Handsaw blade stamps can include name stamps of the sawmaker, sawmaker's location, steel type. Some handsaws also have three crowns stamped around the name stamps, (These are not especially rare, I have them on straight back nibbed handsaws from Beardshaw & Son, Robt Sorby, and Taylor) Occasionally I have found alternative icons used instead of crowns; my Wragg Long & Co saw (c1830) has three shields (WL&Co's corporate mark), http://www.backsaw.net/index.php?option=com_jfusion&Itemid=58&jfile=showthread.php&p=2017#post2017 and my latest is an American saw by Willmott, (1835-1862), who uses three stars. A bit of googling shows that Samuel D Willmott was a hardware merchant who manufactured saws from his "American Star Works" [hence the "Stars"] http://books.google.ca/books?id=09E...age&q="american star works " willmott&f=false Has anyone found any other alternatives to the three crowns ?
Hi Kiwi, Nice saw from (to me) a hitherto unknown maker. Lots of early New York state makers put stars on their saws. Josiah Bakewell was the first. Later in the 1850's almost all the saws made by prison labor at Sing Sing prison had the same three stars (Cortland Wood & Co, A F Shotwell, Pratt & Holroyd, etc.) They also commonly had the same steel domed nuts and elaborate handles as your example. In fact, because of those attributes, I think it's reasonable to suppose that Mr. Willmott's saw may have been made for him under contract at Sing Sing. He's not listed as a maker in any of the other usual sources, and hardware dealers frequently had their saws made by others and stamped with their name. The catalog entry you cited from Google is dated 1851 and the Sing Sing saws were in production from about 1850 to 1860 or so, so the dates would work for that. And other early American makers would put three eagles around their blade stamps. Welch & Griffiths and Henshaw & Co (both of Boston) almost always did so. Henry Disston did so occasionally on his very high end saws, and one of his butchers meat saws has also been found with three eagles. In any case, congratulation on finding a great looking saw and adding another name to our list of makers. David
Hello again, Kiwi, With some embarrassment, I now recognize that Mr. Willmott is listed in HSMONA, with the dates of work that you provided, and with four separate references, although none of them seem to be from actual saws, but rather print references. Anyway, hardly unknown. So, I should research first, then reply. Yes, I'll do that next time. Regards, David
Hi David, Thanks for pointing me to the "three star" saws made by Sing Sing prisoners. Mike Stemple has pictures of several examples, with different names from WILLMOTT, but with the same three stars. Sure looks like Willmott used the same source for his saws. https://picasaweb.google.com/116740232904988541224/SingSingSaws# Mike also has pictures of Boston saws with the three eagles that you mentioned https://picasaweb.google.com/116740232904988541224/2010_1121girffithswelch# Mike has a great gallery of handsaw pictures besides the above, which provides plenty of candy for handsaw junkies, [and proves that I definitely do NOT have too many saws, (yet), but what I need is a bigger storage space instead of less saws] see his "Shop Saws" gallery at https://picasaweb.google.com/116740232904988541224