Australian Saws

Hi Chris, thanks for your remarks, & yes you are correct, the thumbhole rip has a ppi stamp on the heel, quite deep & noticeable on the other side, the panel saw has a ppi stamp too.
I was chuffed to find them, I've heard lots about them but never seen even a photo of a River Lett saw...

Regards

Mari

 

Two Denman & Robinson of Melbourne saws, an 26" aggressive 7ppi xcut with a beech handle & Sheffield W/S medallion, plus an 8" bb gents saw 16.5ppi xcut, stamped on the brass spine.

I've had the 26" saw for about 3yrs scratching my head over the etch, I presumed that it was just another Bowden when starting to clean it & I was very surprised to see a worn etch ...man & Ro...son, Melbourne! For the life of me I couldn't work it out, so I put it back on the shelf until hopefully more evidence would come to light, & when I found the little gents saw the penny dropped.

Denman & Robinson had a reasonable sized workshop in Oakleigh & were saw Drs & cutter sharpeners, I believe that they have closed now unfortunately.


Regards


Mari

 

Hello All,
I contacted the Lithgow Small Arms Factory Museum to see if they had any further information on River Lett Saws. They kindly provided the following information:

"Information on the saws is fairly scant. All we have is the following:

The River Lett saws were made by Geoffrey Kensett. He worked at the Factory during Second World War and started sharpening saws in a shed from 1946. He later leased a "rec" building to manufacture saws and was in business from 1947 to 1950. The blades were made at the Factory from English steel. The handles were coachwood supplied by Tom Kirk's saw mill at Mount Wilson, we assume he shaped them himself.

He made various saws including rip, panel meat and a 24" handyman saw. Over 20,000 total were made in the 4 years. Many were exported to New Zealand.

We may find more on the saws as we continue to catalogue our archives.

Kind regards,

Donna White
Custodian
Lithgow Small Arms Factory Museum"

So there we are. A bit more information about Australian saws.

 

Dear Model T,

Thanks so much for contacting the museum & posting this, its invaluable information & fascinating to read...

Regards

Mari

 

Yes very interesting Mari.

20,000 saws in 4 years is 5,000 p.a. Assuming 46 weeks per year production that's 109 saws per week, say 22 per day without any delays. That's one saw produced every 20 minutes. Geoffrey must have had a few people helping him I would think.

It would be interesting to know how he distributed / sold the saws, and then why he stopped production. I have not been able to trace any adverts for the saws, so maybe Geoffrey sold his saws through hardware merchants?

From what I have read on line over the years it would appear that around about 1950 the likes of Stanley, Disston and Spear & Jackson were taking advantage of import tarrifs and started to "manufacture" saws in Australia = assembling saws from imported components and then export them and sell locally - maybe some of the handles were made locally?

Geoffrey most likely would have found he could not compete with the big manufacturers when they rode into town, and decided to close the business.

Or maybe it is as simple as his lease ran out and he didn't renew it so shut the business down. Or he simply retired and shut the business down.

Hopefully the Lithgow Small Arms Factory Museum will unearth more information in the future as they sift through their archives.

Regards,
Trevor

 

Thanks for your reply Trevor, I'm surprised that the River Lett saws were only made for 4 years & then finished up in 1950- that would explain why they are hard to find.
Also, some of the handles that Disston used on their locally "produced" D8s look to have been made out of Meranti- not beech, so I would think that those were possibly made here.

regards

Mari

 

Hello all,
A heads up for those that are interested. There is a WH Blakeley brass back for sale on Gumtree in Perth https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/hil...eley-melbourne-brass-top-tenon-saw/1182699166 $80 nibbled on the horns but otherwise ok.

 

Hi Dee,

Thanks for sharing that- Blakeley saws are quite scarce! I hope that someone on here grabs it...

Regards

Mari

 

Just be careful with Gumtree, it's a snake pit without checks and balances... caveat emptor.

 

Mari

I have finally got around to cleaning up another River Lett saw, that I found at the Naracoorte swap in May.

It is the same as your 28" 4 1/2 ppi thumbhole rip saw, with decal and in slightly better condition.

The shaping of the handle is very rudimentary and not highly finished showing the machining marks,
but it is not damaged and I was able to save the decal when refinishing.

Graham.

 

Hi Graham, wow you've done a great job on the River Lett ripsaw, it looks great, the handle & decal are in awesome shape, enjoy it, they are a hard to find saw.. thanks for posting it up.

Regards

Mari