Jon Johnson, on Route 66, the last U.S maker of Musical Saw Keep a Rare Sound Alive
Last updated on marzo 25th, 2026 at 12:07 pm
Jon Johnson, whose shop is in Hackberry, AZ, on old Route 66, is the last remaining American maker of musical saws. If “musical saws” leaves a big question mark in your mind, investigating further opens an amazingly complex history that makes perfect sense.
If you have ever used a hand saw, you have heard it whine when it binds up. Sound can be music and since a handsaw was common 200 years ago and there wasn’t money, people had a musical instrument they could afford for the entertainment they wanted. It found a surprisingly popular place in traditional music and even vaudeville. Actress Marlene Dietrich played the musical saw when entertaining troops in USO shows during World War II and it was used for the theme song of the movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Caroline McCaskey played the National Anthem on a musical saw at an Oakland Athletics game in 2022. Even today there are musical saw festivals in Santa Cruz and Felton, California, New York City and in Israel, Japan and China.
Most people play the saw seated with the handle between their legs and bend it into an S shape. They create sound with a bow or mallet. The curved parts are dampened and do not sound. The flat part or sweet spot of the S shape is what vibrates. By changing the shape, the musician can change the sound over a three to five octave range, create harmonics by playing at varying distances on either side of the sweet spot and add vibrato by shaking a leg or oscillating the tip of the blade. Once a sound is produced, it can be carried through several notes.
While anyone can grab a hand saw and make a sound, the quality of the sound varies with the blade length, width, thickness and metallurgy. That is where quality manufacturing comes in. In 1900, there were at least ten fabricators of musical saws in the US and several others in Europe. The high price of metals in WW II and the development of electronic music forms have hurt musical saws.
So today there is Johnson in the US. It suits two sides of him. He was born into a musical family, so music has always been part of his life. He also is a tinker and inventor. Making musical saws satisfies that part of him. “It takes weeks for me to make one in my shop,” he explains. “I tried to do it as my full-time job, but that made something I enjoy into a burden. Today I have a regular job and fabricate saws as I feel like it. I like that better.”
Learn more about Johnson at his website: https://musicalsawsshop.com.
