Saw Medallions

Discussion in 'Forum: Saw Identification and Discussion' started by summerfi, Feb 26, 2014.

  1. Frank English

    Frank English Active Member

    Messages:
    36
    Bob
    Here is another take on the Vermont American medallion. Looked through both LJ & this site and found nothing similar. Unsure if earlier or later than the one you show but included picture of handle to help you date.
    Frank
     

    Attached Files:

  2. summerfi

    summerfi Most Valued Member

    Messages:
    185
    Thanks Frank. I'll add it to the collection.
    Bob
     
  3. Frank English

    Frank English Active Member

    Messages:
    36
    Bob

    Here is a Micro Quality Tools medallion. Found nothing similar on LJ or this site. A backsaw approx 13 3/4" long, 9 ppi, thin metal back. Interesting that backside of handle only shows 2 saw nuts. Would this be a hardware store line of inexpensive backsaws?

    Frank
     

    Attached Files:

  4. Frank English

    Frank English Active Member

    Messages:
    36
    Bob

    Sorry, "Mibro" not Micro. Stupid bloody spell checker caught me again.

    Frank
     
  5. summerfi

    summerfi Most Valued Member

    Messages:
    185
    Thanks Frank. Mibro is a Canadian tool company. Your backsaw has that mid-20th century look.
    Bob
     
  6. fred0325

    fred0325 Most Valued Member

    Messages:
    1,084
    Hi Bob,

    I have just put a Jacobson van den Berg medallion on the saw discussion forum. The photo is not the best. If you don't already have it (I cannot find it on your site but that doesn't mean much) and you want a better one, then please let me know. The medallion is currently uncleaned and like the rest of us here, has suffered the depredations of storm Frank i.e being very wet.

    Fred
     
    Last edited: Jan 4, 2016
  7. summerfi

    summerfi Most Valued Member

    Messages:
    185
    Thank you Fred. That's a very interesting medallion, and I will add it to the site. Sorry about the flooding.
    Bob
     
  8. Dusty Shed Dweller

    Dusty Shed Dweller Most Valued Member

    Messages:
    146
    Bob,

    Harvey W. Peace medallion from a Disston/Peace P26... i.e. after Disston absorbed the company as part of the National Saw Company acquisition in the late 1890's.
     

    Attached Files:

  9. summerfi

    summerfi Most Valued Member

    Messages:
    185
    Thanks Dusty. It's been added to the Guide.
    Bob
     
  10. Frank English

    Frank English Active Member

    Messages:
    36
    Bob, here is another style of the Shurly & Dietrich medallion. Different from the others as it has "Trade Mark" overwritten into the leaf plus a recessed ring running around the printing. The saw itself is a beater but purchased it for the split nuts. Going to try to rehab it. S&D medallion.jpg S&D split nuts.jpg

    Frank
     
  11. summerfi

    summerfi Most Valued Member

    Messages:
    185
    Thanks Frank. Got it posted.
    Bob
     
  12. fred0325

    fred0325 Most Valued Member

    Messages:
    1,084
    Hi Bob,

    Its only a variant on one that you already have. Its a Slack Sellars City Saw but with a medallion with an illegible first word but what I think must be "Town" Hall underneath the image.

    Fred
     

    Attached Files:

  13. summerfi

    summerfi Most Valued Member

    Messages:
    185
    Nice one Fred. Thank you.
     
  14. Barleys

    Barleys Most Valued Member

    Messages:
    546
    This is now such a wonderfully long thread that I may have missed someone else's posting of this medallion. It's on a saw by WHArmitage, of Sheffield, whose dates start at 1845 and go to 1886, taking in a descrption in one directory as a maker of "polished and ornamental saws". I got it from a New England vendor. The very thin 12inch blade is in appalling shape, but never mind, as the medallion is why I bought it. It's 23mm in diameter, and barely raised at all; ordinary flat screw nut on the back. And it's for help in dating the saw that I'm posting it here: does the design help in the dating? Were it not for the medallion I might go for 1860-ish, but with this design of saw in my opinion it's pretty wide open for almost any time during his dates. Help please!
    Simon

    IMG_7505.JPG
    IMG_7507.JPG
     
  15. fred0325

    fred0325 Most Valued Member

    Messages:
    1,084
    Hi Simon,

    A striking and wonderful medallion.

    Whilst this may have been used anytime from 1782 -ish onwards, the only other time that I can see it being particularly appropriate is for American Civil War propaganda either during or just afterwards in order to give the idea of, or promote the idea of, unity.

    And these dates fall very nicely in the middle of your dates for Armitage.

    Just a WAG of course.

    Fred
     
    Last edited: Aug 1, 2016
  16. summerfi

    summerfi Most Valued Member

    Messages:
    185
    Hello Simon and Fred,
    What an interesting medallion! My first thought, given that the medallion is on a British saw and that it seems perhaps oversized for the saw, is that maybe it was re-purposed from another object. Military medals and commemorative coins come to mind as possibilities. I searched Google and could come up with nothing exactly like this. I did, however, find two images that are similar but obviously not the same. The first is an 1807 US gold coin, the second is a brass button of unknown age. There are a plethora of round objects with eagles, but not many with eagles shaped just like this one and with a E Pluribus Unum banner overhead. If it is indeed an original saw medallion, then it is perhaps unique and certainly a treasure. Congrats on a wonderful find.

    Bob

    1807halfeagle_cappedbust_left_large_rev.jpg button.jpg
     
  17. kiwi

    kiwi Most Valued Member

    Messages:
    355
    sixteen stars around the perimeter,
    only one arrow in the eagle's talon;
    All wrong from an American historical perspective, but perhaps appropriate for some foreigner with no knowledge of the American symbolism involved,
    and therefore appropriate for this English saw ?

    Made to coincide with the sentiments of the Philadelphia World's Fair, the Centennial Exhibition of Arts Manufactures & Products of Soil and Mine, 1876 ? (complete WAG, unsubstantiated by any whiff of fact, a pure whimsy and a fabrication of history to adorn an excellent find and a nice old saw)
     
  18. summerfi

    summerfi Most Valued Member

    Messages:
    185
    Getting closer. This is a U.S. Infantry officer's button from 1812. Note the single arrow. The eagle, however, is the mirror image of your medallion.
     

    Attached Files:

  19. fred0325

    fred0325 Most Valued Member

    Messages:
    1,084
    Hi Kiwi,

    I take the following point

    "All wrong from an American historical perspective, but perhaps appropriate for some foreigner with no knowledge of the American symbolism involved,
    and therefore appropriate for this English saw ?"


    with no offence at all. :)

    Although I did wonder when I was Googling the motto, what significance 16 stars had over 13, and why the stripes were angled and not upright.

    Such a travesty of tradition would have no unifying propaganda value at all.

    However I am not so sure that this particular medallion would have been on an Exhibition quality saw. Perhaps it is a less good copy of an original exhibition saw.

    The stripes are not well detailed and appear a little slapdash, even allowing for wear.

    I think that we may be back to the Greaves "Washington" medallion marketing syndrome, but in this case not so well executed. Think of an image that would sell something to Americans and put it on said object (in this case a saw) and hope that it works.

    If this is the case, then it puts the dates back to being wide open.

    Fred
     
  20. Barleys

    Barleys Most Valued Member

    Messages:
    546
    Thanks for those helpful comments. I have previously thought that saw medallions on Sheffield saws exported to the US might have undergone a kind of badging process once States-side, with medallion makers on the US east coast adding adornments, but it does seem unlikely that anyone over there would make such an obvious mistake with the number of stars (except wouldn't there have been some date when there were in fact no more than 16 states?) How many states were left in the North when the South seceded? Could this even be the dating feature we need? On the other hand, knowing the mistakes that mark makers could make, it's easy to imagine someone in Sheffiled just adding stars until he'd filled the space available.