Saw rivets?

[JohnPeter Lee]

Hi,

I picked up this old Groves hand saw recently, and after cleaning it up noticed that there are rivets in the handle, looking like copper, in two places. One has a star embossed into it.

Questions:

Why? Where do rivets fit into the history of saw making?
Is this typical for any particular makers, or time periods?
Would this have been done when the saw was made, or after the fact, during a repair?

Any light shed on my mystery would be greatly appreciated.
thanks,
JP

199049 199050 199048 199047

[Trevor Walsh]

I've seen a few with rivets, they look to be repair type jobs (plywood or other hideous totes). I've also seen these with nut and carriage bolt fixturing. I'd be tempted to say that no sane saw manufacturer would use rivets to attach a tote, just too hard to reverse if you had to do serious work on the saw.

[Tom McMahon]

Some early English saws were built with rivets, however I believe yours is a later repair.

[Ray Gardiner]

Hi JP,

As Tom said the rivets would have been a later repair job, (done fairly well by the look of it.) originally it would have had all split nuts like the one at the top of the handle.

Richard Groves and Sons were in business for an incredibly long time, from 1780's through to the 1920's, yours looks like late 19th Century at a guess.

They made some of the nicest saws around, and I believe the handle of the Independance Saw that was the basis for Lie Nielsen's DT saw was copied from an early Groves.

Regards
Ray

[JohnPeter Lee]

Thanks for the info. I don't notice any issues with the saw, so I wonder why the rivets, why not the original saw nuts. Every old saw has a story. The handle is rock solid, and after sharpening, the saw is a stout performer. And the handle is extremely comfortable. Not bad for 5 bucks.

cheers,
JP