Hello all, Here's a big saw with a very large and unusual handle. The blade is just under 19" long although the width of the handle makes it seem shorter. The spine tapers almost 3/16" from handle to toe. The handle has a long top chamfer from which there is an unusual drop down into the top hook. It has two riveted fasteners inlaid into the cheeks which raise some questions. The top one seems made from a cut nail while the lower seems more purpose-made. I don't know if they are the original fasteners or not, but there are no circular marks left from the use of split nut screws. If the top rivet had been mortised into a round split screw hole the split screw could have been at most 3/8" in diameter which seems quite undersized for such a large saw. And since the top fastener is a nail why is there a square mortise anyway? Unless perhaps there was originally a purpose-made rivet in that location that failed and the nail is a poor repair. The stamp has an upright ampersand which usually suggests a later date. BSSM has the firm making saws from about 1809 until at least 1825. David
That's a magnificent saw David, & a rarity by a female saw maker... I'm a huge fan of such early saws & I love the handle on this one- perhaps they shipped them un-handled & then were completed locally? Who knows for sure... anyway, its a very cool saw & the handle is an impressive bit of work by whoever shaped it & the rivets are extra cool- I think it looks fantastic & has presence on such a large saw. The depth of blade is pretty good for a saw of this age, I wish that this sort of thing turned up at our local auctions, but that's just wishful thinking! Thanks for sharing it. Regards Mari
A very enviable acquisition, David. The handle is indeed fairly idiosyncratic in design, and I wonder whether it could conceivably have been made once it arrived in America, knowing that handles and blades were often shipped separately. The ampersand's uprightness seems to me to resemble the 1820-ish Jane Green saw on BSSM p286, even though the overall mark is not the same. Simon