Tenon Saw suggestion??

A surprise candidate

Jim Matthews

I like the DoAll brand saws with wooden handles.

Snag the companion miter box if it's available.

Good quality steel for little money.

Re: Tenon Saw suggestion?? *LINK*

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

Around here the various lengths of Disston No. 4 backsaws are ubiquitous. As always with a saw, sight down the tooth line and reject any bent saws. And go for saws with fancier handles (see the Disstonian Institute, linky below) - they're older and probably more reliable as to steel quality, and the handles are more comfortable than the later, blocky handles.

I've found them pretty decent saws.


http://www.disstonianinstitute.com/

Re: Tenon Saw suggestion??

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

Tom, the first consideration is whether you want a 12" or a 14" plate. My preference is a 14" plate.

There are plenty of Disstons around, but my favourite is a 14" Drabble & Sanderson, circa 1920? This is the bottom saw. The top backsaw is a 12" Disston #5. I'm not sure what year this would be.

I think I filed both 12 tpi.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: Tenon Saw suggestion??

Tom Norton

Thanks! I will begin the Hunt!

I'd buy...

David Weaver

..a pair of saws from england that have good teeth (and are advertised as being straight and undamaged) and a good spine.

Sell the one you like least of the two (it won't cost much and your odds are a lot better).

The disston 4 and copies of it would be a second choice for me.

The bonus of the english saws is that the steel is sometimes a bit softer (but only a little bit) and you can sometimes file one 10 or 15 times with a single file (which means if you don't need to do tooth reshaping, you may be using the same file for a very long time).

The boutique market chases the idea of harder and harder teeth, but it's a trade off with file life for very little more tooth life (and the promise of using a kind of dull saw for a long time to avoid sharpening).

avoid any saws that have broken teeth, no matter how nice. The chance of the teeth breaking when you set them goes up exponentially if there's already a broken tooth on the plate.

(by going to england, I mean through an English tool dealer or buying on ebay.co.uk. A nice brass backed tenon saw over there will sell for about $40-$75 (the high end for something almost perfect) and shipping can be a bit expensive, but I think net of all if you keep one saw and look for a week or two before buying, you'll be kitted with what you want for about $75.

Re: I'd buy...

Tom Norton

David,is there a maker you might suggest?

Re: I'd buy...

David Weaver

Not really. If the saw is older, all of the makers are reasonably good quality. Just look for handles that look like they have some measure of hand work in them.