I've been doing drawings once a day for the month of October this year for the Inktober Inking challenge, and the prompt for yesterday was Compass. Rather than drawing of a wayfinding compass, or a drafting compass, I decided to put down an idea for a new tote design for a compass saw.
Traditional handsaws, and backsaws have always had handsome totes, but compass saws have suffered a little in the design area. I think that is based on the needs of the user, and the way the saw is often used, either upside down, or sideways, with three fingers on the handle and the forefinger along side the cheek, or with four fingers in and a thumb on top. In practice, this has led to a simple hook shape with no horns to get in the way of turning the saw, or changes in grip, but I'm hoping for a tote design that allows for both.
My design takes obvious clues from traditional compass saw tote designs like those from Jackson and Disston, and others but I've tried to add just a little more detail to keep the tote from being so drab. Some larger versions or table saws will often have horns to and bottom, similar to a backsaw, but may not be as flexible for different grips as the hornless design.
A quick ebay search today resulted in a few examples:
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| Disston Compass Tote |
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| Tyzack Compass Tote |
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| 'Vintage' so I'm not sure who the maker is |
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| William Webster, Shefield Compass Tote |
Is my Compass tote design a big difference? No, but that's not the point. The point is to add back a little of the detail that makes the horned tote on the Webster, without loosing the flexibility of the simpler, 'pistol-grip' styles.
Next up is to do a test.
