How to Restore an Antique Back Saw
A guide on understanding hand saws, and how to properly and carefully restore a vintage backsaw for use in your workshop
By Joshua Farnsworth | Updated Feb 04, 2022 (originally published Jul 17, 2017)
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In this article I’ll show you 8 steps of how to refurbish and restore a woodworking backsaw. In my above video, expert hand saw maker Tom Calisto goes into detail on refurbishing an antique Simonds back saw that I bought years ago. These steps apply to restoring a hand saw of most types.
Tom teaches classes at my school and at Roy Underhill’s The Woodwright’s School, and he is a contributing writer for both Fine Woodworking Magazine and Popular Woodworking Magazine.
Before he refurbished the backsaw, I asked Tom to take some time to talk about hand saw types, hand saw teeth, parts of hand saws, and what to look for and avoid when buying antique hand saws.
This is valuable (and rarely covered) information that I also wrote about in great detail in my hand saw buying guide (visit it here) but I’m including some very important points from it below, that more-or-less follow what Tom talks about in the video.
Tom and I filmed this free tutorial video after we finished filming the DVD “Building an 18th Century Panel Saw with Tom Calisto”, that is based on the John Kenyon hand saws that were found in Benjamin Seaton’s famous tool chest.
Finding and restoring antique hand saws can be extremely enjoyable, affordable, and fairly simple when compared to other woodworking hand tools (like hand planes). I love the satisfaction I get from restoring neglected antique saws. In this wood hand saw article I show the steps to restore an antique hand saw.
But first I’ll talk about different hand saw types and the five specific hand saws that you’ll need to buy to get started in traditional woodworking: dovetail saw, carcass saw, tenon saw, rip hand saw, and cross-cut hand saw.
There are 3 hand saw characteristics that are important for woodworkers to understand: (a) Hand Saw Type, (b) Hand Saw Tooth Shape, and (c) Hand Saw Tooth Count. I’ll briefly summarize these hand saw characteristics below, and also share (d) Parts of a Back Saw and Hand Saw :
Hand Saw Features to Consider
Below I’ll briefly talk about different features to consider when buying a back saw or other type of hand saw.
A. Types of Hand Saws
I divide most traditional woodworking hand saws into three general categories: (a) Hand Saw, (b) Back Saw, and (c) Frame Saw. Below I summarize each of these three hand saw types:
Hand Saw
Sometimes called “Panel Saws”, these hand saws have a handle and thin flexible metal saw plate with no rigid back or frame. Hand saws have larger teeth and are generally used for quickly rough-cutting boards to length or width. These hand saws were manufactured in very large quantities and are easy to find and usually inexpensive. The specific name of this saw type also happens to be the general name of all non-power saws: “hand saw”.
Back Saw
A Back Saw (also spelled Backsaw) has fine teeth and a thin metal saw plate, and is used for making precision wood cuts. A back saw has a rigid brass or steel back to keep the saw plate from bending, which provides rigidity for accurate cuts of wood joints. The smaller the backsaw teeth, the finer the cut. Historically, back saws were used primarily by joiners and cabinetmakers, and are typically more expensive than normal hand saws.
Frame Saw
A Frame saw (or “bow saw” or “turning saw”) uses tension to tighten a blade between two saw arms. When used with a narrow blade, a frame saw works great for cutting curves (similar to a power bandsaw) and can also be used for rough cutting boards when a larger blade is added. Frame saws come in all sorts of sizes, with small teeth for fine work to large teeth for rough-cutting.
B. Hand Saw Tooth Shape
Hand saw blades are usually sharpened to two different tooth configurations, “Rip” and “Cross Cut”. That’s why you typically hear someone refer to hand saws as rip saws or crosscut saws. However, you can certainly change any saw’s tooth shape with saw sharpening tools. There is also a hybrid hand saw tooth configuration that is in between a rip saw and a crosscut saw, called a “Sash” tooth configuration, or a sash saw, which is useful if you can only afford one hand saw…but it’s not as proficient at either ripping or cross-cutting. Here are some tooth shape diagrams:
Rip Saw Teeth
Hand saws sharpened with “Rip” teeth are called rip saws, and will cut along the length of the board’s grain (“ripping”). The tooth is shaped like a woodworking chisel, and pushes through the wood like a chisel. This is illustrated in the above photo.
Crosscut Saw Teeth
Hand saws that are sharpened with “Cross Cut” teeth are called a crosscut saw, and cut across the grain (“cross cutting”). The tooth is shaped like a knife blade. It cleanly severs the wood grain, just as if you used a sharp knife. This is also illustrated in the above photo.
C. Hand Saw Tooth Count
The number of saw teeth per inch (or points per inch) is another important factor in selecting a hand saw for a particular purpose. Large hand saw teeth will cut quickly through the wood, but will leave a rough surface. Small hand saw teeth will cut finely and accurately, but are not practical for cutting long lengths or widths. When dealing with normal hand saws or frame saws, “Rip” teeth are typically larger than “Cross Cut” teeth.
On a backsaw, rip and crosscut teeth can vary in size. The number of teeth per inch are usually expressed as either “points per inch” (ppi) or “teeth per inch” (tpi) and the number is usually stamped into the saw plate. However, you can change the tooth count during your sharpening. Here are examples of large (rough) and small (fine) hand saw teeth:
This photo shows a back saw called a dovetail saw. It has rip teeth filed to a tooth count of about 15 ppi.
This photo shows a hand saw with rip teeth filed to a tooth count of about 5 ppi.
D. Parts of a Back Saw and Parts of a Hand Saw
In the above back saw diagram you will see the different parts of a traditional backsaw. Below you will see the parts of a traditional hand saw. The obvious main difference between the two hand saw types is the back saw has a stiff metal back which keeps the saw plate stiff, and the normal hand saw has a flexible saw plate:
8 Steps to Restore an Antique Back Saw:
After you’ve purchased your antique hand saw or back saw, it’s time to start breaking down the saw. But first, you’ll need to make sure you have a few simple tools and supplies:
Step 1: Gather Materials & Tools Needed for Hand Saw Restoration
- Roll of Plastic sheet or garbage bag (to cover your workbench or table)
- Flat head screwdriver (find a snug fitting size for your saw nuts to prevent stripping). If you have an old split nut style, you can file a notch in a screw driver to fit into the split screw nut.
- Mineral Spirits
- #0000 Steel Wool
- 400 grit Wet Dry Sandpaper
- Brass polish (I use this kind)
- Paste Wax
- For saw sharpening supplies, read my saw sharpening supplies guide here
Step 2: Disassemble the Back Saw
Start disassembling the back saw by removing the back saw nuts and medallion. These are usually made with soft brass metal, so be careful when removing the hand saw nuts and medallion from the backsaw because you can easily strip the nut’s slot. Use a flat head screwdriver that is not too big or too small. For very old back saws, like the below dovetail saw, you will have to remove split saw nuts. For this style of saw nut, you’ll need a special split nut driver:
Carefully unscrew the nuts, and then use a pencil or some sort of rod to push the other half of the nut out the back. From personal experience with rehabbing a lot of hand saws, it’s a good idea to keep track of which nuts belong to which holes. Over the decades, the handle holes come to be custom-shaped around the each particular saw nut. Next pull the handle off of the back saw plate. If you are restoring a back saw, make sure that you do not remove the saw plate from the saw back, as the saw plate will kink, and you will likely never be able to get it straight again.
Step 3: Clean & Sand the Back Saw Plate
Using 400 grit wet & dry sandpaper as an abrasive and mineral spirits as a lubricant, sand the rusted back saw plate and brass or steel saw back lengthwise. Don’t worry about sanding until you get a shiny surface, as this will just likely remove the beautiful saw etching. After wiping the rust slurry off with a towel, check for remaining rust, and continue until it’s gone.
Step 4: Clean the Back Saw Handle
Next move onto cleaning the back saw handle. Unless your hand saw handle is quite damaged, I would strongly encourage you to NOT sand it, as it would remove the lovely and comfortable patina finish that has built up over 100+ years. If you want a new-looking saw, then buy a new saw. I love using antique hand saws that show a lot of use. These antique hand saws were used by amazing craftsmen to build incredible furniture. These saws may just contain mystical powers that help you become a better woodworker!
Use #0000 steel wool and mineral spirits to lightly clean the wooden saw handle. If you rub too hard, the patina will come off, so be careful. Repairing or replacing broken handles is beyond the scope of this tutorial, but Tom Calisto teaches how to make a new hand saw handle in this hand saw making DVD (Find the Streaming / Download version here). That would be a great solution for a hand saw that has a broken or ugly handle.
Step 5: Clean & Polish the Back Saw Nuts and Medallion
The most rewarding step, in my opinion, is to clean and polish the hand saw medallion and saw nuts. I personally prefer using a brass polish (like Brasso) and #0000 steel wool. I’d recommend wearing rubber gloves to do this. Within seconds lovely gold-colored brass shines through the dark hand saw medallion’s surface. After the hand saw medallion and hand saw nuts reach your preferred level of sheen, wipe them off with a clean towel or old T-shirt and set them aside.
Step 6: Wax the entire Back Saw
To prevent future rust and to improve the performance of the newly refurbished back saw (or other type of hand saw), apply a coating of some mild soft wax or paste wax of some kind (here are some brands to consider) to the handle and hand saw plate. The back saw nuts and medallion are usually brass, so they won’t rust.
Step 7: Reassemble the Back Saw
Once all the rust & grime is removed and the hand saw medallion and saw nuts are polished, it’s time to reassemble the hand saw. Reassembling the hand saw is essentially repeating step one in reverse. As I mentioned above, try to put the hand saw nuts and medallions back in the specific handle holes just as they came out. It’ll make for a tighter fit. Make sure you don’t hammer the saw nuts or medallion back in their hole, or you’ll strip the hole and screw threads. Don’t under tighten or over tighten the screw nuts while attempting to “clock” (align) the screw side of the nuts.
Step 8: Sharpen the Back Saw
At this stage you can now sharpen your back saw, or other type of hand saw. You can see my hand saw sharpening tutorial here. I prefer to sharpen my backsaw after I refurbish it, so (a) I don’t dull the freshly sharpened saw teeth and (b) so I don’t cut my hands on the freshly sharpened saw teeth.
If your saw teeth are in rough shape, then retoothing them is a great option. A retoother punches perfectly shaped new teeth in the saw plate.
I use a Foley Automatic Retoother (find them on ebay here) to give me a fresh set of teeth in preparation for sharpening (see below). This is a really exciting process! Once the new teeth are punched, then the hand sharpening goes much easier. But retoothing is not mandatory. But look at these perfectly shaped teeth!
Conclusion: The Backsaw After Refurbishing
Here are a couple of photos of the refurbished backsaw. Again, the goal wasn’t to make the saw look new. It was to make it more functional, and give it a little facelift at the same time!
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This was a fantastic tutorial on hand saw restoration. Thanks!
Glad you liked it Laura! How long have you been into using hand tools for woodworking? Hope you visit our forum!
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I was curious about the etching, I’ve got an old saw so rusty that I’m unable to even find the etching. I want to at least be able to see it again and try to identify the saw but I worry that I might ruin it. Is this an issue I need to worry about?
Hi Andrew, you can remove the rust and if there’s an etching it’ll appear.
Thanks! I really appreciate the reply. Also you have a fantastic channel and website. It’s a pleasure to read and view. An extremely helpful resource in an easy to understand format.
Take care