Every once in a while I'm asked if I could restore or make a saw for a fellow woodworker. Unfortunately, my current employment situation allows me little time for personal endeavors (like finishing my shop!), much less that for others - so I've had to severely cut back work I do for others.

Gladly, I'm certainly not the only game in town, and my response is invariably to recommend one of the others I know that are in the business. It seems that just a few years ago when I first posted the article about making your own saws, there were only three premium sawmakers with product on the market(perhaps more, it depends on your definition of "premium"). Now - it seems - there are many, many more to choose from. When asked, I usually steer someone towards what I believe would fit them best, and wanted to compile that list in a single location - here, obviously. If I don't mention everyone that's out there, please forgive me - these are only the ones I've had some direct experience with.

I see bit of discussion on the web lately of the finer points of hand saw design. I certainly welcome that there is enough interest in the subject to spur such debate, so thought I might throw my hat in the ring, FWIW. 

On canted (tapered blade heights) backsaws:

One thing noticed by many is that on older backsaws, the blade varies in height along it's length - from narrower at the front (toe) to wider at the back (heel). Then, sometime in the mid-1800's, the trend was to a more parallel back - where the cutting edge of the blade is parallel to the back of the saw. In this illustration, the upper saw's cutting edge is parallel to the edge, and the lower is "canted":

If you look closely you can see the blade at the left end of the saw is not as deep as he blade at the back.

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 Stanley Tool company is legendary in hand tool circles...  It is their planes that a large majority of us woodworkers cut their teeth on.  They have been making the most popular line of woodworking planes since the late 1800's - at least until the quality of their product began to suffer after WWII, ultimately reaching their low point in the 60's and 70's where the level of quality has remained until today.  Yet there are so many examples of Stanley planes out there remaining from pre-WWII days still in use today that they are still setting the standard by which others are graded even to this day.  It wasn't limited to just bench planes either - one only has to look at Patrick Leach's pages on Stanley planes to see the breadth of their product line from the day.  The sheer extent of their product offerings is testament to their popularity.   Only recently have independent toolmakers - as a collective - even begun to breach a portion of it.

Any reader of this site knows I am a fan of oil stones... One of the finest quality oil stones out there are by the Norton company are known as "Lily White Washita" stones.  These are the type of stones I learned how to sharpen on - I had one of these stones for many years, and lost it through a mishap 10 or 12 years ago now - and I have missed it. They had gone out of production many years ago and were no longer available, but still command a hefty price for a vintage one on ebay and the like when you found a used one. 

Then, a couple years ago, Joel Moskowitz at Tools for Working Wood worked his magic with the Norton company (the manufacturer and owner of the quarry where they are mined) and got them to resurrect their Lily White Washita line of oil stones. 

When I heard they were available again I was ecstatic.  But of course I didn't buy any right away - I always had something else that was more important to get first, as I now have a hard translucent arkansas that's been serving me quite well.  However - I nearly waited too long...