W. Tyzack, Sons & Turner Carcase Saw

I picked up this nice carcase saw at a yard sale a few weeks ago. I'm not sure of the vintage on this saw but it looks like its 20 or 30 years old. There was some minor discoloration on the plate, no pitting or hard rust. The teeth were pretty sharp and the set seemed pretty even along the length of the cutting edge, just a little gummed up with sap or something. The tote is in fine shape but the finish was just falling off. Looks like it was kept in a damp place or something, I'm not sure but it seemed to have been alligatoring right off. I'm sorry I don't have a nice before photo, I thought I did. I think you can see in this first picture how the finish that's left, is a little funky. The worst of it was in the larger, flat expanses on the cheeks of the tote; the edges were actually holding pretty well. What I didn't like about this tote, other than the finish, is the vestigial signs of the tote design of yesteryear.

After sanding, I penciled in the lamb's tongue and other adjustments

Take a look at the design of this tote. You can see the lamb's tongue right there! Its just... mushed in with the rest of the handle. Its like a tease. So I decided that if I was going to strip this tote anyways I might as well bring a little life back to my new saw, and to myself, because, as you can see, a little part of me died inside when I looked at this thing.

Here it is after a quick trip to the band saw. Hello V-groove.

I'm not trying to recreate an older version W. Tyzack, Sons & Turner saw, so the design I chose is just something I like. Other than restoring the carved lamb's tongue complete with a clip and a real V-groove, I also adjusted the upper and lower curves of the lower horn to accentuate that Western design. The upper curve of the lower horn also rubbed against the bottom of my hand when I held the saw, so I wanted to open it up a little. I also wanted to cut in a double nib at the front of the upper horn.

From below, the reshaped lower horn, lamb's tongue and clip

After the rough cutting it was over to the bench vice with a rasp and a few files. This tote is beech, so it works pretty easily with the grain but shreds across the grain, so I couldn't cut very deep with the rasp without making a mess for myself, so it was easy going and I ended up swapping back and forth from my whittling knife to a small file as I got closer to where I wanted to be. I ended up finishing the shaping with my Dremmel to save my shoulder, which has been bothering me. If I had to do it again, I'd cut the clip in by hand, so its not so deep; seems like a weak spot.

There, doesn't that feel better?

Once it was shaped out nice, then it was only a matter of sanding it down, cleaning off the rest of the old finish and putting a new finish on. I don't have any ruby shellac, and frankly I'm not wild about the original color, and I thought the beech was a little pale, so I rubbed in a little oil stain and set it to dry on my shop made pin board. A guy I worked with years ago described this finishing aid to me. Mine is a piece of fir with box nails driven through it. The piece sits on the nail points to dry and the blemishes are tiny and sand out easily between coats. Thanks Phil!

After the staining, I added a few coats of 2# cut shellac, with a little sanding between coats. While the finish coats were drying I turned to the plate and the sex bolts, which I cleaned up and coated with paste wax. I thought about stripping the plate with abrasives to remove the discolorations, but the plate isn't etched, its just screened, so it would have come right off. I decided that a little cleaning with a scotch bright pad was enough.

All set to go

 
I finished up with a coat of dark Bri-wax rubbed in with 000 steel wool, and reassembled the saw. No re-sharpening right now, I've decided to use it a bit and see if it really needs it. A few tests cuts have confirmed that its good to go for now. Not only does this pretty little saw look better, but it feels better in my hand. Not bad for a few bucks at a yard sale a few hours at the bench.

A last glamour shot