Ryan Ghelfi
November 19, 2025
People ask all the time: “Where do you get your saws?” It’s a fair question. You certainly can’t go buy a 100-year-old crosscut saw at your local hardware store. Truth be told, for most of our saws, I couldn’t tell you where they came from. What I do know: they are all quite old, keeping them sharp is a very big deal, and the most essential aspect of a saw for SBFC is that we keep it out working in the Wilderness as much as possible.
We have a solid arsenal of saws… about 18+ living at our operations base in Missoula. This is a good spot for our saws, as our crews start and end their hitches there. But our work continues to grow and we have hitches starting at trailheads all over the southern half of the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, so it’s been a goal to build more tool capabilities further south. McCall is a good spot for us to have more tools, and so it was with great enthusiasm that we gratefully accepted a donation of a “new” crosscut to the SBFC lineup this past year. This saw started its life working in the woods, likely nearly 100 years ago, and we want it to keep working in the woods for the next 100 years and beyond.
The saw hanging in Bob’s garage
Like I said, vintage crosscuts with the good steel don’t grow on trees. When people find them, it’s a big deal. A while back, a friend of the Gordon Family of Boise reached out to long-time Wilderness worker, packer, and former ITA executive director Jeff Halligan, asking about a saw that was found in the garage of Bob Gordon. The family wanted the saw to go to a good home and be used again, working on backcountry trails. Bob, who passed away in 2019, grew up in McCall and spent a lot of time in the area's mountains exploring throughout his life. For SBFC to keep this saw working in those same mountains, on some of the same trails Bob traveled, is very meaningful.
In recent years, the saw had been resting in Bob’s garage in Boise, waiting for a little care. Thanks to Jeff Halligan, who brought it back to life by having welder John Starling repair the crack and then cleaning, filing, and sharpening it himself… it’s now in excellent working order.
SBFC, along with the countless trail crew members and volunteers who will rely on this tool in the years ahead, extends our gratitude to the Gordon Family for donating the saw and to Jeff and John for their thoughtful restoration. We’re excited to put it to work where it belongs: out on the trail.
The cleaned/sharpened saw, ready to get to work!
In some ways, a saw like this is an antique, connecting us to the past. But through the work of our crews and volunteers, the saw, now named Gordon, provides just as meaningful a connection to the future, and to me, that is pretty great.
If you ever want to chat about traditional tools or wilderness trails, I’m just an email or phone call away!