I have in my possession a 8" dovetail saw made by Joseph Tyzack & sons of Sheffield England stamped and called THE "BOWDEN" SAW. The saw has a steel back and an open type handle which I believe is the original. The saw was given to me and when I received it was in a poor condition but after cleaning, topping, sharpening for dovetailing & setting, the saw has proved to be an excellent tool. It is in constant use for its intended purpose and made an excellent addition to my wide range of hand saws. I would like to know if anyone can date this saw for me and provide a little about the history of the company that made it. Regards
Hi, "Handsaw Makers of Britain" has Joseph Tyzack and Sons recorded in Sheffield in 1879 at Bowden Street and then from 1895 to 1915 at the Meersbrook Works in Valley Road, Heely. In fact Simon has them occupying a works that stretches from Fitzwilliam Street to Bowden Street. Hence the two brands - Fitzwilliam and Bowden If you want info on the Tyzacks generally (although there is very little on Joseph except for a sentence or two in "The Londoners"), the first place to go would be the following link http://www.tyzack.net/ and the second would be a topic initiated by me on a Fitzwilliam Saw (to all intents and purposes for Bowden read Fitzwilliam and vice versa) currently on page 3 of this site, the 7th topic down. If you judiciously exclude most of my ramblings and go to Araldite's reply(no.5); my replies (no.6 and 7); Ray's reply no. 8 and finally Simon's reply no. 15, that should be helpful. I think that I have seen some relatively modern Bowdens on Ebay, but in the absence of an image, I would guess that it is very unlikely to be pre 1879. If it has split nuts, it is possibly up to 1912/the First World War, and if it has domed nuts it is probably post WW1. It may be a lot later. If you could post an image of it, it would be very helpful. Others who use this site and who may have catalogues may be able to date the saw a lot more accurately. As an aside, you have beaten me to asking just the question of age that you have about the Bowden brand. I have got a very down at heel handsaw with a very simple Bowden etch on it and I was going to put it on the site and ask if anyone could date the Bowden brand as such. I am pretty sure that my saw is very late 1800's to WW1, but then I realised that I did not know the production dates of the brand. Fred
Hi, If the nuts are original to the saw, then it is very probably post WW1, but how "post" I do not know. One clue may be the fact that the etch has on it "Sheffield England". Now, what I do know is that in 1891, some law passed in the USA made it mandatory for all articles imported into the U.S to have the country of origin on them. From 1921 or thereabouts such articles had to have "Made in -------" on them. This meant that an awful lot of articles , as a matter of course whether imorted into the U.S or not (from 1891 onwards) had their country of origin on them. Because yours has "Sheffield England" on it and not "Made in England" I am assuming that it is pre 1921-ish. The nuts put it at just pre, or post WW1 and so this gives a good short date if the above information is accurate. But I suspect that many who use this site will confirm that some of my ideas range from the mildly eccentric to the hare-brained. Nor do I know how well this rule was applied for articles meant for domestic consumption. But to me the handle looks about right for that time period as well, although perhaps a little later. Does anyone out there have J.T and S directories to give a properly accurate date? Fred