Hello all, I have just taken delivery of this from America. I feel a bit iffy about putting it up here as I am sure that any serious saw collector would have seen it on Ebay for the week or so that it was on there. But I hope that with it being on here, over time, many more will see it. The marking, to me is extraordinary. It has most things that you could want in a mark. The handle is also in a very good state of preservation. There is a crack in the blade, but it is never going to be used again whilst I own it and so the damage matters little. You will notice that I have not waxed lyrical about the back. It looks as crisp and in as good a condition as the rest with only a shadow of a chamfer at the bottom and very pronounced bevels at the top. If they are genuine, they are superb but they do worry me a little as they look a little too sharp along the edges to be 1820's workmanship. It would not surprise me if they had been machined at some stage, as I have not seen lines as sharp as this on a saw of this ostensible age. But then again, I have not seen an awful lot of saws of this age and especially in this good a condition. Can any body help me out on this. If anyone does have a saw with bevels on the top of the back, comparative pics. would be appreciated whether they are similar or markedly different. Fred
Hi Fred, That's a lovely little saw you have- an enormous early looking top horn... Here's some photos of my Spear German.Steel for comparison for you- apologies for the quality of the photos- it's nighttime here now, mine has a chamfer to the bottom edges of the spine only & rounded to the top, But- mine is an iron back Not a brass back more expensive saw. Regards Mari
Hi Fred et al. Nice saw and yes it was noticed and I am glad it went to a good home. I included some time ago four pics of a group of Spear saws I have here and none af them show as dramatic a bevel on the upper part of the brass spine. http://www.backsaw.net/forum/index.php?threads/four-spear-saws.656/. I don't know if this was an anomaly for that saw or was a later sanding and refinement done on it. As Mari says, there may have been a difference in refinement on the brass saws but the brass back saw I have included has again another variation on a stamp. enjoy Joe S.
Hi Fred, As Joe says, it's a fine saw and, yes, we noticed it. Sure looks like a good addition to your collection. It's certainly not a common detail, but I don't get the idea from looking at your Spear that the chamfering was done after it was made. There seems to be an appropriate amount of age marks and scratches on that angled face, matching the rest of the spine. Although I don't have a Spear with such flat top chamfers, I do have two backsaws that do. One's a Kenyon tenon and the other is a Green, Pickslay & Millington dovetail and pictures of both are attached for comparison.
Thank you all for your comments, And for the images posted, and Joe for the link to the thread which I should have picked up on before I started to write. It is nice and quite a bit of a relief that some age related (or even earlier) saws have a similarly beveled shape to mine. One thing that has been picked up about the mark in a conversation outside of these pages, is that "Spring" has been struck over something else. I cannot make head nor tail of what is underneath it. Perhaps one of you could. Fred
Lovely saw, lucky Fred. Having first been completely clueless about the word underneath the "Spring", it occurred to me that the word was the same length as Spring, and would probably be 6 letters. What word might that have been? The person responsible for striking these several different marks would have had on the bench in front of him several different punches, and I can imagine (another of those Friday afternoon moments?) him picking up the wrong one, and one that he'd just used – the one worded "Double". The eye of faith is needed to do quite a bit of work, but I hope the guess is the right one. A clip round the ear was earned for it by the apprentice, maybe. Simon