This is my first post here. I did post pictures of this saw earlier on Woodnet but could not find much information. The saw plate is 14" long with a London pattern handle and split nuts. The only mark is the stamp on the spine in very small letters: HANSHAW GERMAN STEEL. I would appreciate whatever information you can give me about this saw. The blade is straight and I would like to sharpen it and put it to use. Thanks, Tom
Hi Tom, Welcome to the forum. A quick search for Hanshaw has come up with nothing... But looking at the saw, It's a beauty! 1. At 14" long it's a Sash Tenon Saw.. It's in great condition, you are very lucky to find one that good. 2. The handle is beech. 3. Steel back with German steel mark, are good indications that it's 19th century. 4. German Steel was used to identify a second level of quality, which means we can place slightly less emphasis on the fact that it only has two screws. 5. Two screws rather than three, would sometimes place it as earlier, but as we are quickly discovering, lower quality levels often had less screws as a cost saving measure. 6. London Pattern Handle with flat bottom horns ( ok,ok, London Flat... allright) Popular pattern, in almost all periods, again on later saws the London Flat Pattern was used on lower cost saws. 7. The small lettering used on the stamp? I'd like to see a close up picture of the mark if that's possible? I'm sure the lettering size is significant, but I'm not sure what it means. The simplicity of the mark is often an indicator that it's early. So the clue, I'm going to give some weight to, is the "German Steel" mark, which wasn't used on British saws after 1914 (at least) for the obvious reasons. That combined with all the other factors, makes me think we are looking at mid 1800's perhaps a chance of 1830, but we will know more when we find out who "Hanshaw" was and where he worked. Regards Ray
Nice saw! Agree with Ray - I've seen a couple of Hanshaws on ebay, but have not so far found out who made them. I would not be surprised if it were to turn out to be a second/third quality product of a Sheffield firm using a fake name for a lesser quality item ( a very common practice, and one that can be completely baffling, as the name doesn't appear in any trades directory). Some saws were sold with the name of one of the workers - maybe the saw shop manager. I wouldn't date it as early as 1830 from the overall appearance (which is of a saw that changed very little over a very long period of the 19th cent), but the style of the struck mark should be a good guide.
Hi Simon, Yes, this is an example where it's almost impossible come up with a date. Further searching for Hanshaw has found nothing, I expanded the search to the EAIA directory, and stumbled across "Henshaw... I wonder... Tom, could you have a close look at that stamped mark. To see if it's possibly Henshaw, rather than Hanshaw? If it's Henshaw, then we might have a starting point... Henshaw & Woodrough Boston MA 1849 Henshaw & Clemson Boston MA 1855 1856 Henshaw & Co Boston MA 1870 1871 Woodrough & Clemson Boston MA 1893 I don't think either of these Woodrough or Clemson is related to the New York based Wheeler Madden and Clemson, or the Ohio based Woodrough & McParlin Edit.. Richard Henshaw (sawmaker) emmigrated from Birmingham in the early 1830's Wiktor has an excellent and quite detailed summary of the family history here.. http://www.wkfinetools.com/hus-saws/henshaw&Co/history/henshaw&Co-history-2.asp I think I will go back and have a closer look at the Birmingham Directories? Regards Ray
It is definitely HANSHAW. It is hard to get a good picture of the stamp. The letters are only about 1/16" high. Thanks for the information so far. The saw was found in Grand Rapids, Michigan and I think I paid $2 for it. Tom
Hanshaw Small letters placed at the bottom edge of the iron back tend to an earlier date. Hanshaw/Henshaw - who's worried about spelling? (didn't Shakespeare spell his name in at least 10 different ways?)
Hi Tom, Simon Thanks for posting the pictures of the mark, looks like Henshaw is off the list of suspects It's always nice to have a mystery to solve, I get the feeling that this one may take some time and a bit of luck to unravel. Regards Ray
Hi Tom, One item I neglected to mention earlier, is the shape of the horns, they look later, rather than earlier. This may be misleading, because they could, under normal usage get damaged, but in this case given that the overall condition of the saw looks to be quite good, I think we can include them in the equation. This is a Spear and Jackson from 1866-1875 ( thanks kiwi) Note the shape of the horns, here is the Hanshaw again for comparison I'm beginning to think Simon is on the right track (which is usually the case), with the suggestion that it's a later secondary product line. They can be notoriously difficult to track down... You have to get lucky enough to find a catalogue or alternative documentation such as who the stamp was made for.. Regards Ray
This listing has just finished on Ebay. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130534387131&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT The saw is very similar to Tom's but this has a close-up of the mark. It looks to have the characteristics of an early C19th mark. The seller was advertising it as, tentatively, a pre 1800 saw. Here we have a very rare saw and that would be an antique Dovetail or Tennon Back saw that I believe possiably dates from the 18th century, While always hard to date exactly a saw like this Saw does has the very early sstyle handle with the flat bottom, rounded front and no medailion. Split nuts and "Lambs Tongue" bottom web of course. Handle looks to be beech.. If Simon has seen a number of these on Ebay, Tom has one and there is one here, might this be an example of the following I have a strong feeling that the reason for the large(relatively speaking )number of Barber & Genn saws found is because we are not looking at late 18thc -early 19thc saws , but rather late 1800s saws. I think the large % found in the U.S.,(where I am), is because these saws were exported as a lower priced product line. Greg from "Barber and Genn" i.e a later saw despite the lettering style. Whatever the date of the saw, if you paid $2 for it Tom you did well. Follow the Ebay link to see why. Fred
Hanshaw German Steel Fred, That's my saw. At least I know there is more than one. Is it common for a US seller to list on the UK Ebay site? Thanks for the information. Looks like I got a good deal. Tom
Hi Tom, Some sellers from the USA automatically come up on the U.K. ebay but not all.I normally do my trawl through the U.K. saws first, them click the "Worldwide" part of the search and this brings up all the saws from the U.K., the USA and sometimes Canada and Australia, but to search these latter two countries properly, you have to log onto their sites specifically. Fred