Razor Saw

I had an old handsaw with straight blade in the Tool box of my deceased father. Few months ago I found that saw with little crack on handle and with rusty metal blade.

Instead of repairing the handle, an idea came in mind to reshape this old style saw into a new Razor saw. So that, my new project has began.

Note: Woodworking/Metalworking is inherently dangerous, especially if standard safety precautions are not observed. Do not attempt any step or anything unless you are certain that it is safe for you to do so. Always follow the necessary safety instructions under your circumstances.

Step 1: Disassembling the Saw

It was the old Saw which has been in the use of my father. But according to me now its a modern world and people like the good looking and modern tools. So at the first, I remove the rivets and separate the handle from metal blade.

Step 2: Sketching the Blade

Here I had to draw a rough sketch with measurements to reshape the saw blade. The standard Razor Saw has about 255 mm(10 inch) blade length, so I increase it a little up to 280 mm(11 inch) and sketch the saw blade to determine its length, width, heel, toe, back and all measurements.

Step 3: Reshaping Saw Blade

After sketching and marking the measurements on metal saw blade according to the predefined sketch, I remove the excess of material with a Metal Cutting Scissor. Its a thin blade about 0.4 mm thickness, so I didn't face any difficulty while cutting the blade with scissor except concentration and carefulness.

Step 4: Cleaning the Blade

As I mentioned above that it is old saw found in the tool box after a while. I observe that oxide coated blade has water damage marks on it and getting rusty. So here I need to clean the blade and I use buffing wheel with bench grinder to clean the marks and stains from blade to give it a fresh look.

Step 5: Drawing Handle

Razor saw has straight handle so I choose Ash Wood for saw handle. The blade length is designed about 280 mm(11 inch) so its necessary that handle length should be shorter than the blade to design a balance shape. So I draw the handle shape on wood piece. Its length is about 210 mm(8.25 inch), width 32 mm(1.25 inch) and depth is 25 mm(1 inch).

Step 6: Cutting and Shaping

A handsaw is used to remove the excess material and two rasps are used to file the edges of wood piece and reshape into a handle according to the drawing. (Here I gave a cut for saw blade and made a brass ferrule with slot, but unfortunately I couldn't take the snaps of this process).

Joint brass ferrule on saw handle with epoxy and now the handle is ready for sanding.

Step 7: Holes for Rivets

The small head rivets are best to hide the joining technique, but in this case I have to present a decent look so that I decide to use wide riveting. For this purpose I choose a stainless steel rod of 8 mm diameter for riveting pins and use twisted wood drill bit of 8 mm for clean and precise drilling.

Note: Always use recommended and sharp drill bits for your job.

Step 8: Making the Back

Traditional Razor Saw has a metal back for protection and to keep the blade straight. As I have mentioned that its a thin saw blade which is reduced now to 0.34 mm after buffing and cleaning the stains, so its necessary to put a back for protection of saw blade and also for making enable the saw blade for straight cuts.

For this purpose I took a piece of stainless steel sheet with the thickness of 0.8 mm (22 Gauge) and draw the saw back with permanent marker. I use angle grinder for cutting the stainless steel sheet and bend it from centre along the length.

12 mm, 10 mm and 8 mm metal drills are used for making holes and give it a nice look. Now the back piece is ready after sanding and cleaning.

Step 9: Assembling

After sanding and cleaning of all pieces, the razor saw is now ready for assembling. First I fix the metal blade in stainless steel back and then joint the saw blade with handle, then I insert the stainless steel Pins for riveting (drilling of pieces has done before assembling, therefore epoxy is used for joining blade with handle and with riveting pins).

I made two holes in the brass ferrule and use brass screws to enhance the beauty of Razor saw.

Step 10: Finishing

When assembling has done, the saw handle is now ready for final polishing. Actually its a hand tool instead of furniture or other wooden items and it will be use in the workshop so I use boiled Linseed Oil for the final polishing.

After first coat, boiled linseed oil normally takes 48-72 hours to dry (therefore it also depends on the weather). When the first coat get dried, I use random orbital sander with fine sanding pad for finishing and then apply the second coat of boiled Linseed Oil and hang the saw to dry again in room temperature. When oil finishing dried, my new Razor handsaw is now ready for use with new and attractive look.

Hope that you guys will like this project. Thanks