Hello all, This is a large saw - 17 1/2 inches of blade. I know that most of the American mitre box saws are bigger, but they seldom turn up here and I have never been persuaded to buy one. The seller, in his description put "has a few old worm holds in the handle". That it like saying that it rains a little in Scotland. However, I could see what I was getting and I am not complaining. What I could not see ( and it is still very hard to see it now), was the saw maker. It was an "it must be an old saw because of the handle shape" and so it was another "wing and a prayer buy" and which has only just paid off from the mark legibility point of view. You can see on the images the LIFFE with reasonable certainty, the C and the H before it, just about, and the rest is a guess. I am sure that I saw a G at one time but it does not show up in the photo. BSSM has George Willis Hinchliffe as being at Eyre Street, Sheffield from 1833 to 1849. I would have liked it to be a little earlier, back into the Haywood Hinchliffe and Co. company of 1825 to 1828, but realistically I don't think that it is. The handle shape could take it back there but I am pretty sure that the "G" that I saw was not illusory. There is also a caveat in BSSM that the saw with the mark portrayed in the book may have been a product of Haywood manufacturing business. Fred
Hey Fred. Great looking saw. I find early 18"back saws are scarcer than "hen's teeth" and that really is a nice find. I think you are right on with the Hinchcliffe, but as to the first letters on the stamp, really good squinting from the other side of the room can't make it appear from here either. My question is about the bug holes and the possibility of the live critters making their way to some of your other prize possessions. Do you have a method of controlling them? Fumigation, freezing or just burying them with a filler or epoxy of some sort? I'm curious. I think I have only one saw handle with this pest and it was minute enough I was able to fill holes with a cyanoacrylate and I hope poison and encrust them. Time will tell. Haven't seen this maker yet, so nice find. Joe S.
Fred, I love the saw and German Steel on it. The rest of the stamp - I can't see what it is, but my glasses need replacement anyway, so no surprise here... ;-)
Thank you both. I have no fear of woodworm Joe. Well, I do but I have given up the battle against it and most wood eating fungi. The part of Scotland in which I live must be one of the most perfect climates in the Temperate Zone for the proliferation of such things. On top of which I live surrounded by trees in various states of life and death but always accompanied by decay. Having said that I did do the "tap test" for worm. Tap the handle on a solid surface and if dust comes out then the odds are that the worm is live. But you have got me thinking about filling worm holes. I use a synthetic wax like substance made by a company called Liberon to fill anything up to quite large dents in furniture that I renovate. It is hard at room temperature, but becomes pliable when a small piece is worked between the fingers and it is easily melted. This may well do to fill holes as, in principle at least it is removable - the basic tenet of conservation. You could, of course, just use beeswax dyed the appropriate colour. Beeswax - eBay item number: 280555443118 Liberon - eBay item number: 390493976783 Fred