Apple has a couple of things going for it. It's hard and wear-resistant
while being closed-grain and able to take a very high polish. Other woods
were used as well, but apple was one of the best. Less expensive saws used
beech for handles which is very nice, but won't take the high polish apple
will, nor does it feel as good in the hand.

During Disston's hey day there was an abundance of apple wood. My
understanding is that in colonial times apples were a key part of the
average homestead's diet. They provided a major source of both food and
drink. Sloane's books are filled with anecdotes about apples. The trees
these apples grew on were full-sized trees, not the dwarf varieties you see
today. By  the late 1800s to early 1900s, apple trees were becoming less
important and were thus sold for lumber. It was during this time that
Disston was transporting massive amounts of apple logs to Philadelphia to
be sawn into boards for saw handles. The scope of the operation is hard to
imagine. This 1917 advertisement should give you some idea of just how much
apple wood Disston used, and the size and number of logs they moved.

http://hyperkitten
.com/pics/tools/ads/disston32.jpg

It appears to be an entire train with carload after carload of nothing but
apple logs passing by more piles of apple logs on one side and stacks of
sawn and stacked apple boards on the other.

I hope that helps provide some perspective on both the scale of Disston's
operation, and the abundance of apple at the time.

Josh

On Mon, Sep 29, 2014 at 9:14 PM, kevin bock  wrote:

> Just curious -- why apple for saw handles anyway?
>
> It would seem that apple wood would never have been available in great
> supply and its properties are not that unique amongst dense hardwoods.
>
> Google has never provided me with a satisfactory answer on this.
>