Ray et al I promised another saw last post which is a mystery to me.It is unusual not only that I haven\'t any info on the maker (and I am hoping you might help out here Ray)but also on the quality of the saw or the lack thereof. This 12\" \"steel\" back is marked on the spine with a semi-circle Williamson over a Sheffield mark flanked on either side by S.M.S (owner\'s Initials?) and German Steel. The open handle sports two early slot nuts. It has been cleaned by a previous owner some time ago and is beginning to get some of its age back. The tapered blade measures out from an 1-1/4\" toe to a 2-1/4\" heel. The most unusual part is the very distinct separating steel spine that would have been manufactured as such. The two pieces look like they were supposed to have been joined but never melded. Williamson would have received the plate, bent it and didn\'t worry if the aesthetics mattered, only that it was functionally acceptable. I wouldn\'t want to try and bend the steel to straighten the blade because it would surely separate even more and really compromise the blade. I don\'t know if anyone else has seen this sort of \"waste not, want not\" get it out the door, type of production in what would have been expensive materials at that time. enjoy some of the images cheers Joe
Hi Joe, I have a feeling this one might be a bit problematic to track down, from what I can see, Williamson is not a known sawmaker, which sometimes means it could be a merchant\'s brand or a secondary line for another maker. I am leaning towards the \"secondary line\" option a little because of the join in the spine, if that\'s the case, then the name is probably not going to appear in the trade directories. Further complicating the search is that Williamson is a VERY common name and any search returns thousands of results. Anyway, I will see what turns up. Regards Ray
Hi Joe, No luck, There are two Williamson\'s identified in Erv Schaffer\'s \"Hand Saw Makers of North America\" these are:- WILLIAMSON, R & Co OH Cincinnati 1839-1840 WILLIAMSON, James NY New York 1853 (Made in Sing-Sing or Auburn prison) There are no Sheffield makers (that I can find) all I can see are Table Knife Cutlers an Ironmonger, a Spade & Shovel Maker.. WILLIAMSON Joseph spade & shovel manufacturer 8 union lane Directory & Topography of Sheffield 1862 None of these possibilities, would appear to be strong candidates. The \"SMS\" stamp and the font style used for \"Sheffield\" might provide clues. I am going to make a wild guess, and suggest that we are looking at a cheaper secondary line of product as evidenced by the join in the spine, also it would be more likely to be from a time when \"German Steel\" was considered to be of lesser quality. So perhaps second half of the 19th Century, early 20th Century... A likely reason for secondary brands, is to protect the market for premium brand product, so the maker (whoever it is) is at pains to conceal the true source (with different branding)... we come along 100 years later, and have a devil of a time figuring out who the real maker might be.. One possible avenue of research would be to look at records of stamp makers to see who was buying stamps or etching transfers with the \"Williamson\" brand name. I think Simon Barley has access to some of these records that might be the next move. Regards Ray
Hey Ray Thanks for the info so far. I would agree that it is probably a secondary saw for one of the company\'s and it really has the \"feel\" of a pre 20th century saw. I do wonder though if as a manufacturer you would deliberately go out and produce a substandard quality saw with the intention of selling it and or what company would accept such a product and still yet produce it with a Sheffield, German Steel designation. Maybe I am seeing this with a 21st century eye who feels that time is too precious to waste with lesser quality because the split is too obvious to hide. A split steel spine couldn\'t be all that acceptable even back then as a second, could it? We have all seen \"product\" marked as second\'s and I wonder if the manufacturers figured this was a way of suggesting that if there is a \"name\" on the saw it has some quality associated with it. This can\'t be the only Williamson saw kicking around and it would be interesting to see if there are more examples. keep up the good work Ray, Joe Steiner