Hi all - why I particularly came here to post ... (and I'm afraid I can only supply a pretty awful picture quality at this stage due to a disagreement between myself, my camera and Sir Isaac Newton.) I have this english style saw, bought from the UK, that I had mainly noted for the very small WS medallion it sported. But looking at it with an LED magnifier yesterday I first made out most of 'CAST STEEL Sheffield WARRANTED' and arced above that some letters that I at first took to be partly 'SPxFF' .. '&Co' I'm ashamed to say I don't have the British saw-makers book but I had searched and landed in 'Trademarks on Base-Metal Tableware' and looking for 'FF' soon convinced myself I was looking at "Griffiths & Co." with room for one or two letters before that. That document connected Isaac Greaves and Griffiths & Co to "Parks Works" ... which means nothing to me, but I have seen mention here of the Peace name. "GRIFFITHS & CO., Parks Works Sheffield (1867) Cutlery, electro-plated tableware of all kinds Ref. Montreal Gazette, 7 Nov. 1867, advertisement" "ISAAC GREAVES, Parks Works Sheffield (1892) Succeeded by W.K. & C. Peace Cutlery of all kinds Ref. 1892" I have looked at this blade before and it seems to me as if this mark had risen ghost-like to the surface from sitting inside in the 'library' since it first arrived here. Attempts to take photographs of the magnified image with an alleged smart-phone were unhelpful. I tried pooling some WD40 on the surface and varying the raking light, and then progressively thinning the depth of liquid sitting over the stamp as this has helped view some features in the past. In this case, the final wiping off of the surface with a tissue seems to have cleaned the little amount of debris from those very shallow stamped letters - and now they are nearly invisible again. Naaaaah. I hope to be back in the photographic ball-park again soon. Does anyone know this maker? I tried a search of the forum but no result. My second question was regarding the - again english style - handsaws where the ppi are stamped as (eg) '7PTS'. Is this associated with a certain time period? Thanks very much, Paul McGee
And photos ... worked out better than I expected for a borrowed camera with a magnifying glass held in front of it Cheers, Paul PS ... for the highly tangentially related info encountered while searching ... "In Somerset Place in 1850, 60 back-to-back houses were recorded as sharing two taps and four privies. Not all courts had the luxury of their own tap and it was not unusual for occupants to have to carry water a considerable distance, 30 yards through an inconvenient passage and up two flights of stairs, a task that would have been worse in winter. Furthermore, water supply in Reading by 1850 was by no means adequate or pure and the piped supply from the river Kennet was only on every other day for 12 hours. "
Hi Paul, In HSMOB there is an A. Spafford and Co 1868 to 1911 at the Imperial works, Brown Street, Sheffield with the owners names given as John Edward and William Frederick Spafford. This seems like a good candidate to me. I have a fair few saws of this style ( and it does look to me to be 1870's+), but I have not got one to my knowledge with the PPI stamped on it. I may well be corrected on this but I don't think that we did it, or at least not to the same extent as Disston. The tiny W/S medallion on such a large handle is intriguing. I definitely do not have one of those on a saw this size. Hope this helps. Fred
1. Thank you very much for the id. 2. Typical. Took quite some time before I could see the letters as 'GR' instead of 'SP' 3. Still - very pleased to come across the Griffiths link ... it's a really good read. There is this link on Spaffords: http://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/f...ffords-tool-maker-guernseycolver-road-heeley/ Thanks, Paul
Also I see now that Ray has the Checklist of Saw Makers right up the top there ... And my inability to look around the site properly is immortalised in this threads name :doh: Somewhat appropriate I think. Paul
Hi Paul, Don't worry. When you learn publicly it is inevitable that you make public and irredeemable mistakes. I have made many on here and I have yet to pluck up the courage to correct my greatest. But I will do so soon. Fred