Drabble and Sanderson, London

Hello all,

From the sublime of rare Disstons to the commonplace of this box standard Drabble and Sanderson.

It is a very nice saw in its own way, but is, I suspect nothing special.

What does intrigue me, however is the ascription "London" when D and S were Sheffield and even more so HSMOB's rather cryptic reference:-

"Ebenezer Works, 33(37) Russell Street [1833 - 1911] [London]"

Now in my book, "London" can mean a number of things.
Place of manufacture;
Abbreviation for "London Spring";
Marketing ploy to associate the saw with quality (a` la London Spring).

(I really don't get on well with these "London" marks, they confuse the issue far too much.)

Does anyone know which of these explanations, or indeed any other, it is.

I hope that the saw is towards the earlier of HSMOB's dates than later. The reasons that I hope this are that the stamp is low on the back, the London pattern cheeks and the mark London. But as always I will stand to be corrected.

Are there any D and S afficionados out there who know these things?

Fred

The blade is 16" long and so it is quite a decent sized saw.

 

WTF are you talking about Fred, this is a way nicer saw than the Disstons...this is the era...I love these saws. I have a 18" Groves. It's a honker, even the 16" saws are pretty big and wieldy in the old days. These are much different than miter saws though, still most of them are pretty heavy.

Also most of them have difficulty in keeping the saw nuts tight. Many of them filed the slots off even. Still, they have stylish handles in this era.

As for the London, don't forget that London was a place where people could go and get different craftsmen to do work for them, maybe one guy would do handles, and another guy would sharpen/shape teeth. My understanding is that while many companies did exist, work was jobbed out more often than not. Doesn't seem unlikely that people from other areas would have had London do different work for them.

 

Here is a D&S joining quite a long list of Sheffield makers who during the second half of the 19th cent used the word London in place of Sheffield. Some of them, as Ray says, had administrative offices in London, but these addresses were in the City of London, but I don't think would have implied even the degree of "making" that Alan proposes.
From memory there were Groves, Moulson Bros, Joseph Tyzack's 4th (Fitzwilliam) and 5th (Bowdon) qualities, S&J's lower qualities John Cockerill and Lloyd Davies, Marshall and Cheetham (much earlier - c1830); not W Tyzack, Sons and Turner, nor Wheatman and Smith, and interestingly not S&J on their best quality stuff. Nor any that I can think of of the lesser makers like Garlick, Francis Wood, Wilcock, or the major factors like Ward and Payne.


It's a very handsome saw - 1880-ish??

 

I have always wondered about this D&S saw in my collection (see picture) that has almost a medieval scripted 'London'. Owned by father & son named 'Day' ..engraved by Dad 1886,and by the son 1912. The 'd' in London is shaped like a 'b' and the 'L' is quite ornate.
Thoughts anyone?
Roger

 

Hi Roger,

I think that you may well have a very good date for the manufacture of the saw, if we can assume that "dad Day" was the original owner.

I don't know who else on this forum is an expert on script on saws, but I think that Simon may be absent for some time - which is a pity as he almost certainly would have some views on it.

My own thoughts/guesses/rules of thumb for what they are worth is that after about 1860 - ish( and up to the turn of the century) when there started to be an amount of competition in the saw market and marketing/advertising really began to come into its own, the more ornate/complex/verbiose the stamps, the later that the saw is (within reason).

This would fit in very well with your ornate "London" as opposed to a plain stamp.

I am, as always, possibly miles out on this, and as always, refutations welcome. But it just seems to fit.

It could, of course just be a super quality saw with a stamp to match.

Fred