Hello esteemed Galoots,

I recently bought a bundle of nasty old saws for almost nothing.

One of them has me puzzled. 

It’s a 22” panel saw plate, with no evidence of an etch, and the end of the
plate is rounded off. Not rounded off like the flooring saw; just rounded over
at the end of the plate instead of being square tipped. The “rounding” was
either done by an extraordinarily talented amateur, or it was done by someone
with industrial tools. Not only is it perfectly radiused, there’s a hint of
distortion, and no visible tool marks. The teeth are well spaced.

The medallion is an “and sons Philada” and at first I figured it was probably
from another saw. But as I cleaned it up, I think the handle is legitimately old
Disston; at least It’s a good match for other old Disstons I have where I can
date them by the etch as well as the handle and medallion. So I was then
thinking maybe someone put an old Disston handle and medallions on a strange
round-ended plate?

But when I took it apart, that’s when it got really odd. 

There’s no “TPI” number struck into the heel of plate . . . . but it has an “X”
struck into the top of it, where you’d never see it when the handle’s in place.
The “X” is maybe 3/8” top to bottom. The “X”, like the rounding, sure looks like
it was done in an industrial press. Be very hard to get it this uniform if you
were using a sledge hammer, even if you happened to have a set of 3/8” letter
dies. And while typography isn’t a perfect science, this “X” sure looks like
it’s 19th century, with the serifs and all.

Anyone have any guesses?

Mark.