Melbourne sawmaker (W.H.Blakeley)

This has just finished , and the maker is listed on the HTPAA website http://www.htpaa.org.au/ausmakers.php?search=B.
Now is this an Oz made saw, or a merchant marked UK made saw?

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/181002918684?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

Any Victorians know anything about W H Blakeley?

 

Hi Peter,

I cannot help you on Blakeley except to say that there is a lot on Google about him/them mainly, judging from reading the headings only about knives and mainly about the modern successor company. There are some good images of the founder, though.

But I did find this

http://www.blakeley.com.au/about.html

which may explain why the saw looks like a Sheffield one.

The question for me about this saw is:- "What sort of wood is the handle made from"?

The type of wood may shed some light on the origin of the saw. but I have been so wrong about woods in the past that I am not going to hazard my opinion.

Fred

 

Oops Fred, I am so used to finding little/nothing about Oz makers on Google, I did not even look. Mea maxima calpa (about all I remember from schoolboy latin, probably the most applicable term from those unlamented schooldays).

 

And there was a #76 for sale also ... maybe the Oz saw market is livening up?



Paul

 

What it doesn't explain is how he had the energy to start up in Little Bourke St, 102 years after the New Zealand commission!

'spose it could be a typo.



For posterity ...

 

Ray,

Please do so. If their records still exist please encourage them to consider lodging them in a public collection. The Univeristy of Melbourne Archives collects business and union records (http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/collections/archives/). I'm happy to speak to my colleague at Melbourne (I'm the Archivist at Sydney) about the significance of such records. Let me know if you think I can be of any assistance.

Regards,

Tim

 

Greetings chaps.
First post on this forum. I was the seller of the W H Blakeley, and didn't realise that it was an Australian made saw until a couple of bidders names popped up and got my attention. Yes, I know - Melbourne - where else would it be ...... well I didn't give it much thought and assumed that there was a Melbourne somewhere in the UK. The saw does look very UK-ish in its origins to me.
Anyhoo, it is good to be here, and hopefully I will learn as well as contribute.
Cheers to all
SG

 

Hi Scribbly,

You are right in assuming that there is a Melbourne in the UK.

It is in Derbyshire, but a little remote from the rough and tumble of a saw making area. That is unless someone is going to tell me that there are Melbourne saw makers.

Fred

 

From the National Library of Australia's wonderful Trove:

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/67465960?searchTerm=blakeley saw&searchLimits=exactPhrase

Regards,

Tim

 

Great photos. I assume the building is heritage listed otherwise it would be long gone.

Tim

 

Melbourne maker -Blakeley

Fascinating thread, great pictures. I can add the following info, partly gleaned from correspondence with the current owners of the firm.
BLAKELEY, Charles H. SHEFFIELD
Maxey Saw Works, Sylvester Lane 1871-1889
60 (58-66) Jessop Street 1893-1895
165 Napier Street 1898-1909
BLAKELEY, Charles H & Sons Ltd
165 Napier Street 1912-1974
1879: saw and machine knife manufacturer. An artillery saw dated 1915 has been reported.

Henry Blakeley, a Sheffield-born maker and an important maker and retailer of saws in Melbourne, Australia, was apprenticed to Russell & Horsfield; according to information from his descendants who are the present operators of the company, after his apprenticeship he moved to Bradford and helped to make what was in 1865 the world's longest continuous bandsaw (33 feet, and 6 inches wide). He sailed to New Zealand, installed the bandsaw and then went on to Melbourne in 1866, commencing his business in 1867. There is no known relationship between the émigré and the above saw makers, although the surname is not a common one. (Thanks to Helen Blakeley, of blakeley.com.au, machine knife manufacturers, for this information).

I might add that the above is from my forthcoming book, but outside the necessary caution of that format, I would say that it seems extremely likely to me that there is some relationship between the Australian Blakeley and the Sheffield makers - a younger son, or one who quarrelled with the management??.

 

Forthcoming book??

Sounds very interesting - can you supply any more information? Like, will it be out for Christmas

Tim

 

Melbourne sawmaker

I'm reluctant to go on about anything I've written, but feel that on backsaw it's OK to quote from what is still a manuscript sitting with a publisher who told me that he expected publication "early in 2013" - but now this date has been put on hold, as the world business situation (books especially, I believe) is pretty dire.
So 'forthcoming' is distinctly optimistic, I'm afraid. I try to put up makers' biographies as needed on backsaw, and will continue to do so whenever I can, in the hope of providing information that I would like to think is mostly accurate. Simon (happy to be contacted on email barleys@mac.com, but would prefer the conversations to continue to be shared by all here)

 

Yes, book publishing, especially for niche markets is a risky business. I have friend who went the self publishing route, and did a fabulous job of it, but I don't dare ask about the economics of the venture. In the world of violin making thre seems to be a polarisation of publishing - either free on the web, or amazingly expensive. I have a two volume set on one maker that cost $1,000 and that isn't unusual by any means. The model seems to be low volume, high profit.

Regards,

Tim

 

Congratulations to Helen and her team: I wonder if any one who reads the book can shed any light on my own still unanswered question: what was a firm in Bradford doing making the world's biggest bandsaw??
Bradford was in the 1870s the UK capital of the wool industry, with no firms that I've heard of who were making machine saws, although there were plenty of engineering firms making installing woollen mill and other kinds of machinery. A very minor query for anyone but a saw nerd, I guess, but I'd still like to know!
Simon