Rutter "Cast Stell" 9" brass back

Dear all,

I'm sharing another Rutter saw that I have picked up, a little 9" open handed brass back saw.
The handle shape is attractive, quite a low hang angle, an unusual shaped boss on this handle, with a heavy chamfer on the nose, flecked quarter sawn beech, a chip off the top horn & a stain on the LH side.
The brass spine is the most delicately formed spine of any backsaw in my collection, rounded with the hint of a chamfer on the top & a large chamfer on the lower edge & a large closing chamfer / bevel right on the toe end of the spine, the spine tapers slightly from 19/32" at the handle to 17/32 at the toe.
It's stamped Rutter with a misspelt "Cast Stell" 16mm overall long- the name stamps are quite crooked to one another.
It's a very fine 18ppi rip, the plate is 15thou thick & in what I would call excellent condition for such an old saw, the plate looks to have been near mirror polished originally.
The other unusual thing with this saw is that the split nuts / fixings look "hammered"- like they've been peened?
It would not have been a cheap saw in its day, these guys new how to make a saw.
Any ideas on which Rutter? Could it be a Birmingham saw? It's lovely little saw, it just feels good in the hand & still cuts like a scalpel.

Regards

Mari

 

Thanks for your reply Ray, it does have a lovely handle indeed...

Regards

Mari

 

Hi Mari

I don't think that you will have any argument from anyone about how nice the saw is, particularly the boss.

The boss looks to me like a halfway house between the "normal" symmetrical curve and the 18th century egg shaped bosses. A little less chamfer and a little more bend at the top and it would be an 18th century one. But, alas, it is as it is.

What date it is and who made it, I have no idea. It does not look sufficiently like either of the marks in BSSM and Simon is very iffy about his attribution of the Birmingham mark in any event and not too certain about the London Rutter.

I have two small open handled Rutters, neither of whose marks are like yours either in that the ends of the cross bar on my "T"s slope downwards while yours looks to be square. One of mine says "London" "Cast.Steel" and the other one says "London Spring". On the basis that it looks like London Rutters say "London" on them, yours may well be a Birmingham saw, or of course, Alexander Rutter from Sheffield whose mark we do not yet have.

There is no dot in your cast steel, and whilst there does not have to be one on a saw to be earlier than about 1830, it is possible that yours may be after this date.

Whilst I would love your Cast "Stell" to be a stamp maker's error, it may well also be possible that this is an example of a broken stamp or a mis-struck one. If you look at the top of the upright of the first "L" you will see that there is a little seriffy type thing protruding from the back of it which corresponds to the serif on the preceeding "E". If you look at the top of the second "L", it looks quite square with no serif at all. I suspect that the top and middle bars of the 2nd "E" of STEEL have not struck properly for some reason.

This is no way detracts from the saw, however. If anyone can create an envy icon, please do as one is sorely needed.

Fred

 

Hi Fred,

Many thanks for your input on the saw, I think that I would agree with you on "Cast Stell" being a broken or worn stamp that should read "Cast Steel", that serif type extension on the "L" is looking like the top of an E for sure, thanks for picking that up.
You have two open handed Rutters? I'd love to see a photo for comparison one day as this little saw has a few features that are quite different to my usual finds- the fine delicate finished spine & heavy closing chamfer on the end of the nose & the hammered looking fixings.
If yours are London Spring & Cast.Steel than they are very early saws & sound amazing (insert envy icon here!).

Regards

Mari

 

Hi Mari,

Thank heavens (or Ray) that the site is back up again. I was getting withdrawal symptoms.

Anyway here are the two Rutters. Neither is in the superb condition that yours is in, but they do have interesting marks

Fred

 

Hi Fred, yes it's good that the forum lives again, well done Ray!
Your Rutters are gorgeous, they did shape their handle grips very well in my opinion, I noticed that the top of one the "T"s on your Cast.Steel saw looks like it may be broken as well, perhaps the "bloke" that Rutter bought his stamps off over tempered them......? Interesting information, many thanks for sharing them Fred- they are both beautiful old saws.

Regards

Mari

 

That's a unique and pretty saw Mari. The bevel chamfer design of the back looks quite modernistic, and the wood grain in the handle is lovely.

Is the back pinned to the saw plate ? (the pictures show something that looks like a pin, about an inch in front of the handle)

 

Hi Kiwi,

Thanks for your comments, what you can see is a spot of verdigris / tarnish on the spine. I really like the closing chamfer on the end of the spine.

Regards

Mari