Could it be a Slack Sellers & Graysons

Hi Guys,
first of all, I would like to congratulate Ray on a wonderful site, fantastic site well done.
I have to admit I am a sufferer of the tool bug,
Plane's and saw's, in the main, as well as sharpening/hone stones & chisels to mention others, I better stop there.
Recently I purchased a group of 3 back saws, initially for the blades, it was my intention to use all 3 of them to replace blades in other back saws that I own, well they arrived and I soon changed my mind, not one of the 3 have saw nuts they all seem to have rivets, I hope I find I am wrong and simply that, they are perhaps saw nuts that have been worn down a great deal, I am pretty sure that is not the case.
Time to get back on track, after they arrived, I decided 2 of them were to good to break down just for the blades, one 12" saw with an extra heavy steel back caught my interest more than the others, I have now had chance to clean it up some, not only is the back extra heavy but the blade seems to be extra heavy duty also, as a user it cuts great, there is signs of a name of some description being on the spine at some point along with what looks like rather a fancy etch on the plate its self, my first thoughts were perhaps a Slack Sellers & Graysons, I thought perhaps that this was much to early especially as it has rivets rather than saw nuts of any kind, the rivets do appear to have PATENT embossed onto one side of them, they are steel and appear to have been nickel coated at some point in the life, the handle is rather plain to look at, but very comfy to use in my rather large hands.
My biggest failing so far is that I still do not have any decent reference material, this I would like to remedy as soon as possible, I would like copies of both HSMB and the USA version by the same author. If anyone can point me in the direction of better identification I would be very happy, once again what a fantastic site with a mass of fantastic reference material .
1 x 12" back saw Extra heavy steel back & heavy duty plate 0.032" depth of plate 3" @ h & 2 3/4" @ the toe.
The handle wood, I am not 100% I know it is not apple and neither is it English / European Beech it seems to be much to red for them.
I have just been looking at some earlier catalog's
Marples 1938 Heavy Iron Back Joiners Saw 2526 this is the same style of saw 12" 12 PPi, if anyone can help with ID, I would be very great full .

 

Hi Steve,

It could be a Slack Sellars and Graysons, but if it is and the handle is original to the saw, it must be around/post WW1, but how "post" I don't know.

If it is made by SS and G, then for purely selfish reasons I would like it to be "Grayson" singular as I have a Graysons which I would like to be about 1840, or 1860 - ish at the latest.

Is there any chance of an image of the markings on the back or the etch, never mind how indistinct they are.

My SS and G:- http://www.backsaw.net/index.php?option=com_jfusion&Itemid=58&jfile=showthread.php&t=205

There is a lot of verbiage to plow through on the above link.

Fred

 

Hi Fred,
thank you for taking the time to reply, I am very please it was from yourself as I have had a look through some of your pictures and am very impressed with the saws both back and panel saws that you have uploaded pictures of, now I thought I had a few in my collection but you wipe the floor with me, my other half is getting a bit fed up of the growing pile at the side of my bed.
I have now since read through the link that you mentioned, that was covered very thoroughly, some fantastic resources & over all a great team effort, wow how did we ever manage before the dawn of the internet.
I am rather limited with the type of camera that we have these days although I do have one of those USB microscope things, I will have a go at playing with the contrast on some of the pictures in order to try and make what is there of the etch more clear, I have taken the wet & dry to the plate yet again in order to try to make things appear to be much more clear, now it would appear to have some type of animal head right at the centre of the plate, the closest thing I have found is the LYNX brand etch with the Lynx right at the centre, instead of the word being Graysons it may well be Garlic & Sons, there is defiantly an I on the spine as the . full stop above the I is the clearest thing on the spine.
For my sins I bought yet more saws from ebay but a few days ago, one of these saws 42" long with a handle that looks like a Disston combination No29, the plate of course is much to long to be one of these being twice the length of the 29 at 42", I must start a new thread with some pictures. Once again thanks for your help on the current matter, pictures to follow if I can manage to make something show up.

 

LYNX Brand Etch

Hello Fred,
I have managed to get a better picture, the etch or rather what is left of it, can now be seen.
I would like to see what this etch once looked like it seems to be quite substantial, it would appear to cover quite a large area of the plate at one time.
You can now see the word that begins with G now I assume to be the Garlic & Sons.
The Lynx brand cat head is quite clear now to the center of the plate.
Thanks again with your help
Steve

 

Hi Steve,

If you wait long enough you will probably find an etch on a saw on Ebay, unless someone has a catalogue with one in.

I think that there is a post on here somewhere that Flinn Garlick are still making saws in Sheffield and so their archive might have an image in it.

If you go to the home page of this site, under the log in, there is a link to "Thomas Flinn Garlick Pax" under "Saw Makers". I haven't looked, but there must be a contact there.

Also don't get too upset over the domestic resistance to collecting. My wife was quite positive about it when she thought that I would stop at a dozen. I am now up to about 300, but this pales into insignificance at Simon's well in excess of 1000.

I can but aspire to that.

Fred