December 27, 1887

[Jim Koepke]

I have a display of six saw medallions that were being photographed and written about to list on eBay.

While looking at them, three different medallions by three makers all have a patent date of Dec. 27, 1887. They are Atkins, G.H. Bishop and Simonds. Looking further into this, Disston also had a Dec. 27, 1887 patent date on one of their medallions.

Were these guys all down at the patent office at the same time fighting it out?

139072

From looking at the Disstonianintitute dot com it looks like it was the patent for a new type of saw nut.

Heck, lots of us are saw nuts.

People think I'm plane nuts.

jim

[Jeff Burks]

Here is a link for the patent (http://www.google.com/patents?id=0x1UAAAAEBAJ&zoom=4&dq=Saw%20Nut&as_drrb_ap=q&as_minm_ap=0&as_miny_ap=&as_maxm_ap=0&as_maxy_ap=&as_drrb_is=b&as_minm_is=1&as_miny_is=1887&as_maxm_is=12&as_maxy_is=1887&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q=Saw%20Nut&f=false).

[Ray Gardiner]

Wiktor has a good article on his website, by Phil Baker describing the various patents relating to saw screws and label screws.

http://www.wkfinetools.com/contrib/pBaker/medallions-castStamp/medallions-castStamp-1.asp

Most makers changed to the "improved" saw screws not long after 1887, which provides a rough dating technique.

Saws with the "improved" screws are always going to be later than 1887 in date.

Saws with "split nuts" are possibly earlier than 1887.

Except strangely enough in the UK where "split nuts" continued being used by some makers into the 1900's. It's my (probably incorrect) impression that US based saw makers adopted the new screws much more quickly than their UK counterparts.

There are a some examples of raised domed type saw screws dating back to the 1850's or thereabouts, just to confuse the issue somewhat.

Regards
Ray

[Jim Koepke]

Jeff, Ray,

Thanks for the information.

jim