Ok, I've used a little licence in the title, but in fact at various times the giant American saw manufacturer Disston did refer to their D-95 as their "Masterpiece" saw. It is true to say that it was the most expensive saw they ever sold.
It was introduced in 1935 at a time when the market was depressed and all the saw manufacturers were struggling to find a point of difference. Plastics were becoming all the rage and ever the master of marketing, the Disston corporation not only introduced a plastic handle, but revolutionised the composition.
It was available in at least three different colour combinations, maybe four. This was one of them and probably the most tasteful" The others were garish if you were feeling kind towards them.
Attachment 365453 Attachment 365454
The saw below is a rather horrible orange. ( I have seen a green too) It is one of my keepers as it was made during WW2 and has the "Victory" etch, which for me is the redeeming feature.
Attachment 365471
Quite a tidy saw, extremely comfortable to hold and superb to use. Of course being plastic it either enjoyed or suffered from a reputation. As time went on it became less and less a draw card. In fact soon after Disston was taken over by HK Porter in 1955 the D-95 was re-modeled with a timber handle, but those saws are not so keenly sought after.
Not only was the D-95 plastic (Disston used their marketing nouce and called it Disstonite, but it was in reality a product named Tenite) but it came in two parts: Disassembled it looked like this:
Attachment 365455 Attachment 365456 Attachment 365457 Attachment 365458
I had always considered the handle close to bullet proof, but as you can see, this handle was shot to pieces and no reasonable way to repair it. I had four of these saws. One came without a handle and is the plate above. The other three had badly damaged handles with the horn missing or the pastic badly distorted, apparently from heat (think flame thrower).
I had always intended to put a handle on the original saw that was a bare plate, but you can see the problem. The holes are huge as they receive the raised plastic spigots. The handle also has washers embedded in in the top half of the handle with a square hole and in the main large section of the handle more washers so a lock (spring) washer can bear upon it.
It was indeed ingenious; A masterpiece if you prefer.
However, none of that helped me to re-handle the saw. I had two options: I could drill new holes in the plate or I could try to utilise the existing holes.
Drilling more holes is OK but it offends my sense of correctness plus the holes may look a little off as there is not much metal left for optimum placing of the saw nuts.
My solution was to make up washers to suit the hole size and then drill them to accommodate the saw nuts. Not wishing to introduce heat into the plate by welding (I am not competent with Tig and I felt even Mig would still be too much heat resulting in distortion even allowing that the handle was sufficiently far from the tempered tooth line) I used a two part epoxy.
The washers were punched out using a 16mm punch in our works cropper and then filed down until they fitted.
I cut a series of small slots into the edge of the washers with a hacksaw to give a "key." Really the washers only have to remain in place until the handle is in position as they are trapped by the handle, but it is convenient to have them fixed (and unbelievably inconvenient if left loose).
Attachment 365464Attachment 365465
Then it was just a question of making up handles. The handles were complete hybrids and made from Spotted Gum: Not the easiest of timber to work with, but my reasoning was that if I am going to create a hybrid, it might as well be an an Australian hybrid. The saw nuts are brass with Disston medallions of the era (Originally they were nickel plated brass, but the plastic handle is thinner than the timber handles and the nuts are too short to use in timber.
The colour of the timber is closer to the very last picture in this thread. For some reason the time of day has given the timber an orange hue.
Attachment 365460 Attachment 365461 Attachment 365462
and it just needed a little sharpen. This keeper is 7ppi.
Attachment 365463
and I know you want more (apologies to Demtel)
Attachment 365459
26", 24" and 22"all 8ppi. They will make an appearance in the Marketplace over the weekend probably.
I could have placed this thread in the saw handmade section, but I though that with the very limited input by me it would have been presumptuous.
Regards
Paul
(Pictures not loading: Just showing as an attachment. Could the mods help me out? They appear as a picture in edit)
It was introduced in 1935 at a time when the market was depressed and all the saw manufacturers were struggling to find a point of difference. Plastics were becoming all the rage and ever the master of marketing, the Disston corporation not only introduced a plastic handle, but revolutionised the composition.
It was available in at least three different colour combinations, maybe four. This was one of them and probably the most tasteful" The others were garish if you were feeling kind towards them.
Attachment 365453 Attachment 365454
The saw below is a rather horrible orange. ( I have seen a green too) It is one of my keepers as it was made during WW2 and has the "Victory" etch, which for me is the redeeming feature.
Attachment 365471
Quite a tidy saw, extremely comfortable to hold and superb to use. Of course being plastic it either enjoyed or suffered from a reputation. As time went on it became less and less a draw card. In fact soon after Disston was taken over by HK Porter in 1955 the D-95 was re-modeled with a timber handle, but those saws are not so keenly sought after.
Not only was the D-95 plastic (Disston used their marketing nouce and called it Disstonite, but it was in reality a product named Tenite) but it came in two parts: Disassembled it looked like this:
Attachment 365455 Attachment 365456 Attachment 365457 Attachment 365458
I had always considered the handle close to bullet proof, but as you can see, this handle was shot to pieces and no reasonable way to repair it. I had four of these saws. One came without a handle and is the plate above. The other three had badly damaged handles with the horn missing or the pastic badly distorted, apparently from heat (think flame thrower).
I had always intended to put a handle on the original saw that was a bare plate, but you can see the problem. The holes are huge as they receive the raised plastic spigots. The handle also has washers embedded in in the top half of the handle with a square hole and in the main large section of the handle more washers so a lock (spring) washer can bear upon it.
It was indeed ingenious; A masterpiece if you prefer.
However, none of that helped me to re-handle the saw. I had two options: I could drill new holes in the plate or I could try to utilise the existing holes.
Drilling more holes is OK but it offends my sense of correctness plus the holes may look a little off as there is not much metal left for optimum placing of the saw nuts.
My solution was to make up washers to suit the hole size and then drill them to accommodate the saw nuts. Not wishing to introduce heat into the plate by welding (I am not competent with Tig and I felt even Mig would still be too much heat resulting in distortion even allowing that the handle was sufficiently far from the tempered tooth line) I used a two part epoxy.
The washers were punched out using a 16mm punch in our works cropper and then filed down until they fitted.
I cut a series of small slots into the edge of the washers with a hacksaw to give a "key." Really the washers only have to remain in place until the handle is in position as they are trapped by the handle, but it is convenient to have them fixed (and unbelievably inconvenient if left loose).
Attachment 365464Attachment 365465
Then it was just a question of making up handles. The handles were complete hybrids and made from Spotted Gum: Not the easiest of timber to work with, but my reasoning was that if I am going to create a hybrid, it might as well be an an Australian hybrid. The saw nuts are brass with Disston medallions of the era (Originally they were nickel plated brass, but the plastic handle is thinner than the timber handles and the nuts are too short to use in timber.
The colour of the timber is closer to the very last picture in this thread. For some reason the time of day has given the timber an orange hue.
Attachment 365460 Attachment 365461 Attachment 365462
and it just needed a little sharpen. This keeper is 7ppi.
Attachment 365463
and I know you want more (apologies to Demtel)
Attachment 365459
26", 24" and 22"all 8ppi. They will make an appearance in the Marketplace over the weekend probably.
I could have placed this thread in the saw handmade section, but I though that with the very limited input by me it would have been presumptuous.
Regards
Paul
(Pictures not loading: Just showing as an attachment. Could the mods help me out? They appear as a picture in edit)
Masterpiece saw
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