18th Century Dovetail Saw?

Dear all, I'd like to share this new arrival with you.
I suspect that it could be a very early saw, so I'm very interested to hear others views on the age or possible origin of the saw.
It's 8" long, a tapered brass back that is very rounded on the top, the tiny handle is only 5/8" thick, the saw plate is 15thou thick, 13.5ppi & a rip profile.
What I find attractive about this saw is the double horn cut outs at the top & bottom of the handle, I've seen a few early saws but I haven't seen that shape on a handle before.
It has IS stamped into the spine & MO stamped into the handle on the reverse.
It has a couple of obligatory worm holes & a missing nut.
The saw came from a little town not far from Scarborough in the UK.
So far I haven't spotted any stamp on the plate, but I haven't spent a lot of time on it- the saw arrived yesterday.

Regards

Mari

 

Hi Mari,

You are right, I think, in thinking that it is early. BSSM has that shaped handle as around 1770. But for what it is worth, I always thought that the change in handle shape was around the late 1790's/early 1800's.

I have looked through BSSM for possible dates for a maker with the initials I S or J S. There is a Squire in London but he was William. There was a Stewart in London but he was Thomas, and a Stidman in Birmingham but he was Thomas also.. It is not looking good for a known maker, but an unknown one (providing that the mark on the back is a maker's and not an owner's mark) whilst making for a certain amount of frustration until you find who it is, is even better.

There is one longshot. Love and Spear started in 1760 and they were recorded in 1787 as factors and steelmakers.

If Simon will allow a short quote from his book:-

"Documentary evidence suggests that saw making began only towards the end of the 18th century.....................
By 1805 a four man partnership which included John Spear (nephew of the founder) was renewed; {bold mine} they had been "for several years past partners with the late Alexander Spear making saws and steel"

So, in 1805 a saw making partnership of several years previously was renewed, thus putting saw making by John Spear back by an indeterminate time. Would said indeterminate time be long enough for John Spear to put his initials on a saw?

That would be a truly wonderful find were it to be the case.

One last thing. You say this saw came from near Scarborough. Please do not tell me that it was on Ebay and that I missed it. Should this be the case, the world would not have a large enough supply of Prozac.

Fred

 

Hi Fred, thank you for your reply & information, the initials on the spine are 5.1mm high with a combined width of 13mm for the two letters, if anyone has seen similar sized stamped letters on saw spines I'd like to hear about it- a bit different to the usual sized stamps.

Regards

Mari

 

Hi Ray,

Thanks for your reply, those extra "horn" type cut outs are unusual, nice to see some extra detailing on such an old saw, please copy away if you wish.

Regards

Mari

 

It's a lovely saw, Mari – very enviable.
The difficult thing about 18th century saws is their scarcity: against the many thousands that were made, we peer at the relative handful that remain, and when a feature appears, like these huge initials, or the handle details, that's new to us, it's impossible to know what to make of it in the sense of trying to put together patterns of manufacture. All of it is WAG territory par excellence. I(=J) S could be Spear, or its first owner John Smith, or any number of other imaginings – how tantalising not to be sure.
For myself, I can only be envious, and await the next one....

 

Hi Simon,

Thanks for your reply, I just wish the saw could talk & tell me it's story...
Hopefully one day more will be revealed, even if not it's a lovely old thing & I'm really surprised that such a delicate tool has lasted this long.

Regards

Mari