Comments on: On Storing Handsaws and Backsaws

By: Megan Fitzpatrick

Megan Fitzpatrick — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 13:26:07 +0000

I wish I could post it for you, but we don't own the rights. Best I can do is direct you to the PW CD from 2000 in the store (it's $9).

By: javisser

javisser — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 11:59:15 +0000

Hi Chris! How do I get a copy of the October 2000 issue of PW, or at least the plans for building a saw till? I can’t seem to find it at the PW.com site.

Thanks!

By: handymandan

handymandan — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 00:05:05 +0000

I didn’t have room for a “rack” and I like to view the entire saw to determine which saw to use for particular projects. So, I made a wood hanging devise out of 1X2x30″ pine with five 3/4″ wood dowels (pegs) 2 inches in length and glued them into the 30″ horozontal piece thus resembeling a “coat rack”.I put the wood pegs in on a slight angle so to prevent the saws from accidently slidding off. I taught 4-H woodworking for several years and those youth had no problem in learning which saw to use on their project and properly replaced the saws when done using them.

By: tyvekboy

tyvekboy — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 14:03:08 +0000

The saw till that I saw on Lumberjocks.com got me thinking and lead me to develop my version of this saw till. The nice thing about this saw till is it does not discriminate. You can put any type of saw in it. Gravity does the rest.

The following link will describe it better and show how it is built. Also see the original idea by following the link in the first sentence of the posting.

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/41465

Does this saw till win a prize?

By: SamPeterson

SamPeterson — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 13:25:20 +0000

The sawtill was a group project of the OLDTOOLS group and I don’t remember any historical references, but do recall that there were several already built rough versions of the till. After much discussion about how to best store saws the group settled on vertical and from there the design was refined and finalized. I still have and use the till featured in Popular Woodworking and it holds 20-30 saws. It sits next to my Foley equipment(filer, toother and jointer) which allows me to take beater saws and bring them back to life.

The jointry of the till could be better, and did have to be re-glued. The shelve at the bottom is very handy and the file storage at the top is unused since I have it french cleated to the wall above my main bench.

To better understand my obsession with saws, see the Disston panther saw and flying eagle saw handles that I have carved.

http://galootcentral.com/index.php?option=com_copperminevis&Itemid=2&place=gallery&cat=10358

By: tpobrienjr

tpobrienjr — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 13:08:14 +0000

I like the idea of hanging the saw from its handle, as opposed to resting its weight on the handle. However, putting the handle at the bottom does make it easier to reach when removing the saw from the till. The other thing I note in the photos is that the saw’s teeth face toward the wall. That seems to me to be a fundamentally good shop safety practice. Imagine making a kitchen knife block with all the blades sticking out of the block!

By: Dean

Dean — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 00:28:55 +0000

Correction: “The Workshop Book” NOT “Work Shop Book”. Being unable to delete or edit ones reply makes posting rather awkward to say the least.

By: Dean

Dean — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 00:23:58 +0000

You can see page 176 in the “Work Shop Book” that Larry mentions, at the address below. You can click on the down arrow on the button marked “Contents” or you can page down 3 or 4 times until you see the Contents page. Then, click on the Storage link (or Chapter 8 link if you scrolled down), which will take you to page 169. From there page, or scroll down until you come to page 176. There you’ll see the “Handsaw rack” that Larry referred to. There is a caption just below the drawing which mentions Clifford Metting’s name.

http://books.google.com/books?id=UtdHxvzENa0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Workshop+Book+inauthor:Scott+inauthor:Landis&hl=en&ei=mRNkTuHoJ8vbiAKa0JmqCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

By: jacksonlar

jacksonlar — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 18:05:09 +0000

Chris, I am confident that I have the “Holy Grail” of saw tills. It is a dedicated wall hung saw till. I dimensioned mine to 24 x 40, and sandwiched it between my twin wall hung (non-handsaw) hand tool cabinets of equal width and breadth. The till is shallow enough (slightly deeper than the height of my largest ripsaw handle) to permit the left and right hand doors of the adjacent twin cabinets to bookmatch and to cover the till when the twins are opened. The layout permits me to house a couple of hundred pounds of tools on on about 20 square feet of wall space, produding only 13″ from the wall, above my primary workbench. The saw till designer appears to have been one Clifford Metting, and a schematic of it can be found in Scott Landis’s “The Workshop Book” (Taunton Press) at p. 176. It can accomodate as many as 23 panel saws, as well as a half dozen or more backsaws, with room to spare for keyholes, copers, frets, flush-cutters, etc. To remove a panel saw from the till, you just pinch the blade, lift it up 1/2″ to clear the handle from its cradle, and pull it out. I wouldn’t keep my handsaws anywhere else……not even in a traditional tool chest. Wish I knew how to post photos into this reply. Larry

By: rdeviney

rdeviney — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 23:29:59 +0000

I imagine the first saw tills were created for/by retailers, to display an assortment of saws for sale. Before the rise of an affluent middle class, it seems unlikely that many could afford to purchase more than the minimum number of saws needed to accomplish their work. In the painting Carpenters Shop at Forty Hill (1813 by John Hall), I notice there is a hand saw hanging by its tote from a peg on the back wall. Noteworthy because all three workers depicted have their toolbox close by. A handsaw is also hanging on the back wall in the 1816 painting of English Joiners by George Foster, though I don’t see tool chests.