Saw recon, Part 1

I picked up two old, neglected cross-cut saws that I'm going to recondition and resharpen. They were rusted and covered in pitch, essentially left for dead.

I figured that I would breath some life back into these old hand tools. There is something great about translating the rotation of the shoulder into a pile of sawdust. Rhythmically, you are at once both tool guide and the tool's power plant. I'll spare you on the finer metaphysical ramblings of sharpening; that will get covered in Part 2. Turns out there is a website (surprise!) with an article on reconditioning old saws.
Vintage Saws



Step 1, start scraping. A little scraping with a razor blade yeilded a mound of rust powder.


Or for those of you relate better to lines of powder {;^)


Processes always seem to evolve quickly for me; and it didn't take long for the razor scraper to get stuck onto a reciprocating saw.