Hello all, I bought this saw (from America) for the slightly worn but otherwise wonderful medallion. BSSM has them at 1833 and then from 1841 to 1846. There is no nib on the saw and I therefore suspect that it may have been shortened. The stamp is not a good one and it is very possible that the blade was cleaned by someone with little regard for the stamp, even if they knew that it was there. If you look at photo no.15 and go up at 10 o'clock from the "A" of Cast you will see the remnants of an "ETH" of Cheetham and then you can follow the base of the arc of the letters back round to the "M" The saw has an arissed handle and so should have been a quality one in its day. The handle also looks to me that it could well be towards the earlier end of BSSM's dates . (Narrow nose, Shallow curve and a sloping edge to the face of the curve). There is also a hint of a dot between Cast and Steel. It may be towards the 1833 vintage, but I would certainly hesitate to put it much past 1840. Fred
Ah, now, that is a question of some interest and if anyone can explain to me how I can search the British patents archive online and for free I will willingly spend a lot of time in trying to find out. (I have looked at the supposedly archived website and it looks like it is possible in principle to search for patents up to 1852, but I cannot fathom how to do a search in practice). The word "Patent" could of course be a red herring, just like Crowns stamped on blades were. The buyer could infer a lot from them re quality or even a Royal Warrant, but in reality they meant nothing. Were the wording to have referred to a specific patent, a patent date could easily have been attached just as on some American medallions. So, once again, as with so many things saw related we are left up in the air, temporarily at least. Fred
I cannot, it appears make much of it. It is not a hard site to search, luckily, but I have tried a search on Marshall only, Cheetham only and Marshall and Cheetham for the period 1833 to 1852 and nothing is listed at all. So, is it back to the word "Patent" being a meaningless piece of marketing? Fred
Very nice saw, Fred, but I would strongly vote for the marketing message – but not "meaningless", merely somemwhat untruthful, but hey, isn't that what marketing so often is? As for dating, I've looked at all the handsaws on my database that I've dated c1850, and find that about half of them have handles looking very like this M&C. But if you wanted to argue for c1840 I wouldn't hold out for long.