This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in IMAGES for March 3, 2022, East Bernard Express, East Bernard, Texas.
A friend of my friend paints landscapes on old hand saws and on other “antique” objects. These saw paintings are sold for home decor, and many are quite eye-catching. I suppose most folks now own electric saws, and these hand-operated devices are relegated to wall hangings. Yet hand saws are the only board-cutters or log- and limb- cutters my maternal grandfather, my father, and I have ever owned or used. My father’s father died when he was 8 years old, and Daddy and mother’s father were like father and son.
I had the good fortune to inherit a huge number of hand saws from Grandpa and Daddy, and also from my father-in-law, who was like a second father to me. Many of these saws originally belonged to their fathers, and a few to their grandfathers. Yet, I never considered any of these splendid tools to be antiques but working tools which I still use.
Since the saws came into my possession, I have misplaced a few, given some to my friends, a few have disappeared, and yet I still have plenty for myself. The saws included a fret saw, keyhole or wallboard saws (not sure which), a mitre saw, hack saws, back saws, coping saws, one-man crosscut saw, two-man crosscut saw (gave it to a friend, as I figured neither the wife nor I were strong enough to use it), and four or five 26” Sears Craftsman wooden handle saws. I think in the 1940’s, the 26” Sears Craftsman was the best-selling saw in the Sears and Roebuck catalog.
My grandfather and my father (I didn’t know my father-in-law yet in those days) used these saws almost as frequently as they used their pocketknives; if they were alive today, they would find turning these superb saws into wall decorations either very amusing, or a terrible waste of good cutting implements! Since I still use these “antique” tools today, I was a little taken aback by this “old tools to art” trend!
Since I was brought up with hand saws, like my grandfather and my father, I never owned or used an electric, gasoline, or battery-powered saw in my life. From boyhood on, I have liked the looks and feel of those hand saws. Unlike my grandfather and father, who built barns, chicken houses, cabinets, tables, chairs, washstands, and just about any other piece of furniture you can name, I made smaller, simpler items, like small shelving units, magazine racks, and what I call wood art out of driftwood. I generally use the smaller saws, and, for my wood art, a pocket-knife-size saw.
Power saws of all kinds were available for my father and me, but we avoided them. When my grandfather married and settled on a farm, power saws weren’t available for him. The first electric circular saws weren’t invented until 1922 (attached) and 1929 (hand-held electric). But even after electricity came to the farms in Dime Box in the 1940’s, my grandfather never bought an electric saw in his lifetime. Nor did he or my father ever buy or use a gasoline-powered saw, or a battery powered saw!
In spite of my age, I still keep up with things, — like I own and use an iPhone and an iPad, — but I still prefer a hand saw.
-o-
Ray Spitzenberger is a retired WCJC teacher, a retired LCMS pastor, and author of three books, It Must Be the Noodles, Open Prairies, and Tanka Schoen.