I wanted an intensely American look for these saws, so drew my inspiration from Disston, Simonds, Harvey Peace and Wheeler Madden Clemson. The Reconstruction period of the 1870’s/1880’s produced my personal favorite type of saws, and so have incorporated that look and feel for the Bad Axe saws with blued backs, highly figured handles and the deep-dish medallion with flush sawnuts/bolts prevalent during that period. While these are largely cosmetic choices, that is the look I wanted to achieve—and so far, so good. I’m discovering as I sell these saws that my clients are really excited about the hot-blued back.

Handles: Cherry speaks for itself. After sanding/polishing the wood down to 400 grit, I treat the wood with Watco Danish oil, then buff it out using Carnauba Wax on my Beall wood buffing system, which really pops the grain and protects the surface.

Premium grade Swedish Spring Steel RC 50-52: The steel I use is a high-grade Swedish premium-grade steel measuring .025 in thickness. When I bring out my 14” saw in Spring, I’ll thin the sawplate down to .02 with 3.5" under the back.

Backs: I offer backs in both hot-blued carbon steel and bright-polished stainless steel. This is a hot caustic salt bluing process that I’ve contracted with a master gunsmith to achieve, and it’s a firearms-grade finish. I also wanted to produce backs in stainless steel following the Disston tradition of offering backs in both blued and bright polished modes. The other facet of stainless steel, of course, is that it’s more corrosion-resistant, so clients from humid locales might lean in that direction.

Sawnuts/bolts: I chose the kind of flush-faced sawnuts/bolts commonly used in the 1870’s, with the deep-dished medallion sawnut, because again, it’s a traditional look from the Reconstruction era. I chose slotted sawbolts because split nuts are so easily deformed. I designed the fasteners such that only the sawbolts have to be unscrewed to remove the handle, leaving the sawnuts on the medallion side of the handle in place.