Attached (hopefully) are some photos of a possible (according to Simon Barley) rare saw. Please see Simon's book ( to be published shortly) for any additional details that he may have. In the meantime, maybe we can gather some more information from readers to this forum.
Interesting saw, I'm not having much luck tracking down information, the only thing I found was in The August 1 1887 edition of "The Watchmaker, Jeweller and Silversmith" was a notice of dissolution of partnership Briggs, Bennett & Newton. Sheffield, cutlery manufacturers. So that would possibly put an upper limit on the date of 1887 from here... http://archive.org/stream/watchmakerjewe1318871lond/watchmakerjewe1318871lond_djvu.txt I wonder if the "Newton" might be Francis Newton Francis Newton is probably the most well known of the Newton's, and he is listed as a saw maker (Francis Newton & Sons) Also has a pub named after him.. such is fame I guess... I wonder if it's the same Newton..? Regards Ray
Edward Newton, (not Francis, although they might be related?) Looks like BB&N were cutlers and merchants, so likely the saw was made for them by one of the major sawmakers see Gazette on the dissolution http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/25718/pages/3645/page.pdf some details of the end-of-business items for sale by auction, July 1887, (cutlery, razors, equipment. no saws noted, although I didn't view the entire articles), as announced in the local Sheffield newspaper, are here; http://www.genesreunited.co.nz/sear...ne&searchhistorykey=0&keywords=bennett newton
Hi Kiwi, Nice bit of research! I should have persisted with the London Gazette searches. Here is the Sheffield Telegraph Advert for the sale. July 1887 The only additional snippet I've found is reference in the Sheffield Independant Newspaper to a grindstone accident at BB&N in July 1886, involving a table knife grinder.. It doesn't really add much to the question, as to whether they made their own saws or not, but it does indicate that they were more than just merchants. I wonder what OH&S would make of something like that. Regards Ray
For some reason I cannot move the images sideways on my computer and so I cannot see the handle detail properly but from the look of the thumbnails, the medallion is raised and the saw screws have convex heads. If this is true then it is an interesting find in a British saw this early, I think. (Or is it on the cusp of the changeover to such things?) But, of course, this saw comes from Canada and I was therefore wondering whether the firm had followed the American fashion in the above respects in order to facilitate sales. I too looked for the makers in the online directories but because of the screws/medallion I looked at the start of the 20th century - Doh!!! Of course, if the screws are flat then this is entirely irrelevant. Fred
Fred, I run into that picture problem a lot on this site, with the oversized image on the screen, use the zoom on your computer to go less than 100%.
Fred, Toby, If clicking the image makes it too big to view I usually backtrack, then right-click to "open link in a new window", and then adjust the magnification as required to view details. [looks like flat screws, and recessed "warranted superior" crest type medallion ]
There was 'Isaac' ... used to mess around with apples and gravity and mysticism. And 'Fig' of course.
Hmm, I think that's my fault, I removed the size limits on thumbnail attachments, I figured that was better than forcing people to re-size their images, I've now set a limit of 2048x1024 on jpg images, so if you have something bigger than that, you'll have to re-size it before uploading as a thumbnail. tough act to follow... Regards Ray