Disston made (arguably but if you are going to argue you will be outvoted 100 to 1) the best hand saw steel ever created. They were coveted the world around.
Nobody rolled and ground a saw plate like Henry Disston.
With an intricately shaped and carved apple wood handle, (apple being the king of saw handle woods), connected to the best saw plate ever made,
a plain looking blade simply would not do.
While you could come up with a use for it, (and many did later and still do), the nib was part of the saw design. It was that little bit extra.
Until Frank Lloyd Wright came along espousing...........
"Plain is more modern. Plain is more manly. Stripped plain is worth more."
(which idiots still suck up today like lemmings)
The world was different.
Before people became so stupid they actually believed plain was better,..... back to the dawn of mankind............
Elaborate and decorated was the word from button hooks to bell towers. Everything made had some element of design and decoration as far back as you care to go.
But in every trade, plain is better translated to....... "I do enormously less work, get paid more!"
by architects, furniture makers, toolmakers and practically everyone with a trade.
Its no wonder its such a popular idea even today.
Modern and especially young people used to seeing everything in their life as plain as a mud fence...wonder what the nib is for.
(I am still waiting to hear anyone, anywhere say....."damn that is a pretty computer!")
But our great grandfathers didn't wonder for one second.
A saw with no nib was a lesser saw! Guaranteed.
Nibs almost never appear by accident. Intricate curves on saw totes never just materialize by themselves. Highly polished wood seldom leaks out of the cracks unbidden.
Its work. Highly skilled work.
People are not used to seeing or even appreciating skilled work anymore.
"Oh I don't need fancy. Its good enough" Is what people are trained to say since birth now. You can hear it 1000 times a day if you listen at all.
Actually, if you think about it, this directly translates to:
"I am just a peasant. I don't deserve any better"
Being a peasant who doesn't deserve any better is plenty bad enough, acting like you are proud of that? Is just embarrassing.
Fight for better.
You deserve it.
Fight
yours Scott
OH PS. I do own an antique saw guard. I have seen several too.
But none of them needed a nib to work.