Disston No. 7 and D-7 Handsaws
Henry Disston No. 7 Handsaw in 30" length, circa 1845
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| The Disston No. 7 Handsaw was the first model Henry Disston sold, starting in 1840. There were not many sawmakers in the United States until this time, and those few were located mainly in and around Philadelphia. Most saws used in the U.S. were imported from England, and the saws made here were patterned after the English. American sawmakers either came from England or were apprenticed to men who had. Disston worked for such a firm; Lindley, Johnson, and Whitcraft; for seven years until they went out of business, and he started his own company with their machines. |
| Steel production in the U.S. was virtually non-existent and what little there was had been considered inferior to English steel. Henry Disston began making his own steel in 1855, but did not advertise it until the Morrill Tariff Act virtually halted steel importation during the American Civil War. Disston was then in the position to nearly dominate the saw manufacturing business because the lack of steel wiped out sawmakers without their own mills to produce steel. Steel making was a major part of Disston's business. They made tools of all kinds for decades. Disston also had the first electric melt furnace in the U.S., in 1906. |
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This is a good place to distinguish between handsaws and panel saws. The names get mixed up, but I refer to full-sized saws (26 inches long) as handsaws. Anything shorter is a panel saw. With few exceptions, anything 28 inches or longer has rip teeth, and therefore is called a ripsaw by virtue of the teeth, not the saw's length. Disston made crosscut-toothed handsaws up to 36" in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but the longer saws were not all that common. Most people will be comfortable using a 26" saw for crosscutting. Perhaps a small person would benefit from a 24" saw, but panel saws are better when working in cramped space or when it has to fit into a small toolbox. Short saws mean more strokes and more work. |
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Ripping is a labor-intensive process because of the length of the cut. A longer saw is more efficient, and a larger handle facilitates the use of two hands, also a big help. Notice the difference among the three handles, pictured above. All are from early 20th-century No. 7 saws, but the panel saw handle with three sawnuts has the notched detail on the top of the handle and the decorative groove at the front of the hand-hole. The center handle is a full-sized (26") saw, with four nuts and similar shape, but it is larger than the panelsaw handle. The handle on the right is from a 28" ripsaw. There's no notch at the top, instead there is a smooth cutout for the web of the user's hand while gripping the saw for two-handed work. The handle is a good deal larger and sturdier as well, to stand up to the hard work of ripping. |
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A few words about decorative features on the older saws. Theories abound for the purpose of these features. The notch on the top of the handle is said to be a way to hold a sheath on the saw with a string. I must admit it works. The nib has been given every reason to be from testing the temper of the steel in the factory to a means to start a cut by notching the wood. Evidence that this theory is an old one is shown by the high number of these saws with a missing nib. They snap off when you try to start the cut that way. The fact is, these old saws were designed in the Victorian Era, a time when workers took pride in their tools, and manufacturers added embellishment to tools in order to attract buyers. The nib is like the hood ornament on an old car, it's meant to look nice.
| Then there's the plain-jane D-7. The old No. 7 was replaced in 1928 with the D-7, as a part of the time of big changes in the Disston product line. All the saws changed in the late 1920's. As you can see, the D-7 is a bare-bones saw. The handle is simpler and boxier, as was the case with all the saws from that period. No more nibs, either. The change was seen as a modernization of the saws, and sales were as good as to be expected for that era. People were not always as sentimental as we've gotten to be today. |
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