Plate: Taper-Ground Sawplate: We grind our plates from .04 at the toothline up to .025 at the spine on the heel end, and .034 at the toe end, such that the deeper you plunge the saw into the cut, the more metal gets out of the way as you're pushing the saw through the inside the kerf. (22" panel saws tapers from .035 to .018 at the heel, and from .035 to .028 at the toe).
Stiff and hammer tensioned. Great care is exercised to wet-grind the plate evenly, so the plate becomes neither s-rolled nor too floppy due to loss in temper from careless grinding, which generates heat. You'll find that our taper-ground plates are hammer-tensioned and quite stiff—one of the most important assets of a hand or panel saw when making big cuts with confidence.
Plate Depth:
26" plate: 7 1/4" at the heel, skewing to 25/8" at the toe.
24" plate: 7" at the heel, skewing to 2 5/8" at the toe.
22" plate: 6 3/8" at the heel, skewing to 2 7/16" at the toe.
US 1095 Spring steel Hammer-Tensioned sawplate, with a Rockwell hardness range of 49-52. Toothline is hammer-set & sharpened in configurations optimized for hardwood requirements. We will add more set for customers working predominantly in softwood. Read more about Bad Axe's hammer-setting technique and obsessive dedication to sharpening excellence here.
Handle: Traditional 1887-1896 Disston-pattern closed handle, the most elegant pattern Disston ever produced at the apogee of handsaw manufacturing. These handles are available in both standard and thumb-hole grip. Are you a left-handed sawyer? Lefties and Southpaws unite! Bad Axe will get you into a thumbhole-grip handle with the contours reversed for a really nice fit.
Our D8 handles are patterned quite closely after the vintage Disston D8 handles, the only exception being that we let in the sawplates by kerfing through the top of the handle common with Simonds hand and panel saws, rather than milling a covertop common in Disston saws where the upper edge of the sawplate is hidden from view. I've always found the covertop too easily splintered when removing the plate for maintenance and would invite undue expense to the handle milling process.
Though the thumbhole-grip variant is intended for rip-filed saws, many people enjoy seeing it on their crosscut-filed saws. It's all about personal preference, and Bad Axe is happy to trick out your saw with the look, species and allow of your choosing.
All Bad Axe handles are milled from full heart quartersawn stock in Cherry, White Oak, Hard Maple and Walnut. Why quartersawn? Though it's the most expensive cut of wood, quartersawn stock mitigates wood movement with seasonal change, which can throw the plate out of true. All handles are dipped in natural Watco Danish oil with the exception of Walnut, which is dipped in black walnut Watco, followed by Tripoli and finish buffed with carnuba wax.
Bad Axe sources all handle stock from a family-owned business practicing sustainable lumber harvesting practices, and with whom we've done business from the very beginning. North American hardwoods: beautiful, sustainable, environmentally responsible.
