Hello All, I won this saw at an auction this morning in Pennsylvania. With it's incomplete die stamp ( derson & K ) I wasn't quite sure who the maker was, but the reclining ampersand convinced me to take a chance, suggesting that the saw was probably from quite early in the 19c. Checking BSSM, page by page, on the 407th page I consulted I got my answer; it was, excepting a single directory listing, from the otherwise unknown partnership of Sanderson & Kirk, 1814-1817. Now we have this example. It appears as though it originally had split nut fasteners, replaced long ago with a variety of other different fasteners. The rear of the handle seems to have been almost savagely treated in the process of adding the new fasteners. For all of that, the handle is still loose anyway, on this two hundred year old survivor. Now it should get some rest. David
Congratulations on a rare and interesting find. Sanderson is a common enough name in the census records, makes tracking the sawmaker difficult, although I did manage to find a William Sanderson "Saw handle maker and beer house" In White's 1833 directory but I doubt there is any connection to Sanderson & Kirk. Which raises the question, what is it about saw handle makers that seems to connect them to beer houses? Ray