The Unknown Tooth
Char Miller-KingDescription
Char’s guesses
Char had a few ideas about the tooth. Is it an indicator of where to stop on the pull stroke so you don’t pull the saw out of the kerf? Could it be related to nails in boards?
From George
Some people say it could have to do with hanging the saw on a wall, but there are reasons that doesn’t make a lot of sense. Maybe it’s a “starter tooth” that you would use first to create a starting point for cuts.
The bottom line
At the end of the day, neither Char nor George know exactly what The Unknown Tooth is all about. But it’s very fun to speculate why it was once added to handsaws. If you have an idea, leave it in the comments.
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4 Responses to “The Unknown Tooth”
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To quickly identify a rip saw instead of a cross cut
According to Dilltons and sons handbook for woodworker the nib has no purpose other than breaking the line of back of the saw and as a decoration
I would guess it is a 'nib' (not a tooth) to hook one end (or a leather loop on that end) of a full length tooth guard around, as the other end would just hook onto the heel of the blade. Seems more plausible than what George and Char were proposing. Those nibs were on saws for a couple of centuries or so. There had to be a practical reason to create that much more work for the saw maker.
could it be a buffer??