I have a 26″ long Woodrough & McParlin handsaw in my saw till. It is huge, and sticks a good 6″ out of my saw till, quite ridiculously. My 3 year old son is very much in the “I want the biggest” phase. When he was out in the shop recently, he was curious about what the things on the wall were. I explained and he wanted to try one. I asked which one and he, of course, pointed at my Woodrough & McParlin.
I said we could give it a try, but I thought it might be too big. I gave it a start on the scrap we had in his workbench, and let him take over. He couldn’t get it started, so I helped, and he couldn’t really get it to move, so I helped. After about 1 successful stroke he says “This one’s too big”. We moved on to try a smaller saw, and then drill some holes instead. That got me thinking, maybe I should keep an eye out for a small cheap saw that I could let him have in the shop.
I was at the next MWTCA tool meet, and somewhat fortuitously, I found this cute 12″ open handle saw. The seller and I agreed on $5, and while neither of us were quite sure, we both thought perhaps it came from a kids tool box or something of the sort.
The odd thing was, the handle was what I would have considered “normal” size for an average adult, so it was a little peculiar. Anyway, undeterred I forged ahead and made a prototype handle (above).
Below is the full video, followed by a few pictures with a write up.
With the poplar prototype handle and a couple of binding post screws, I drilled an extra hole in the saw plate for the 3-bolt design, and modeled the whole thing at about 60% scale off an 18″ panel saw I had made for myself.
With little time invested in the prototype handle, I thought I would check the fit with my son. He said it was comfortable, and it looked right to me.
After the prototype I made the actual handle out of a piece of figured maple. It is 3/4″ thickness stock, so it was pretty easily available.
I added a few details in addition to the normal handle rounding and shaping. I like the traditional lambs tongues, and on this one I put in what I’m referring to as a phantom tongue. I put in the defining line, but in the interest of strength (did I mention this is for my son?), I left it at that and didn’t shape it any further.
I will say that while I like the faster speed that making a smaller scale tote allows, getting the rasps, files, and sandpaper in to the smaller areas was a little more annoying.
Overall, I really liked the way the tote came out. I did a coat of natural danish oil followed by dewaxed shellac. I then buffed it with gold scotchbrite and a cotton rag. I like this method for tool handles, because it leaves it somewhat protected, is easy to repair, and gives it a nice feel in the hand without being plastic feeling or slick.
I also cleaned up the saw plate and gave it a sharpening to round out the project. My son has used it a number of times now, and seems to enjoy it. He was pretty proud of his saw when I first gave it to him, and he wanted to go out to the shop right away. That’s good enough for me, even if it never got used for anything beyond cutting some scraps for fun.
Anyway, thanks for checking it out!
Leave a Reply