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Reading this forum for a while has got me wanting to expand my hand tool arsenal, so lately I've been going to a few estate sales trying to get some deals on tools. I recently picked up lot of 8 saws at a local sale for $12 - it included a small hand made looking saw (handle looks like it was whittled with a pocket knife), an Atkins keyhole saw, and six panel saws. From doing some research on the web it looks like one is an 1896-1917 vintage Disston No. 7, two Disston D-8s (one 1896-1917, one 1940-1953 vintage), two Warranted Superior, and one no-name saw.
I've read about a few techniques for cleaning up the saws and first tried using a razor blade to scrape the worst of the rust off, followed by 220 grit sandpaper and mineral spirits to finish cleaning up the blade. I tried this on most of the saws - mostly to see if any had blade etchings left - but it was taking forever so I decided to try evaporust on the blades. My first attempt was on the older Disstons - they came out looking pretty good - very black but looked decent after a light sanding - but unfortunately the very light etching one the one is now totally gone. Is there any way to preserve the etching on the blade while still using evaporust? Or is going with sandpaper the only way? I'd like to try to preserve the other two if possible.
Also - from my untrained eye it looks like all of the saws are ground for crosscutting. My original plan was to get two of them sharpened (probably the two older Disstons) - keep one for crosscutting and have one reset as a rip saw - and possibly sell the others to try to finance some more tools. For the casual hand tool user would it be worthwhile to have multiple panel saws for different materials, or would one rip saw and one cross-cut saw typically be sufficient? I typically only work with stock in the 3/4 to 5/4 range. It looks like all of the saws are either 8 or 9 tpi - should I stick with this setup or go for more or less TPI?
Thanks!
-John
I've read about a few techniques for cleaning up the saws and first tried using a razor blade to scrape the worst of the rust off, followed by 220 grit sandpaper and mineral spirits to finish cleaning up the blade. I tried this on most of the saws - mostly to see if any had blade etchings left - but it was taking forever so I decided to try evaporust on the blades. My first attempt was on the older Disstons - they came out looking pretty good - very black but looked decent after a light sanding - but unfortunately the very light etching one the one is now totally gone. Is there any way to preserve the etching on the blade while still using evaporust? Or is going with sandpaper the only way? I'd like to try to preserve the other two if possible.
Also - from my untrained eye it looks like all of the saws are ground for crosscutting. My original plan was to get two of them sharpened (probably the two older Disstons) - keep one for crosscutting and have one reset as a rip saw - and possibly sell the others to try to finance some more tools. For the casual hand tool user would it be worthwhile to have multiple panel saws for different materials, or would one rip saw and one cross-cut saw typically be sufficient? I typically only work with stock in the 3/4 to 5/4 range. It looks like all of the saws are either 8 or 9 tpi - should I stick with this setup or go for more or less TPI?
Thanks!
-John
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