Saw handles

[Lindas]

Hello folks,

I have been sorting through all the different types of saws and am getting there with them. But whether these handles are useful or not is something I wondered if any one might know. The smaller ones have some writing on and what appears to be the date in 1958? I would appreciate your thoughts.

Linda

 

[SammyQ]

Top 3 are generic long bladed rip or cross-cut handles Linda. Bottom 2 are absolutely gorgeous dovetail or fine tenon handles. Do you have the nuts to go with them? Usually in brass, or lookalike, and with impressed logos or lettering on at least one side. N.B., these are not normal nuts as in nuts'n'bolts, but ones with large, coin-like heads and thinner, threaded shanks.
The top three are pot-boiler ones, useful, but possibly not hugely valuable, but the lower two are well worth advertising, possibly especially on the American market. Ebay.com.

Sam

 

[MikeG.]

Top 3 are generic long bladed rip or cross-cut handles Linda. Bottom 2 are absolutely gorgeous dovetail or fine tenon handles........

That middle one could be from a tenon saw, I reckon.

The top 3 are undrilled, so they were sold as replacement handles.

 

[SammyQ]

Yup. Agreed Mike; I had a second 'butchers'; could do.

S.

 

[mrpercysnodgrass]

With a piece of 6mm ply I turned mine into a push stick! It makes for a comfortable secure grip and keeps my hand well away from the scary rotating thing!

 

[Lindas]

Ah, it looks a useful thing!

 

[Lindas]

Here are the markings on the rear of the 3 tenon saw handles. I don't know if they will shed any light on the handles. I would be interested to know what they might mean though

Linda

 

[AndyT]

I think they are price codes from an old fashioned shop. So V/Y would be a price in shillings and pence. For example, it could be 2 shillings and six pence, often written as 2/6.

I posted on here years ago about an old plough plane of mine with some similar coded markings.

can-you-decode-this-price-t64202.html

The point of it was that the shopkeeper could read the code and adjust it according to who the customer was.

I've since found a section in a Shire booklet about the Victorian Ironmonger which gives some examples from real shops, such as

CHEKDAPRONS for the numbers 1 to 11 or

GODWITHUSZ for 1 to 9 and 0, or

CUMBERLAND for 1 to 10.

The booklet says that marks could include an invoice number, cost price, wholesale and retail prices.

Unfortunately these codes were chosen by each shop, so I've no idea what the price of your handle would have been.

However, looking in a 1960 retail catalogue from Gardiner of Bristol, all the saw handles were 5/6 each, so I'll say that's what it means, unless anyone can prove me wrong.

 

[Lindas]

Gosh Andy, that is very interesting. It makes them feel like from another world. Would a shop have been selling them in 1958 which seems to be the year on them for people to renovate their own saws, perhaps because their own wooden handles had broken?

 

[AndyT]

Well, that's a bit before I was going shopping, but the 1960 catalogue suggests yes, they would.

There are one or two plastic handles on the screwdrivers, especially those for electricians, but all the others are wooden.

 

[Lindas]

Thank you AndyT. Very interesting. And to think that these have been sitting around in my dad's things for all that time!!

 

[rafezetter]

With a piece of 6mm ply I turned mine into a push stick! It makes for a comfortable secure grip and keeps my hand well away from the scary rotating thing!

What a good idea, I'll take a push stick handle Lindas - one of the big ones - as I've got big hands

I'll make a router template for it too when time comes to replace it.