Hand (Crosscut) Saw
name: label: maker
content: Disston, Henry
notes: label: Description
content: This crosscut hand saw was manufactured by Keystone Saw Works of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It has a 26” nibbled blade with 8 points per inch, and the handle is painted a blue-grey and is fastened with four brass bolts. This saw would have been used in carpentry, with the nibbled blade being particularly useful for greater precision in such woodwork.
label: Description
content: Keystone Saw Works was a company founded in 1850 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by Henry Disston, an English immigrant. Five years after the company’s founding, Disston created a furnace to make his own steel, a novel feat for saw-making as competitors had to purchase their steel from England. Disston’s saws were additionally made from Applewood logs aged for three years in the Keystone Saw Works, eventually Disston Saw Works, was one of the first companies to manufacture saws from raw material to their finished product. At its peak, Disston Saw Works employed an average of 2,500 employees, covered 64-acres, and was made up of 64 buildings. After Disston passed away in 1878, the company remained a family-owned and operated business until 1955. It is now known as Disston Prevision Incorporated.
place: label: place made
content: United States: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Hand Tools
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Stanley Santoroski
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MC.259271.01
label: catalog number
content: 259271.01
label: accession number
content: 259271
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Saw
label: Other Terms
content: Saw; Woodworking; Slicing Tools; Hand Tools
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal, brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal, steel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: painted (overall production method/technique)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 76.5 cm; 30 1/8 in