Regarding handsaws, it seems to me (from my limited experience) that most of the voids in the handles are somewhat closer to rectangular than the more foetal position that I've seen in a few saws. I was wanting to understand more whether this related to a time-period, or geography, or ... ? I first started noticing I think when I was trying to place this american saw ... and the closest I could find was on Mike Stemple's website among the Platt, Holroyd, etcs ... of which I clipped this picture ... and it was re-stimulated when I received the Dodge Bros saw ... that is a little in that direction.
This Harley, Old Market, Liverpool is teetering on the edge of this shape ... Spear and Jackson of the stamped blade type are both in and out of this style - mostly out from what I have here. Whereas this Monhagen Sawworks catalogue 1860 from the wktools site (http://www.wkfinetools.com/hUS-saws...0_img-pdf/1860-Wheeler-Madden-Bakewell-ne.pdf) has a bunch of them ... attributed "WB Sears & Co" and "Wheeler, Madden & Bakewell" Do you think it might be indicative of a time-period? Thanks, Paul
Hi Paul, Handles are problems. Give up before you go mad!!! I tried to get to grips with them when I first started collecting and got nowhere very quickly. I don't know about America, but British handle makers would make handles for anyone who would buy them and probably did "overspill" work for another maker if they could not fulfill the contract in time. If you look at the detail of your handles (including the hole-in-the middle) they really have differences when you come down to it. Especially the early W/S one. That looks a lot like a human ear in that the top has a larger radius curve than the tiny curve at the bottom. Apart from that one, I think that the American handles would look at home on an English saw of 1860 onwards. The Harley, I must say though (Ray, envy icon please), is an absolute beauty with the re-curve break mirrored in the upward return of the lamb's tongue. And the patina (whether enhanced or not) is wonderful. Just what a handle should be. Forget about the analysis. Retain your sanity. Just go with the flow and enjoy them. Fred
Fred ... you assume I have some sanity that is at risk of loss. It starts to look like a real US thing ... the Dodge Bros seems like an anomaly (other than S&J) ... but I think I read they were sending hardware to the Netherlands. Bakewell & Co ... Cresson ...
Handsaw handles Learned another new thing yesterday, taking a R H Walker hand saw in to the Atkinson Walker works (one of the last two still functioning in Sheffield) to confirm the date, and was told that at that time, they were having their handles made for them, like others in Sheffield at the time, by a firm in Hull. Why Hull? Because it's the main place of timber imports on the English east coast, and closest to Sheffield; there were apparently several specialist woodworking companies there in the 1960s.By that time the specialist saw handle makers in Sheffield had all packed up. Only Thomas Flinn (the other Sheffield saw makers still standing) make their own handles now.
I thought I had really written some proper drivel this time but I had a different catalogue open. ... still a possibility of course ... but there is quite a difference in style between the 1860 WM&C catalogue and the 1871 offering. http://www.wkfinetools.com/hus-saws/msw-wmc/pubs/pubs-index.asp Cheers, Paul
Drivel can be good Paul, don't worry. I am proficient in the art. As you say the handle styles do show some differences, with the Vernons in the 1870 one being the most like the "normal" handles with the Speirs exhibiting the tight curve at the bottom and the WMC's providing a range in between. Fascinating thread and at least you have got somewhere with it. Fred