Hello all, W A Tyzack saws are not 10 a penny, but neither are they hen's teeth rare, and I put this on here for neither of these reasons. Not too long ago Greyhound put an Armitage, London on here and the frustrating thing about it was that the mark on its own was impossible to date. The same applies to this mark. I think that it could have been put on anywhere between 1840 and 1900. I can see nothing in the letter style to date it. We know from BSSM that the company was formed in 1868 and went on until 1970 and the shape of the nose probably puts it in the last 20 years of the 19th century. Normally I would put a straightforward, unfancy mark such as this at the earlier end of their time as a saw-maker, but this saw has German Steel on it, which probably makes it a relative cheapie and therefore not worth the effort of a more complex mark. (Complete WAG). Hence the later date. Fred
Hi Fred, Here's one for comparison. Possibly it's in the same time frame. It also has an unfancy mark but it's cast steel and is brass backed, which usually puts it a notch higher. They also didn't bother marking it Sheffield. It might have been made for export since not everyone in the 19th century was familiar with Sheffield as opposed to London. Just speculation, but I thought you might find it interesting. Regards, Vince
Hi Vince, Apologies for not replying earlier but life, and a bad Christmas cold got in the way of the serious matter of saws. Thanks for posting such a pretty saw which is, as you say, a couple of orders of magnitude classier than mine. I don't have many open handled saws to hand at the moment to compare with yours as they are all boxed, but one thing that I do notice about your saw, is that the bottom fishtail is sited well below the level of the blade, whereas none of my available handles are. They are either level with the blade or above it. Even my Tyzack pictured above does not have such a long handle extension. (And your blade looks to have a little bit more meat on than mine, which merely emphasises the length of the handle.) The reason that I am making such a big thing of it is that I really like that style of handle. I don't know why, it just appeals to me. Fred