I have a Disston hand saw and would like to refinish the handle
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Welcome! / Forums / General Woodworking Discussions / Finishing / I have a Disston hand saw and would like to refinish the handle
I’ve seen Paul use Shellac on the handles on his plane restoration video which came up lovely. He also mentions how the old timers he trained under used boiled linseed oil every 6 months or so or depending when they needed a bit of freshening up. He has also mentioned adding stain to the shellac for a deeper richer coloured finish.
On all of the old saws I have bought I have taken the handle off, sanded or scraped all the old finish off then put a few coats of whatever finish I had available at the time on. This is the way to go about it if you want a brand new look to it, but it is also the most time and energy consuming. Sanding around all those tight curves isn’t easy.
I’ve used Shellac, boiled linseed oil, and tung oil to refinish tool handles. All worked fine but I won’t be using tung oil on impact tools in the future. It comes out just enough smoother (not slick, but smooth) that occasionally I felt like the hammer was about to go flying back over my shoulder.
Linseed oil was a bit “grippier” and shellac felt a bit “softer”. Hard to describe the differences. But I like both and will use them going forward.
I’ve reworked a number of newer saw handles the way Paul shows in his video and finished them with Shellac. The results were quite satisfactory. They don’t look like THESE saws did “new” but then they came with a thick spray on finish and who wants to duplicate THAT?
I refinished my old saw handles with two coats of BLO, amber shellac, and a light coat of wax for hand feel. Makes the handles very “warm.” Comfortable and no blisters even after heavy use on applewood and beech handles.