The majority of handsaws in the Firethorn collection were passed down by previous generations of woodworkers in the family of Jonathan R. Distel. However, some of them found more unusual ways into our collection. In fact, the saw Jon carries in his toolbox was discovered trapped under layers of tar on a warehouse roof. After freeing the saw, Jon took it back to his workshop, stripped years of roofing tar from it, cleaned it, sharpened it, reset the teeth, and made a new handle for it. Only then did he learn it had been manufactured by the Henry Disston Saw Works of Philadelphia in 1880.