Ericson open tote.

Hello All,

I thought that I would try to put an easy saw on this time. A nice little Ericson (if you ignore the lack of teeth). Once again I bought it for the handle, not the teeth.

HSMOB has Ericson and Co down as c1900 to1905. This ties the date down to around 5 years, which is marvellous and tells you that he/she is a Sheffield maker.

That is until you look a little further at the HSMOB entry. Now, I am not saying that it is wrong, but there are some interesting angles to it, not least the lack of attribution to a directory and therefore a contemporaneous date, or indeed name.

HSMOB has Ericson down as a maker and moreover has him down as Ericson and Co. with an "O" floating after the Co. His only attribution to the information is that of a "saw in the hands of a collector".

My saw clearly has "Ericson" stamped on the back but this is then followed by "O and Co." not "Ericson and Co., O"

The questions are thus:-
Is Ericson a maker or a brand? (cf. a single name as per Fitzwilliam - no initials)
Who or what is or are "O and Co."?
Where does HSOMB's date and place come from and are they right?
Better still, does anyone know who has the saw that the authors had access to, and if you do, any chance of a picture?

I have a knack of making even the most straightforward things complicated. Does anyone have any ideas?

Fred

 

Simon Barley's list does not have an entry for this in Sheffield or London. I guess there are several options:

Ericson - a brand of O & Co
Ericson & Co, O (the HMSOB entry and presumably the same as this saw)
Ericson - maker, retailed through O & Co

Of course, may be American.

 

Thanks Ray,

The saw you linked to is interesting in that, for a start it has teeth and secondly it has different sized nuts on the handle, with a smaller one at the front. (It looks as though the rear nut has only just caught the blade.) Whether nut size in this instance has any implications for age outside the five year time-span given by HSMOB, I do not have the faintest idea. It seems curios that they should change nut sizes within only 5 years.

It is equally interesting that this saw is also marked "O&Co." which I suspect has implications for the retailer/supplier notion. I think that it is possible, although unlikely that a saw from the same retailer should pop-up in Scotland and North America unless the retailer had a monopoly on the supply of them. And we still do not know the exact markings on HSMOB's saw. (They are not hen's teeth rare, but they do not appear all that often)

Thank-you for the pointer to the value. I am green with envy when I see values like this on tool websites. In order to finance my collecting I sell old tools and curios on a regular market and steam fairs in the summer and I am lucky if I can get 10% or 20% of such values. (I don't sell my collectable saws though).

I cannot work out how much I paid for the Ericson as I got it in a lot of 5 saws, of which I only wanted 2. This one and a giant (by UK standards, it has nothing on the Americam box mitre saws) W Tyzack Sons and Turner backsaw ( 16" long with a blade depth including back of 5 1/4").

I will put it on the site at some stage, but I suspect that the value is in that as opposed to my toothless and chipped horn Ericson.

Thanks again for the effort at identification, I am sure that someone at some stage will come up with information.

Fred

 

Hi guys,

Not an expert on these things but reading the thread, you may be able to reduce the possible maker.

The thread, (another of Freds saws) for the J T & S (Fitzwilliam saw). concludes that the JT&S stamp is the maker Joseph Tyzack & sons.

This makes sense, if selling through a retailer who wants his saws stamped with his own name, the saw manufacturer would only stamp his initials.

If the same holds true for this saw, the O&Co could only be a handful of makers in Shefield. see below

OLDHAM & Co.
OSBALDISTON & Co.
OSBORN & Co.

Unfortunatly the above comments fail on the ground we can't confirm the place of manufacture,(unlike the JT&S) but it would be a starting point.

All the above manufacturers where working in Sheffield at the same time. Other named examples of their saws may be around for comparision, and this may prove the only alternative to finding the maker if the retailer proves a dead end.

cheers

lui

 

Thanks Lui,

Re. your three and two others. HSMOB has the following.

There is an "Oldham, Walker and Co., but he is operating in 1847.
There is also and "Oldham, Daniel" which became a company in 1911.
Both these are Sheffield makers.

There is an Onions and Co. (Birminhgam) 1891 to 1904 (about right), but not for a Sheffield manufacturer as stated for Ericson in HSMOB.

Osbaldiston and Co. (Sheffield) goes from 1865 to 1900.

Osborn and Co. (Sheffield) from 1852 to 1971, but also an entry for London 1879.

Oxley and Co. (London) 1895.

Where this gets us without seeing the trade marks for these manufacturers I don't know, but it is interesting.

Fred
PS Apologies for the spelling errors in the previous post. I did it quckly. And for the ones I have made in this.

 

Ericson open tote

Another one that has foxed me, like the other contributors. I recently asked the membership of the Tools and Trades History Society (in their newsletter) for information about this mark, and can shed a little light.

O & Co is undoubtedly Onions and Co, originally a Birmingham saw making firm bought up by a conglomerate Wolverhampton firm called John S Shaw in 1906, who continued the name until at least the 1930's, often adding "Governor Brand" to the etch. I haven't been able to track down Ericson, though, but it could again be connected to the Shaw combine, which bought up a large number of failing firms in the first decade of the 20th cent.

thanks once again to Fred for interesting puzzles!


Simon

 

Simon,
I just got a Trojan | O & Co. 12" saw which is much nicer than I expected it to be, looks like around ww2 era. Could this be the same O & Co. you mentioned here?
pictures of the saw — http://www.backsaw.net/forum/index....is-beardshaw-son-12-carcas-saw.974/#post-5431
Thanks