Vulcan Saw info request

[Lee Laird]

Hello,

I bought a couple of old handsaws a few years ago at an estate sale. One has the following as it's etch:

24
Vulcan Saw Mfg Co
Vulcan Saw Works
Brooklyn NY
Cast Steel Warranted
Patent (Not legible?)

It's a 20" saw with 11 tpi. It is a small cross cut saw and it has the nib on the upper portion of the plate. I measured the thickness of the plate and it starts out as .020" at the toe and gradually increases to about .027 at the handle. I'm wondering if anyone might hazard a guess as to age??

Thanks in advance,

Lee

[Eric Brown]

Here is a link to some info.

http://www.hyperkitten.com/tools/hwpeace/history/company_history.php

Hope it helps.

Eric

[Lee Laird]

Eric,

Thank you for the website info.

From what I can tell, it looks like my saw is from just prior to 1890. The guy who runs that website (at least as best as I can recall) advised that was his belief, but he hadn't seen one like mine before. I guess I was just hoping my request is seen by the one person who has no life and knows extra specifics about my saw. :o lol. Yeah, good luck huh??

Seriously, I appreciate your input. :D

Best,

Lee

[Bill Houghton]

either Spock's saw

or

a Roman saw used by smiths (or a Roman god).

But you got far more useful information from others.

[Jim Koepke]

I think the type of nuts used on saws was changed in 1887. Yours look to be the type from earlier than that.

jim

[Joshua Clark]

Lee-

I remember we discussed your saw through email a few years back.. I haven't found out much more about it. Yours is still the first No. 24 that I've seen. It was one of Peace's "second" line of saws- one which didn't bear the actual Peace name, but did reference the Vulcan Saw Works. Many makers did this- Simond's Bay State Saw, Disston's Keystone, etc. The No. 24 appears in both the 1884 and 1895 Peace catalog. It looks like the top saw screw and the medallion are original, the lower split nut is not. It's hard to tell what sort of medallion is used. It looks like your saw has the later Glover patent screws (rather than the Munger patent of 1869) which would date it to somewhere between 1887 and 1895 for sure, perhaps as late as 1900 when the Peace company ceased to operate. If you can make out a patent date on the medallion it would help. Not exact, but it helps narrow it down a bit.

Hope this helps,
Josh

[Lee Laird]

Thanks for the info guys (and I did like the one about Spock! :D)

Josh,

I wasn't aware you were on this site. Thanks again for your expertise. I finally retired from my fed job, so now I'm re-focusing on aspects I feel I never ran completely to ground.

I'm surprised that another one of these saws wouldn't have shown up over the years. I guess that could be a function of quality, since mine has what I guess someone would call a kink at the toe. Maybe the majority have bitten the dust years ago. I really like the size and love the handle. I know what you mean about the 2nd lines. I picked up a Keystone by Disston a couple of years ago, before I found a couple of old Disstons at an estate sale. The actual Disstons run circles around the Keystone. My old Disstons, and this Vulcan, have a tapered grind on the blades.

Where would I look to find a patent date? Were you saying it would be on the medallion? I'll certainly look to see if I locate one and report back.

Lee

[Joshua Clark]

Lee-

I do hang out here from time to time, keeping tabs on what's going on. I'll pop my head up from time to time.

The patent date would be on the medallion. You are looking for a 1887 date for Glover's patent or 1869 date for Munger's patent. Looking at your picture again, it appears that the medallion might be made of two distinct parts which would mean it's the Munger patent. If so, it doesn't help your dating quandary much.

I'm not too surprised another one hasn't shown up on the market. I've been collecting and researching Peace for more than 10 years and there are still many models I have never seen examples of. It's fun because every once in a while I'll stumble upon a model I've been looking for for a while. For example, I just found my first examples of the No. 60 and the P-70.

Peace was one of the largest saw makers of his time, but his saws are still fairly uncommon. Some of the models that were produced for a short period of time are downright rare. I think it's due to the fact that saws were fairly expensive, and tended to be used hard, and used up. For some reason Peace's etching was very light so if the saws were used at all, or exposed to the elements over time, the etching would disappear. There may be many other No. 24 saws like yours out there without visible etching without which it would be impossible to say it was a Peace saw. Same thing for many other early sawmakers I'm sure..

Anyhow, let me know what you come up with in terms of patent dates. I'm curious..

Josh

[Lee Laird]

Josh,

Only one of the two medallions have a patent date, and it's the one from Wheeler. It does happen to be from 1869, which seemed a little ironic. The other medallion says Warranted Superior, but unfortunately I see no sign of a patent date. I don't suppose it would be on the backside of the medallion, would it?

Let me know if there is anything else I might do to assist in this investigation.

Lee