Another stunning and possibly unique saw that Mari saved from the assinine act of saw-painting. The saw was covered in white enamel paint and had the obligatory missing top horn etc. Some delicate work with a razor blade revealed a full etch and a stamping on the handle. Unfortunately the majority of the information on the paper label cannot be read. The 28" plate is graduated from 5 to 4 points with a relaxed rake of 10 degrees, and has had a very hard life with a missing nib, broken teeth and deep corrosion pitting. Some peanut has hammered the bejesus out of the middle of the plate with a cross-pein hammer, creating a crack, destroying the tension and festooning the plate with horrid hammer dings. The steel itself is very hard, but the lack of tension makes the plate "soft" in use. The handle is particularly interesting, being almost identical to the Holden Patent handle fitted to saws from Wheeler, Madden & Clemson, a U.S. company absorbed by Disston in the 1890's. These handles are very comfortable for prolonged ripping. The registered number (equivalent to a patent ?) is 13416X .... with the last digit possibly a 3 or and 8. An S&J No. 7 was recently posted to illustrate that manufacturers were forced to copy successful designs and design features to survive; perhaps this saw reflects S&J using a recently expired patent to differentiate their rip saw, as the Disston D-8 "thumbhole" handle was strenuously protected by the Disston conglomerate. The 117 is not evident in my 1913-era S&J catalogue. Does anybody have any additional information on this saw?
Hi Dusty, Wow- that looks a lot better than when I gave it to you, a fantastic job indeed... The handle on this S&J is amazing, it's got a HUGE top thumbhole notch & the actual handle thickness is quite beefy too, it's sturdier than WMCs that I've handled. Thanks for posting it, hopefully someone will have a catalogue page with it on- that would be cool to see- I've not seen another. Regards Mari