Hello all, A friend of mine brought back a saw he had found while on a trip to New Zealand, and is trying to find some information about its origins. I was hoping that my copy of Simon Barley's book would help, while there was an entry for Healey, there was not much information. Could any one help with this saw's identification. It is a 28" straight back with nib 4 ppi (5 ppi at toe) rip saw with a London pattern beech handle held with three split nut screws, stamped HEALEY LONDON, the blade is thick and heavy and fairly full width. Regards Graham.
Hi Graham, there is a short video showing how to add pictures in the help section. http://www.backsaw.net/forum/index.php?threads/uploading-pictures-to-the-new-forum.595/ See how you go, let me know if you have any problems. Ray
Hi Graham, That help video came from vimeo, I suspect the problem might be that your browser doesn't support flash. It plays ok on Chrome, SeaMonkey and Firefox. The original of the help video can be found here, copy the link below into your browser. Code: https://vimeo.com/13955213 Ray
In British Plane Makers, a plane mark is illustrated from "late 19th early 20th century" with an address at 188 High Street, Poplar; it is fairly certain that this Healey was a dealer, and that the saw is from the same stable: the mark on a back saw I found on ebay in 2008 was probably from a similar date. I've tried using the infinitely tedious website historicaldirectories to look for Mr Healey but got frustrated and bored. Will try again, meanwhile the photos may get loaded and we can check the dates a bit more closely. Simon
Hello again, I've watched the upload video and will try again to upload the photos of the Healey saw.
well that didn't work, had a message saying "the uploaded file is too large for the server to process" the image size range from 2.07mb to 3.62mb do I need to reduce these somehow? Graham.
Hi all, I have taken some fresh photos of my friends Healey saw and have cropped and reduced their size and will attempt to upload them. Please have a look at them, and if you have any suggestions about its identification, I will be most grateful. Thank you Graham.
Thanks very much for persisting, Graham! Your friend's saw is a very characteristic London saw of the last 20 or so years of the 19th century and maybe a bit beyond – London pattern handle, three screws, large boss and fairly narrow nose, and a maker/dealer's name as a surname plus the single word London. If I was feeling stronger (nay, much stronger), I'd search the directories for this man, who was I suspect an ironmonger. Maybe another day… Simon
Hello Simon, thanks for your reply, by directories do you mean Grace guides, the Gazette, are there others that you can suggest so that I could look through as well. What would your assessment of this saw be, one to leave as is and admire wearing gloves or clean it up and use. thank you Graham.
Wonderful what a night's sleep can do: I only had to spend an hour or so on the website Historical Directories of England and Wales to make a fair guess at Healey's identity. I've written the following entry: "HEALEY LONDON Not identified, but a strong contender would be Charles Healey, chairmaker, of 27 Mintern Street, Hoxton (<1882-1910>); this furniture-making area supported many workers in wood who often specialised in making furniture parts, and who frequently dealt in tools. He would not have made saws, and his source for factoring them is not known. Because these London handsaws were so characteristic and similar, it is tempting to think they all came from one maker; none is documented, but a guess might be J.V.Hill, the long-lived and perhaps most succesful maker in 19th century London. " To complete it, could Graham perhaps email me direct a nice big image of the maker's mark please? (to barleys@mac.com); it would make the 306th extra image I've accumulated for the update. Thanks very much Simon (PS: I didn't try either of the other two sources Graham suggests, but I'd be v interested to know if they can be contributory here.)