Garage Sale Finds

I went to a few garage sales last weekend to try my luck at some old tools.  I found nothing of interest at every sale, except one.  At that sale, I found a Disston panel saw and a 10″ draw knife.  Both were in pretty rough shape and in need of a major clean-up.  The guy wanted $20 for the draw knife and $5 for the saw.   I offered him $15 for both, and he took it.

A Disston panel saw

The plate is pretty black and the etch is not visible.  All of the rust appears to be on the surface though, so I don’t think that there will be any major pitting to be concerned about.  It will need sharpening as in its current state, it wouldn’t cut butter.

This saw has seen better days.

The tote will need to be completely re-finished.  The lacquer or urethane that is on it has turned yellow and is crumbling off.  In short, it looks like crap.  Overall though, this saw has good bones, the tote is all there and not cracked, the plate is nice and straight, and all the hardware is there.  I think that once properly restored, this will be an awesome little saw.

Interestingly, all the hardware on the saw is steel.  I have bought a few old Disston handsaws before, and they all had brass hardware.  Perhaps this one is wartime manufacture and all the brass was being used for shell casings?

The draw knife had already been restored by some previous “loving” owner. Unfortunately, it appears that the things used to restore the knife were spray paint and rain.

A rather rusty, spray painted draw knife.

The handles, metal ferules, metal end-caps, and part of the knife had all been sprayed with paint.  The parts that don’t have spray paint have rust instead.  In short, it looks even crappier than the saw.  No problem, I can fix it.

I’d say that it was $15 well spent.  The clean-up is already well under way and I’ll post more about it soon.

When am I going to get back to my workbench build…  Perhaps tomorrow?