Backsaw

I came upon just the sort of back-saw I was looking for last weekend and did not find — this one was in an antique shop on Ferry Road, and cost me all of $38, a real bargain.

This saw is from an a Philadelphia maker I haven't heard of (Henry Disston & Sons, who turn out to be amazingly famous saw-makers and I am just ignorant) and will suit me very well. I don't know how old it is; it's a design that has been around for a very long time.

It sharpens up easily — I'll have to wait and see how well it keeps its edge. The brass (or maybe bronze?) spline is thick and heavy and straight. The blade is good and stiff, and the handle (beech, by the look of it) is worn smooth as smooth by use, and fits my rather small hand perfectly.

At some point the blade has been allowed to get rusty, and there's a bit of surface puckering that will need to be polished out. It looks like it's been chemically blued, probably by an antique dealer to disguise the rust damage. I don't care about that, and a lot of it will go when I grind and polish the surface smooth again.