Anyone know what this might be- found in barn in france

[Cindysue]

Anyone  know what this is thanks

[Bill Houghton]

Looks faintly like a stair saw, used to saw out the mortises for the kind of stairs where the treads go into, rather than on top of, the stringers.

Here's a pretty example:

[turnnut]

 looks homemade from a broken off piece of  large log cutting saw blade

[wvtools]

I think the blade is probably a little too long, but it could be a croze. 

It could also be a crude, homemade stair saw (as mentioned), but those usually are not crude looking or made for rough work. 

My vote would be for a homemade field knife/cutter, given where it was found and the way it looks.

[Plyerman]

I agree; both ends of the "saw" section appear to have been broken off from a full length saw blade

[kwoswalt99]

Yeah, looks like a piece of a buck saw blade.

[Northwoods]

Kudos to the maker. Working with limited materials, tools, and money, he ended up with a saw to suit his needs.

[turnnut]

 I would like to see a picture of the reverse side.

  is the blade attached to another blade ?

[wvtools]

Bill,

What kind of wood is the handle in the saw in your photo?

Spalted maple?

Spalted poplar?

[Bill Houghton]

Bill,

What kind of wood is the handle in the saw in your photo?

Spalted maple?

Spalted poplar?

I just grabbed the picture from the intertubes.  I looked up the site, and it's spalted pecan.  Here's the link to Steve Schuler's discussion of making the saw: https://literaryworkshop.wordpress.com/2011/08/07/making-a-stair-saw-and-a-split-nut-driver/.

[kwoswalt99]

Bill,

What kind of wood is the handle in the saw in your photo?

Spalted maple?

Spalted poplar?

I just grabbed the picture from the intertubes.  I looked up the site, and it's spalted pecan.  Here's the link to Steve Schuler's discussion of making the saw: https://literaryworkshop.wordpress.com/2011/08/07/making-a-stair-saw-and-a-split-nut-driver/.

Whatever it's made of, it won't last very long.

[wvtools]

Bill,

What kind of wood is the handle in the saw in your photo?

Spalted maple?

Spalted poplar?

I just grabbed the picture from the intertubes.  I looked up the site, and it's spalted pecan.  Here's the link to Steve Schuler's discussion of making the saw: https://literaryworkshop.wordpress.com/2011/08/07/making-a-stair-saw-and-a-split-nut-driver/.

Whatever it's made of, it won't last very long.

This blurb I pulled off the internet makes it sound like it may be fairly durable, even in the spalted form:

Pecan has slightly lower strength values than some of the other species of Hickory, but it is still among the hardest and strongest of woods native to the United States. The wood is commonly used where strength or shock-resistance is important. As the common name implies, Carya illinoinensis is the tree responsible for producing Pecan nuts commonly used in snacks and cooking recipes, and is the state tree of Texas.
Pecan falls into the Pecan-Hickory grouping, which tends to be slightly  stabler but weaker than the True-Hickories, and is considered to be a semi-ring-porous wood. The strength characteristics of Pecan are  somewhat influenced by the spacing of its growth rings. In general, wood from faster-growing trees, with wider spaced growth rings, tends to be harder, heavier, and stronger than wood from slower-growing trees that have rings which are closer together.

[kwoswalt99]

This blurb I pulled off the internet makes it sound like it may be fairly durable, even in the spalted form:

Pecan has slightly lower strength values than some of the other species of Hickory, but it is still among the hardest and strongest of woods native to the United States. The wood is commonly used where strength or shock-resistance is important. As the common name implies, Carya illinoinensis is the tree responsible for producing Pecan nuts commonly used in snacks and cooking recipes, and is the state tree of Texas.
Pecan falls into the Pecan-Hickory grouping, which tends to be slightly  stabler but weaker than the True-Hickories, and is considered to be a semi-ring-porous wood. The strength characteristics of Pecan are  somewhat influenced by the spacing of its growth rings. In general, wood from faster-growing trees, with wider spaced growth rings, tends to be harder, heavier, and stronger than wood from slower-growing trees that have rings which are closer together.

Hickory splits easily tangentially, and spalted will be even weaker.

[wvtools]

This blurb I pulled off the internet makes it sound like it may be fairly durable, even in the spalted form:

Pecan has slightly lower strength values than some of the other species of Hickory, but it is still among the hardest and strongest of woods native to the United States. The wood is commonly used where strength or shock-resistance is important. As the common name implies, Carya illinoinensis is the tree responsible for producing Pecan nuts commonly used in snacks and cooking recipes, and is the state tree of Texas.
Pecan falls into the Pecan-Hickory grouping, which tends to be slightly  stabler but weaker than the True-Hickories, and is considered to be a semi-ring-porous wood. The strength characteristics of Pecan are  somewhat influenced by the spacing of its growth rings. In general, wood from faster-growing trees, with wider spaced growth rings, tends to be harder, heavier, and stronger than wood from slower-growing trees that have rings which are closer together.

Hickory splits easily tangentially, and spalted will be even weaker.

So, it would be likely to break where the handle and the body meet?

[kwoswalt99]

This blurb I pulled off the internet makes it sound like it may be fairly durable, even in the spalted form:

Pecan has slightly lower strength values than some of the other species of Hickory, but it is still among the hardest and strongest of woods native to the United States. The wood is commonly used where strength or shock-resistance is important. As the common name implies, Carya illinoinensis is the tree responsible for producing Pecan nuts commonly used in snacks and cooking recipes, and is the state tree of Texas.
Pecan falls into the Pecan-Hickory grouping, which tends to be slightly  stabler but weaker than the True-Hickories, and is considered to be a semi-ring-porous wood. The strength characteristics of Pecan are  somewhat influenced by the spacing of its growth rings. In general, wood from faster-growing trees, with wider spaced growth rings, tends to be harder, heavier, and stronger than wood from slower-growing trees that have rings which are closer together.

Hickory splits easily tangentially, and spalted will be even weaker.

So, it would be likely to break where the handle and the body meet?

Yes, I've broken a handle like that.