The Wood Shop

The smaller Disston 8" backsaws don't show up at an affordable price too often (at least for me they don't!) and when I saw this mis-labeled saw (it was advertised as a 10" saw, the seller had measured it's total length rather than blade length) on ebay some time ago I placed a lowball bid, fully not expecting to get the saw. Yet, I won - I think I got it for around $18 including shipping. Here's the saw as it arrived:

The saw: bought for under $20 - though the price turned out too good to be true.|

Upon closer inspection, my elation was short-lived. The saw had some serious flaws. What I though was simply dirt or discoloration turned out to be pitting, and quite severe, as you can see in the next photo.

The editor for both Popular Woodworking and Woodworking magazines, Chris Schwarz, has published his first book: Workbenches: from Design and Theory to Construction and Use. Over the years I've become a fan of Mr. Schwarz's; he's helping bring the hand tool element back to the over "powered" woodworking magazines of the last two decades. For the last many years, magazines have disappointed me again and again with their over-"powered" approach to absolutely everything. For example, if you wanted to do dovetails they preached the use of a $400 router accessory over simple hand cut craftsmanship. I don't do enough dovetails to warrant purchasing one of those accessories, even if I wanted one, so that approach has always irked me.

Mr. Schwarz has been quietly advocating a return to a more simple approach to woodworking... one that does not preclude the use of power tools, but neither does it ignore centuries of tradition and process.

Two of the most basic tools in a joiner’s toolbox are the lowly awl and marking knife - yet they are often two of the poorest tools, too. I know - I've been suffering with a pair of cheap hardware store awls for years - they are truly useless for marking, though. Thick and heavy, and don't hold a point worth squat. My main marking knife has been a utility knife, too - a poor substitute. Yet these are some of the most important tools to have for fine joinery. I decided it was time for an upgrade...

One of the marks of a quality saw, at least back in the day, was the presence of an etched logo on the blade.  These etches were more than the laser-printed logos of today that practically wipe off the first time you use the saw - the etch was an acid process that actually ate into the metal, leaving the logo behind, etched right into the metal.

I have long searched for a economical way to etch a logo into the sides of my saw blades, and here's what I've found - here's my take on one of those logos: 

The screws and nuts that hold a saw handle onto its blade are getting to be either hard to find, or are exceedingly expensive.  The standard issue nuts from the hardware store are simple plated steel, and are not consistent in length in my experience.  The brass split nuts are available, but are limited in supply and quite expensive at about $5 each plus shipping at the time of this writing.  I  thought to myself that I could make them almost as well using a few simple tools found in most woodworking shops - and then I would be able to claim that the saws I