Wheatman and Smith 2

Hello all,

There is nearly always something salvagable from disappointment.

This saw was advertised as a Smith, Russel Works and according to HSMOB the only date that they have for a Smith here is 1847.

I eventually come to have a look at the mark properly (in order to put it on here) and, lo and behold it is a Wheatman and Smith, Russell Works. HSMOB lists them as 1855-56 (only) at Russell Works, Kelham Island (now where have I heard that name before). But I suspect that their next listing in HSMOB at Kelham Island, Alma Street (no other description) also refers to them being at the Russell Works. They became a Limited Company in 1879.

So the saw could be from 1855 to 1879. And I had just constructed (and deleted) a very convoluted theory as to dates and which I am far too embarrassed to summarise, based on HSMOB's dates of 1855-56. Never mind.

I have a W and S already (1st two pictures below) in but it is very down at heel and without any certain identifying features and I have always wanted another one, and so that is a disappointment lifter.

And of course there is always the main reason left that I bought the saw, for the blank medallion. It is not as large or spectacular as the Groves that I put on Joe's thread a little while ago, but it makes the saw for me.

Fred

 

Wheatman & Smith

A saw that speaks to me in more ways than one!

1. The Hawley Tool Collection (part of Kelham Island Museum) is housed in buildings (extended) that were once the Russell Works - their crucible steel making shop adjoins.
2. This is a fairly typical W&S saw of the maybe 1870-1890 period - I have one, made for Joseph Gleave, tool dealer and plane maker of Manchester, that is identical, and I have others with the large blind medallion - a favourite of this firm (I've seen only one with a W'ted Sup'r medallion). I reckon that this saw, cut to a 6point rip, is one of my very best.
3. Here is the firm's history in brief:

WHEATMAN, John & SMITH, John SHEFFIELD
45 Russell Street (Wheatman only) 1845-1846
Joined by Smith (qv) 1849
Russell works, Russell Street 1852
Russell works, Kelham Island (Alma Street) 1853-1921
Norfolk Street (probably administrative) 1884-1893
Russell works, Green Lane 1922-1968
John Wheatman (1812-1871) was apprenticed to the saw maker John Sanderson, who had extensive American business connections. In 1834 Wheatman became saw manager for R.H.Hoe, of New York, Hoe being the first company to introduce mechanical grinding of saw plate (patented in USA and Britain). In 1845 Wheatman set up as a saw maker in Sheffield, and with Smith in 1849, the two filing in 1857 a patent (No 727) for “improvements in the mode of grinding circular saws†(the “improvements†were in fact only a small advance on Hoe’s). When they put in new saw grinding machinery in 1860 they were the object of industrial sabotage by members of the saw grinders’ trade union; only after a powerful Trades Union Commission had published its report on the “Outrages†in 1867 did machine grinding resume at the Russell works. Smith may be the John Smith who was at Russell Street until 1848.
They became a limited company in 1871, and after the death of the founders the business slowly declined. It was wound up in 1914, and the next year was taken over by Alfred Beckett, whose premises were less than a quarter of a mile away in Green Lane. Throughout their history, the company’s advertisements listed, in the prevalent fashion, many different types of tools as their “manufacturesâ€, with their 1859 entry claiming that they were merchants, and manufacturers of “saws, files, steel, edge tools, patent mill saws, and key tillers†(a registered design for a saw tiller had been filed in 1855).
The site of the Russell works on Kelham Island, with its surviving evidence of considerable crucible steel manufacturing, became part of Sheffield’s Industrial Museum, adjacent to the re-sited Hawley Tool Collection. (Thanks to Jeff Warner for much of the above firm’s history.)
Their saws made for retailers are amongst the most frequently recorded (see Chesney, Duckenfield, Otley, and Ridgeway as well as the two below).

 

Hello all,

This is a small Wheatman & Smith panel saw. The stamp includes the arm and hammer logo, the words Wheatman & Smith, with Sheffield on the left and Cast Steel on the right. All the words are in horizontal lines rather than an arch. The words Russell Works do not appear on the saw. Based on the dates given by Simon, would I be correct in concluding that this saw was made after Smith joined Wheatman in 1849, but before Russell Works began in 1852?

Bob