Bad Axe Fasteners

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Every once in awhile a new hand tool comes along and changes the way you work.

— Tom Fidgen, The Unplugged Woodshop

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Bad Axe Fasteners:

Have an old, beat-up saw you want restored? Need cool fasteners for it? Want to have an engraver etch your own mark on the medallion? Maybe etch it for someone special as a gift? Well here you go.

I offer an array of unmarked fasteners available in three alloys and two designs you may use to restore your vintage saw whose nuts have simply gone bad. The menu choices to the right reflects pricing for a single nut/bolt pair, an unmarked medallion nut/bolt pair, and the entire six-piece set for all three fastener pairs.

Why am I doing this? What began as a quest to field gunmetal steel split nuts as an alternative to the easily deformed brass variety, evolved into a grand total of what Bad Axe now offers: three alloys (4140 gunmetal, brass, and stainless steel), two interchangeable designs, and four finishes. All designs are available in either split or slotted nut. In this manner, you can customize the fittings of the Bad Axe saw you purchase, or upgrade a set of ruined fasteners for your vintage saw.

Which ones do I want? Personal aesthetics aside, here are some suggestions from my foxhole, moving from left to right in the top graphic:

Gunsmith-blued 4140 gunmetal (two finishes): 4140 carbon steel is a tough, durable alloy gunsmiths swear by, and it takes a great blue. The far left fastener in the graphic above reflects the traditional gunsmith hot caustic salt blue (aka black oxide) that looks great; it's the same bluing you see on my backs. To the right of the brass set is a particularly high-end gunsmith bluing called niter-blue (aka fire-blue among vintage firearms enthusiasts). This is a stunning, iridescent blue normally reserved to highlight the appointments of high-end firearms.
Brass: Obviously the most delicate material, but it's a very traditional choice. Looks great against walnut in particular. For those of you with ruined brass split-nuts, you can buy a set of my unmarked version with which to restore your vintage saw. The slotted version is the stronger of the two designs, but many purists will want the classic split-nut version.
Stainless: Clear, clean, bright and strong. The contrast looks fabulous against my walnut handle, or for your vintage saw that's darkened over time. A great choice where function trumps form, and it still looks great.

So Mark--why did you go to all this trouble? LOL--I bit off a pretty good bite from a 300-pound cheesecake with this venture, but here it is in a nutshell:

Strength:A traditional gunsmith finish on modern alloys offers a stronger fastener set that looks spectacular and won't deform over time like brass will. So I like to think of it as a technoprimitive choice for the Progressive Luddite, yadda yadda yadda. . . .
Color code per function: How many times in the middle of a difficult cut have you gazed at your saw till and wondered which one of the pair 'o saws you bought from someone like me is your dedicated ripper, and which one crosscuts? Now, between handle species, back finish and fastener alloy/finish choices, you can customize your saw so a moment's glance will tell you immediately which saw to grab.
Bling: Okay, I'll admit it. Saw bling for saw geeks has its place in the world too (though we'd never admit that). The fastener options look great in alternating combinations with the wood species and back finish of your choice.

array

Now for a public confession from Mark at Bad Axe: Don't read too much into this: I may be a balding guy deep into middle age, but trust me on this--nuts do go bad. You can only screw and unscrew brass split nuts so many times before they'll strip out and deform. And with the ravages of time, theyâ€™ll become utterly useless, and youâ€™ll no longer be able to plunge your saw deep into a cut with the carefree abandon. It's the reason why I opted to kick off my Bad Axe line of saws last year with brass slotted nuts. They simply last longer.

But then I got to thinking: why not offer up brass split nuts, for those who want to restore a vintage saw? What if they only intend to screw these fasteners in just once, and leave it at that to bring their vintage saw up to spec? I encounter this dilemma constantly in the restoration side of my business, and then I decided to take it a step further: why not offer split nuts in steel? My God, think of the longevity--Superman had nuts made of steel. And then I thought even more (yes, my third thought of the dayâ€”I was on a roll by now): why not blue those nuts? While that might sound painful, I must say it makes a heck of a cosmetic statement against a cherry handle. Kinda like growing new hair for the follically-challenged (like me). And then, just to cover all bases, I realized that the cold, mechanistic souls of the world simply desired the functionality of slotted nuts, period, and though they would be loathe to admit this, also secretly craved the cosmetic flourish of blued and stainless nuts made of steel

So I posted these errant thoughts of mine on the discussion panel of my Facebook site, and almost immediately, a war of words developed between those who promptly asserted that function trumped form, and those valiant few who didnâ€™t want admit it in public, but who felt that form was an element of style that simply could not be ignored. Sort of like the war between red-states and blue-states in an election year.

My takeaway from the resulting Facebook discussion on this topic? Make all eight fastener sets available for my clients to choose exactly how they want to customize the Bad Axe saw their purchasing from me. That's right--please everyone. I guess I'm a pleaser. Then I had yet another thought: why not just make unmarked versions of these nuts for clients who want to restore their old saws into proper, handle-binding condition, and spif 'em up a little in the process?

I got busy. I now have a fabulous vendor who's worked hard with me to develop new nuts made of steel (and brass), and we've produced an array of fasteners in three alloys (brass, blued carbon steel and stainless steel) for two, interchangeable designs: my slotted and split-nut designs. And they are absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. The steel guys are strong, tooâ€”they sure as heck will last longer, for those of you out there who prefer to screw your nuts into place harder than what the situation warrants. And for those purists out there who want the brass split nut guys--well I can accommodate you on that as well. They may not be very hard, but they sure are pretty.

And so that's what you're seeing on this page. Have an old, beat-up saw you want restored? Need cool fasteners for it? Want to have an engraver etch your own mark on the medallion? Maybe etch it for someone special as a gift? Well here you go.

God help me--this has been risky business, and I now have nuts to spare that weren't cheap to acquire, but they are now available to service your binding requirements . . . and most of them won't care when you decide to crank that nut in an extra notch. In short--they'll endure over time and go the extra mile. . . .

~ Mark from Bad Axe; confession delivered at 11:32 AM, 17 March 2010

All Bad Axe Tool Works Saws Feature the Following:

Custom filing available at same price per request
Highly-figured 19th-century patterned cherry handles
Flush-face slotted brass sawbolts/nuts with a 13/16" deep-dish medallion sawnut
Firearms-quality hot-blued finish on traditionally-folded steel back
Optional bright-polished stainless steel back
Premium-grade Swedish Spring Steel, RC50-52, .025" thick
I personally guarantee that these saws are SHARP out of the box, with appropriate joint, set and rake. Every tooth does its duty. I fully guarantee this saw for one year after purchase.

Learn more about my material choices and rationale.

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