From: Tom Price
Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2001
Subject: Ol' Number 9
To: Oldtools
 
 
Esteemed Galoots,
 
I was out on a SWMBO errand this afternoon which involved stopping at one of
those office 'superstores'. OK, you have to bear with me on this one, but the
office store was near a Sears Roebuck retail store and I decided to stop in
there first. My excuse was that I wanted to find a deadblow hammer, one like
Steve Reynolds was using on his holdfasts last night (we were making bowsaws).
So, I went into the Sears and found the deadblow hammers - $24.95, ouch. Steve
got his on sale at 1/2 price and I'm not going to look him in the face at our
next meeting and tell him that I paid _retail_.
 
I went over to the office store and was amazed by the checkout lines. OK, the
other office superstore was farther away and if I sort of made a loop I could
swing by the flea market for a quick look-see, don'tcha know, for a deadblow
mallet. I had $8 in my pocket and I figured I could find something. What the
heck. It's not like Todd would buy up all the deadblow mallets. I figured I was
safe on those.
 
I parked at the flea market and went through the Field Of Dreams first before I
hit the paved area where the regular vendors are. No luck in the field so I
started on the north side of the paved area and went down the market row by row.
No deadblow mallets anywhere. Tom The Fisherman said that he didn't have any and
did I see that Snap-On mallet that went for $50 on Ebay? I said no, I hadn't and
went on my way. [As an aside, if I start tracking Snap-On tools on Ebay, I want
Steve to come over and BEAT ME SENSELESS WITH A RUSTY SHELTON.]
 
Eventually, I ended up at the Crazy Hungarian's stall (he's actually Portuguese
as it turns out) and rooted around for a while on the back table. No mallets,
but I did notice a couple of saws on the next table over. One of them had the
Disston #12 style handle but with no carving. Hmmm. I thought it might be that
'Warranteed Superior' saw he had for a while but when I turned this one over it
proved to have a 'Henry Disston and Son' medallion with split nuts. The etch was
deep and I could read it despite the patina on the blade. It proclaimed the saw
to be a #9, not a common saw. I picked the saw up and sighted down the blade
which proved to be perfectly straight. The blade was dark but looked like it
would clean up and only had a couple of patches of real pitting. It had been
recently sharpened and was still sharp. The top horn was missing some wood and
the nib was down to a nubbin. A fair amount of steel was gone on the depth but
still plenty left, for a user. I looked up through the open door of the nearby
van to see the Crazy Hungarian napping under the afternoon sun, up in the
passenger seat, feet resting on the dashboard. He looked rather peaceful, and I
thought it would be a shame to wake him up. I walked around to where his wife
was sitting and presented the saw to her. She turned around and yelled for him
to wake up, so much for my attempt to be considerate. He emerged, blinking like
an owl, and for once did not go through his entire spiel, just looked at the
saw, proclaimed it to be a Disston and demanded $8. Well, that is a fair amount
of money for a saw at this flea market but I paid up.
 
I walked down to Phil The Collector's stall and he immediately wanted to see the
saw. He had been in conversation with an elderly gentleman who took the saw,
bent the blade and tapped it so that it made a zinging sound. Phil's friend
pronounced it of good quality, so with this endorsement I went back to the car
and continued on the SWMBO errand, about 90 minutes later than planned.
 
The blade on this saw is heavily breasted, more than any other saw I have. I
suppose that I should leave the saw as is but I'm sure that there are other #9's
in closer-to-factory condition out there and I'm curious as to how this one will
be as a user. So, I'm going to clean up the blade, bring up the logo, and touch
up the teeth. Then, I'll place it in my toolchest with that beautiful #12 that I
found in the pre-dawn tailgating at PATINA two years ago and that #16 'Thin
Back' saw that I had Tom Law re-tooth recently and the big D-8 thumbhole rip I
found hanging on the door of Elmer Ressler's toolshed, up in southeast PA. As a
'Disston and Son' saw this one probably dates to somewhere between 1865 and the
early 1870's. Henry had his second boy in 1871. So I found a 130 old user saw
today in an accidental encounter sparked by a SWMBO errand and a search for a
deadblow mallet.
 
The saw is resting out in the car. I'm sort of superstitious and believe it best
to bring in saws when the night air is still and the house is quiet with, ahem,
no one else up and about, just me and the cat. Yep, me and Buzz the cat. Our
little ritual.
****************************
Tom Price
Will Work For Tools
 

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