Reggie,

Clarence Mussehl himeself only made a 28-inch saw and a 26-inch saw. He passed away in the late 1970s at the age of 84. Dan Wallace took ove from Claence at the company in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin and moved it to Delavan, WI. Dan Wallace was killed when his aircraft went down in a Wisconsin corn field. Clarence told me he made his saws from "good English steel". The teeth were still on it and were not "set". That way you would know which side to bow on. ;-) The other side always played sharp. The 30-inch blade was too hard for me to bend and my arms aren't long enough to do it comfortably. That was all the more the case after my physicality started to go downhill in the early 80s (not diagnosed as MS until 1997(. The 26-inch blade was too short for good range and also hard to bend. But the 28-inch was really perfect. I've no idea what the recent saws "feel" like. It's all a moot point since I barely get anything out of any saw at all now.

But that 28-inch saw that I got from the man, Clarence Mussehl, himself -- in his home in Fort Atkinson, WI on Elm Street -- was (and on some days still is) like a hot knife through butter where ease of playing is concerned. All through the 80s and 90s it got harder and harder to control the saw with my knees and legs. It was all I could do to just hold the thing still. So my hand control on the end of the blade was of utmost importance to me. For a while I used a wood block with a slit in it to bend the saw and that was some better.

All the best to you saw players out there everywhere. I would suggest, if I may, a book called SCRATCH MY BACK by Jim Supersaw Leonard and Janet E. Graebner. It's a pictorial history of the musical saw and how to play it.

(Oh, I always used a curved stick strung with thin nylon clothesline for a bow. Plenty of violin rosin too.)

Art Thieme