I've had some communications with Adam Cherubini about saw handles - he has asserted that modern saw handles aren't comfortable. I've been pursuing that line and making some observations. So far nothing that really bears on his point (at least I don't think so) but do have some interesting observations.
The reason this saw doesn't have a handle is that it was broken off. It would appear that the orientation of the grain contributed to that. The grain direction of the original handle was parallel to the spine of the saw leaving the neck susceptible to breaking where it did. I fixed that by changing the orientation of the grain in the new handle. However, I've seen some other English saws that had the same grain orientation.
I also noticed the other split nut back saw I have has the same grain orientation - but that one is American. OTOH that orientation would make sense for the American saw because it is a closed handle and has a nut through the spine. The "finger" that projects from the front of the handle to accommodate the nut would be very weak if the grain orientation were set at an angle to the blade.
Has anyone else noticed anything similar? Was there a difference in the grain orientation in handles between America and England? Or was this a peculiarity of Tyzack? Or was there a time when grain orientation switched from parallel to the spine to the present day orientation?
Skip (who's finishing up a bunch of projects that were almost done.)
