01 Restoring Disston Hand Saw - Cleaning the saw plate

In this video I show how to clean the saw plate of a 20" Cross Cut Disston panel saw with a few simple materials. The process takes less than 20 minutes.

Pragmatic Woodworking - My Blog

Bad Axe Tool Works

Stanley Mini-Razor Blade Scraper

Wizards Metal Renew Liquid Polish

Klingspor Sandflex Fine Cleaning

3M Scotch-Brite Maroon General Purpose Hand Pad

Kramer's Best Antique Improver

Bee's Wax Furniture Polish

[thworker]

I wish more people had the love for tools as you do. Thank You for sharing.

[tomdougherty]

Thanks for had my Grandpa's saw for 30 been collecting Stanley Planes for a few two days ago I found the etching on my saw - and have dated to A friend taught me how to sharpen really got me excited a blessed


PS - might help your marriage if you don't complain about your wife mean I get - mine "mothers me to death" but gosh in their she don't love you smiley face

[Swooop]

Hmm. My first half dozen saws have had very little rust under the totes. Btw, I use Bad Axe's process too. Love the results. Hats off to Mark Harrell for sharing his process.

[MISANTHROPE]

Beautiful work. I have box of old Distons in the garage awaiting some love.

[countrywoodcreationsnywv]

show labels of products you use.
Just my 2 cents. I do it differently, but open to new ideas too. Im about to clean over 30 that women (brace yourself) painted the blades bright colors with flowers. they weren't selling at Flea market, and I explained why. I bought all 30 Disston's for $100. I did one so far, and it looks new, and I bet it cut 3 pieces of wood in it's life. Amazing how sharp it was. I did the screws and entire handle also. I even cut a dry piece of a Bubinga cut off from a huge slab. Now that is the ultimate test for quality and blade sharpness. That wood was like stone. I agree, Disston was amazing. I will do the other 29, as soon as we slow down (business). August is normally our slower month. Looking forward to having 3 dozen of them looking new again. I already had 6

[roadking]

Evaporust works great and biodegradable !

[markwhites]

I find soaking in vinagar over night works great get rid of rust easy....:)

[Rusty_ok]

Explain why you did not remove the handle/grip before starting to remove the rust and dirt?

[gchampi]

Point 1 - DUST MASK!!! Scraping a blade produces lots of very fine powdered rust. You DO NOT want to be breathing that stuff in.

Point 2 - Give the blade a good spraydown with WD40 before you begin scraping. It reduces the scraping dust (see point 1), softens contaminants (paint, tar, etc), and generally lubricates the whole scraping process...

[ricksspringfield]

Great work on the plate....best vid I've seen on "restoring" a saw. I just watched a vid where a guy was using a grinder! Yikes!!!😒

[IgotHeliFever]

Now that's the way to refurbish a 100 + yr old Saw !
I just watched another video of someone " Restoring a 1880's Disston Back Saw with
an Orbital sander on the Plate to a fine shiney Polish then sanded the Handle down to
bare Wood & polyurethaning it to new? NO! He even removed the Back? OMG! But
people were still saying " best Saw Restore video on Youtube & Most Real
Woodworkers would rather have a "Restored Saw like his, all New & shiney that they
could use rather than a Dirtied Patina Plate and nasty stained Wooden Handle -
I say he didn't restore it but did Destroy It & the value that it had before all the sanding
& polishing made it just another saw to use in his Shop! What do you say PragmaticWoodworking ?

[Kikilang]

Vinegar removes rust, and is non-toxic. I seen people use Evaporust, which claims to be non-toxic, and it doesn't damage etchings that you can find on Disston saws. Some people use laser engravers to put embalms back on metal. If you take the handle off, the blade will lay flat. You can also use a car battery charger, and laundry soda to remove rust. I'm not that motivated, but I've seen people add a tapper to saw that didn't have one.

[toddavis]

Decent restoration, safe use of acid.

[bretespil]

Is there an advantage to using wizard’s instead of heavy duty rubbing compound (ie:turtle wax variety)??

[jkg]

You should always remove the handle when cleaning the plate ! That’s a no brainer !

[johnburens]

Electrolysis... much better way and doesn't harm the material. Try it out on your next saw for rust removal. It will like like new damn near!

[keithhendrick]

If you do a video and say great a product is show it.

[wallacehodge]

I enjoyed the saw cleaning and will follow your method. You should work to get rid of a verbal habit you have, saying "you know" far too often. Try just pausing as you work. We are watching and do not need constant verbal material.

[walterg]

It's not a good job if you don't remove the handle first.

[Berre]

Dude wears gloves, no mask? I'd rather wash my hands than risk a lung infection.