Can anyone help me with dating this saw? (It's not mine, unfortunately…) It's a 12in grafter, and the mark reads Thompson, and nothing else. The screws have been altered, I think, as they have iron or steel heads on the face side, and standard design flat screws on the reverse. The handle has the rounded nose one might see on an 18th century saw, and the toe is also not unlike pre-1800 saws, even though toe outline cannot be taken as original unless all other features are consistent (it could have been altered the day before yesterday). I've never seen another like it, and the name Thompson is very unhelpful in identifying the maker, as there was a John T who was working around 1800 in Sheffield, and a man of unknown forename in the very early 1800s in Birmingham. The grafter in Smith's Key (1816) is not like this at all. Over to you all, please! Simon
Hi Simon, that's a nice little grafter, I can't help with the maker, but I have a similar-ish older style grafter round nose & steel peened rivets, I don't have a name on mine & the forward hook has gone, I'll post it for comparison. I don't know if mine is user / smith made or production line. Regards Mari
Hello both of you, I am not sure that either of you are going to get any sort of an answer and that the saws will remain unknown until something similar comes along with a datable mark, or indeed in the case of Mari, with a mark at all. I would agree that both should be early i.e. pre 1800, although the boss on Simon's handle is getting to be a bit asymmetrical. The saw, for what it is worth, looks "right" to me for an early saw. I think that I saw yours, Mari on Ebay within the last couple of months. I was tempted to have a go for it for the boss alone but the rest of the handle is a bit of a connundrum as it looks, to me, a little too flat, thin and angular to gel with the boss. I hope that it is as early as it should be, but I have nagging doubts. Does anyone have any ideas, or examples of early handles in this style. Fred