I like this style of hacksaw and I was pleased to pick this one up cheaply last Saturday. I cleaned it up and was interested to discover the following writing: “Eclipse No. 60B, made in Sheffield England. To tension – take up the slack then apply three full turns only. Eclipse blades will give the best results.” Does anyone know how old it is? My guess is 1950s.
Eclipse No. 60B
- Thread starter rxh
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Ttrees
Iroko loco!
Don't know how old it is, but I felt compelled to mention Bahco hacksaw blades are the best I've come across.
Nice job on cleaning it up
Tom
Nice job on cleaning it up
Tom
Eric The Viking
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I like that style too.
Is that an Abrafile or a ceramic tile blade? It looks like the latter, but both are jolly handy...
... I filed an extra notch in mine so it will take the short Abrafiles easily, and also filed off the stamped lug and shortened the peg on the handle. Now the two halves and the handle all separate, so it packs down into a much smaller space. You just have to remember not to lose anything, especially the threaded hook and wingnut for the other end!
Nice job, BTW - yours looks nicer than mine does.
Is that an Abrafile or a ceramic tile blade? It looks like the latter, but both are jolly handy...
... I filed an extra notch in mine so it will take the short Abrafiles easily, and also filed off the stamped lug and shortened the peg on the handle. Now the two halves and the handle all separate, so it packs down into a much smaller space. You just have to remember not to lose anything, especially the threaded hook and wingnut for the other end!
Nice job, BTW - yours looks nicer than mine does.
Eric The Viking
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Mine was bought new in the late 1970s, but might have been NOS then.
t8hants
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I had a new one issued to me from Vosper-Thornycroft stores when I started my training September 1970, lost or had it nicked a few years later, but as you haven't mentioned finding my initials on it I don't think it was mine 
Nice cleanup job rxh!
I'd never seen one of these that I could recall before buying my own but since that I've seen quite a few, and two other brands' versions of the same basic thing (including a Starrett that took shorter blades which I assumed were now unobtainium).
About dating the Eclipse ones, they certainly span quite a time range as we know from the catalogues. Best way to take a stab at the date of an individual one is from the stamped logo and the style of the other lettering. Of the ones I've seen in the flesh I've seen two I'd peg as 30s or 40s based on the above, and one in quite sad condition that was definitely older, I'd hazard a guess at 20s or early 30s because in addition to an earlier logo (very large and flamboyant for want of a better word) it had a wing nut that almost looked hand forged.
I can only make out a ghost of the lettering on yours in the attached 'after' photo but 50s is a good early guess and it might be from the 60s as I think mine is. If you can post a shot that shows the stampings clearly we might be able to firm up a date if you'd like.
I'd never seen one of these that I could recall before buying my own but since that I've seen quite a few, and two other brands' versions of the same basic thing (including a Starrett that took shorter blades which I assumed were now unobtainium).
About dating the Eclipse ones, they certainly span quite a time range as we know from the catalogues. Best way to take a stab at the date of an individual one is from the stamped logo and the style of the other lettering. Of the ones I've seen in the flesh I've seen two I'd peg as 30s or 40s based on the above, and one in quite sad condition that was definitely older, I'd hazard a guess at 20s or early 30s because in addition to an earlier logo (very large and flamboyant for want of a better word) it had a wing nut that almost looked hand forged.
I can only make out a ghost of the lettering on yours in the attached 'after' photo but 50s is a good early guess and it might be from the 60s as I think mine is. If you can post a shot that shows the stampings clearly we might be able to firm up a date if you'd like.
Had one of those, but couldn't get on with it at all. Find the "pistol grip" style much easier to use. Maybe you found my old one......
The stampings do match the ones on mine.
I've been looking at pics in ebay listings past and present to see if we can narrow this down somewhat and they've been extremely helpful in determining the answer is no :lol: Unfortunately it seems this logo and the associated lettering persisted for much longer than you might expect, at least into the 80s. It was possibly still unchanged in the 90s based on the little we can see peeking out from under the cardboard on this NOS example. The handle style had altered by then but in the 80s it was still the classic shape.
So it seems that saws exactly like ours could be from anywhere in a 20-30 year date range depending on the date of introduction.
I've been looking at pics in ebay listings past and present to see if we can narrow this down somewhat and they've been extremely helpful in determining the answer is no :lol: Unfortunately it seems this logo and the associated lettering persisted for much longer than you might expect, at least into the 80s. It was possibly still unchanged in the 90s based on the little we can see peeking out from under the cardboard on this NOS example. The handle style had altered by then but in the 80s it was still the classic shape.
So it seems that saws exactly like ours could be from anywhere in a 20-30 year date range depending on the date of introduction.
I can't offer much in the way of documentary evidence, but this page from the 1969 Eclipse catalogue confirms that it was a long-lived design:
(Full text here: https://archive.org/details/EclipseCatalogueCM671969 courtesy of Mark Stansbury.)
Looking back, I see what looks like a similar adjustable frame in the 1908 Tyzack catalogue. The engraving there is clear enough to be able to read that it was marked PATENT and with a registered design number for Footprint Tools, no 41193. That design is too old to be in Espacenet, but I did find this 1932 patent belonging to TR Ellin (Footprint) for something similar: https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publica ... &KC=A&ND=5
It's too hard to see all the details in postage stamp sized illustrations, but it seems safe to say that the idea of a frame which could adjust to take different lengths of blade goes back over a century, and that both Footprint and Eclipse came up with improvements to it in the early 20th century. I guess it's not so useful now that blades are not available in such a variety of lengths as they used to.
(Full text here: https://archive.org/details/EclipseCatalogueCM671969 courtesy of Mark Stansbury.)
Looking back, I see what looks like a similar adjustable frame in the 1908 Tyzack catalogue. The engraving there is clear enough to be able to read that it was marked PATENT and with a registered design number for Footprint Tools, no 41193. That design is too old to be in Espacenet, but I did find this 1932 patent belonging to TR Ellin (Footprint) for something similar: https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publica ... &KC=A&ND=5
It's too hard to see all the details in postage stamp sized illustrations, but it seems safe to say that the idea of a frame which could adjust to take different lengths of blade goes back over a century, and that both Footprint and Eclipse came up with improvements to it in the early 20th century. I guess it's not so useful now that blades are not available in such a variety of lengths as they used to.
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