Hello all, This is a little modern for me and the handle leaves a lot to be desired (but it is still wood and not plastic), but apart from the handle it looks (and presumably is) a very nice saw. It would still not have made these august pages were it not for the fact that when researching Sandvik to try to determine when, post WW2 it was made, I saw on an "Old Tools Archive" topic the following from Peter Evans "Lots of Sandvick handsaws were sold in Australia in 1950s-1960s - with wooden and plastic handles. The saw blades are excellent, and harder than Disston saws, and were much favoured by carpenters. I have not see any backsaws though - any one know if Sandvick made them?" I know that Peter got an affirmative reply from someone who had three with plastic handles, but I thought that I would add this one for good measure as it has a wood handle but with a carved pattern that has had paint applied to it. Euphemistically referred to by someone on the same topic as "inlay". It also has a brass back and which I assume indicates that it is nearer the top of the range than the bottom. The other interesting thing about this saw is the cardboard cover which has the "blurb" that is on the saw put into both English and French. I think that this is one to save for my grandchildren. And I still don't know when it was made. Any ideas? Fred
Hey Fred Neat saw,actually attractive in its own sort of way. Looks to be in great shape. In Canada, as a bilingual country, we were required to provide the two official languages on packaging in 1969. This is probably a product of the requirement making it easy to sell in many locations then. I also see the "sign of the devil", aka, bar code, which would make the saw relatively recent. I would be interested to see how well it cuts because I think it was manufactured as a high quality saws. enjoy Joe S.
Hi Joe, Believe it or not I did not notice the bar code and even when you mentioned it, I had no idea when barcodes were introduced. But thank heavens for Wikipedia, Barcodes cannot really be before 1974 and my initial thoughts were 1960's to 1980's and so I will have to go with the 1980's, possibly a little later. Definitely one for the grandchildren (although the only one so far is female but I do not see that in itself as a bar to an interest in saws if I have anything to do with it). As for usage, I will be quite happy to go with Peter on the quality of Sandvik. The only Sandvik that I use is a hand pruning saw and it goes through branches like a hot knife through butter. There is an enormous set on the teeth but such is their sharpness (even after 8 years) that it doen't slow it down much at all. Fred
Hi Fred...don't know when your saw was made but as a data point, the identical saw was offered as a regular stock item in the 1993 GarrettWade tool catalog (for $59.80). So it could be as new as the mid-nineties. ....Rob
Hi Rob, Thanks for the date. It is about a hundred years later than the latter end of the saws that I collect and 200 years later than the saws that I would like to collect if I could actually find one as they all seem to be in North America. Still, one can dream. But it is a pretty blade and in virtually unused condition. Fred
Thanks Fred, a bit later than the period I mentioned. Remember that Sandvick purchased most of the saw making remnants of Disston from HK Porter in 1975. So this saw might be a US made Disston badged as Sandvick! Cheers Peter
Sandvik Can't add much except to say that I believe their saws were (maybe are) very good - but also very hard - so hard that only Oberg saw files can be used to sharpen them, and Sandvik bought Oberg especially to put the two together, as it were. (Up to a couple of years ago when I had to feed a particularly hungry wood-burning stove, my favourite saw for any timber up to about 4 inches thick was a Sandvik panel saw - a beautiful tool, even though (sharp intake of breath, Fred) it had a plastic handle).