Reply To: Making a breasted saw?
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Thanks for the replies.
I think I will just file it straight, and see if the results are satisfying.
The teeth look quite good, except for the toothline being concave, so I don’t think they need to be recut. I’ll probably wait for a saw in worse condition before attempting that.
As for the nib, a guy named Tony Zaffuto posted this brilliant theory on sawmillcreek.org:
“Personally, I know for a fact it was placed on the saw, to give a back scratching point to the saw, since many users had been using the tooth side of the blade and causing open wounds, hence creating the rounded nib. Romans were the first and in their infinite wisdom, did not know how hard users would scratch, and to give a path for blood to flow away from their togas, also put the ogee. When it was learned that the nibs were mostly bloodless, the ogee soon fell out of use, and through the middle ages, many craftsmen argued why some old saws had ogees and why the ogee disappeared.”