Hi all, I'm a newcomer, but I'm leaping straight in. I work as a carpenter renovating social housing. Usually the places are emptied of junk before I turn up, but occasionally not and so my first task is to search the shed, garage, outbuilding and look for old tools...I love em! Up to now, on the saw front, I've found a couple of Spear and Jackson 88s and a Sandvick 288 that I've sharpened and use as spares. Last week however I came across two older individuals. The bigger saw is 26 inches long, has 6 tpi, and a 3 steel rivet handle painted black? The smaller saw is 24 inches long, 5 tpi, and has a 3 brass screw handle. The etching is quite badly worn, but for the word sheffield and a date of 1827 or 8. This obviously is not the date of the saw' manufacture. If any of you fellow admirers of old saws and tools could help to place names to my finds I would be most appreciative...even if those names are crap, or worthless junk. My aim with old tools is not to sell them, but to use them much to the amusement of my 'throwaway saw using' workmates...Philistines!
Welcome Andy, I can't help you much I'm sorry. The overall shape of the larger saw looks similar to saws marketed by numerous companies. The plain handle , with a painted finish and only 3 screws/rivets, usually indicates a cheaper saw, but you may find the steel is good and it cuts well. The smaller saw looks more interesting from a curiosity point of view, but I don't recognize the etch (even tho I turned my monitor upside down to see the etch better ) Hopefully someone else can help. (I have a barrel of those "mystery" saws with unidentified partial etches. Sometimes they just get used as donors for saw screws)
Hi Andy, These two are not easy and unless someone recognises them we may end up getting nowhere very quickly. Can you give us a deciphering of the etch as best you can. The letters or partial words may mean something. It is an interesting saw though, with a handle without a lamb's tongue, but with split nuts. That must put it in the first quarter of the 20th C. (At least, possibly later) As for the larger saw, it is anyone's guess - and guess it will be. Do the fixings on the reverse of the saw have a reference to a patent on them. I posted a Brooksbank some time ago with similar fixings. See http://www.backsaw.net/cpg/displayimage.php?pid=241 or go to my gallery and look at "Unidentified saws" and "Unidentified saw = Brooksbank". It doesn't mean a lot, but I am clutching at straws. Fred
Thanks guys, the pictures were taken with my phone as at the time it was the only way to upload them. I will take some better pics tomorrow, the right way up this time, with my camera and hopefully show more detail. I would have done it after work, but l had to fit a new rear door handle to my van as some 'dear little angel' wanted my tools. Thankfully he got nothing. Andy