Slack Sellars and Grayson's saw

[Christian Thompson]

Hi guys,

I picked up this saw for $5 at a antique store this weekend thinking I might be able to clean it up and use it as a carcass saw.

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It was very rusty but cleaned up pretty well. There is definitely some pitting, but I think it is still useable. The blade is pretty straight and is hefty. The medallion (W Greaves and Sons) and the saw plate mark (Slack Sellars and Grayson's) don't match, but I found a post on another forum with the same combination. Not sure what to make of that. It seems like the saw dates to the early 1800's (SS&G ended in the 1850's). The handle was loose when I bought it. I took it off to clean up the plate and hoped to get it tightened up when I reattached it. Unfortunately in the process I snapped the mediallion bolt...

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That all being said, I have a few questions:

1. Any chance this saw was worth anything before I got involved? :-( My plan is to clean up the handle and hope to use the saw, but don't want to do any more damage if it is still worth anything. Based on what I could find it seems rare and old, but is in pretty bad shape. Plus, looking at the bolt where it snapped and the other bolt (see below), it looks like they may already have been repaired at some point. Also not sure about the mismatched medallion / plate.

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2. Even if it isn't worth much, I'd still like to use the medallion. Any suggestions on how I could fix it? Would soldering work?

Thanks,
Christian

[Chris Vandiver]

Here is a post by Daryl Weir on repairing a saw bolt; http://www.forums.woodnet.net/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=5044756&page=1&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=

By the way, nice saw.

[Christian Thompson]

Here is a post by Daryl Weir on repairing a saw bolt; http://www.forums.woodnet.net/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=5044756&page=1&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=

By the way, nice saw.

Thanks Chris. Sounds like the medallion repair shouldn't be all that bad.

[Ray Gardiner]

Hi Christian,

Interesting saw, the mismatch between the George Washington medallion and the struck mark makes for a bit of a mystery.
Could I have your permission to repost those pictures on another forum, for comparison with the other similarily mismatched saw.

Regards
Ray

[Christian Thompson]

Hi Christian,

Interesting saw, the mismatch between the George Washington medallion and the struck mark makes for a bit of a mystery.
Could I have your permission to repost those pictures on another forum, for comparison with the other similarily mismatched saw.

Regards
Ray

Sure! Hopefully it leads to some new information.

Thanks,
Christian

[Fred Storer]

Hi,

I don't know which forum you saw the other SS and G saw on, but if it was the handsaw with the split handle, the odds are that it was mine. And I am so glad that I have found another SS and G with the Greaves export medallion.

There was some suspicion that my saw was a one-off user adapted saw by putting the Greaves medallion on the SS and G blade. But yours goes a long way to disproving that.

Despite the different names I don't think that the medallion/blade are mismatched as SS and G are the makers and Greaves is the exporter of the product. The dates of the two firms match between about 1825 and 1858 but with there being a second Grayson to match the added "s" on the stamp, around 1841.

The problem is that my saw looks a fair bit later and yours has the word "improved" on it which I associate (not necessarily correctly) with 1850/60+ saws.

Ther real problems comes with the suggestion that the medallion was a "Revolution Centennial" medallion. This would fit more or less with the dates of the style of my saw, but is far too late for the published dates of SS and G and Greaves. It is a problem!!

As to value, I cannot remember exactly what I paid for mine, but it cost less than the shipping to the UK and so would have been under GBP26 but not by much.

Yours being a backsaw would be a lot more sought after and so use my figure as a base to be multiplied. Until someone tells me differently, I think that there are only 3 of these medallions around. But of course now that I have said that, hundreds will come out of the woodwork!

Now that I have seen the photographs of yours the spanner in the works of everthing is the not the phrase "German Steel" in itself, but the type of stamp it is in and its positioning on the steel back.

That is normally associated (again by me for what its worth) with being and earlier saw still, but it doesn't match with the rest of the stamps.

A mystery but an interesting one.

[Christian Thompson]

Fred,

I believe it was your saw. Thanks for the additional information. It is interesting indeed. My original thought, after seeing yours with the same combination, was that SS&G was the maker and Greaves was the exporter so that theory makes sense to me.

As to worth - I think I will hold off on messing with the saw anymore for now; at least until I get a little more experience! It would be a shame to wreck it even further if there are so few around.

Thanks again,
Christian

[Don McConnell]

Hi Christian,

If the handle and medallion or original to the saw (which they appear to be), then I don't see this as all that much of a mismatch. William Greaves & Sons were in business from as early as 1822 until, at least, 1849. By 1852, they appear to have been succeeded by Eyre, Ward & Co. and T. Turton & Sons. In any event, they were located in Sheaf Works by 1825 and were variously listed as Merchants & Manufactures, table knife makers, edge tool makers, file makers and razors, as well as converters and refiners of steel. Including "Celebrated Spring Steel." But I have not found any trade listing for them as saw makers, and, quite germanely, they were styling themselves as "American Merchants" by 1833. This clearly suggests they were involved in international trade.

Couple this with working dates for Slack, Sellars & Grayson of between ca. 1833 and 1856, and I think we have a pretty straight-forward example of one firm manufacturing saws specifically for export by another firm already set up for international trade. I would think the most likely dates of manufacture would be between 1833 and 1849 (possibly as late as 1851). Very interesting.

Don McConnell
Eureka Springs, AR

[Fred Storer]

Hi Christian,

I got your link from the original website, for some reason my computer won't open your message here.

I am not so sure that the ACW ascription is definitely wrong. SS and G carried on as Slack Sellars and may have continued the brand of SS and G, particularly if it had brand loyalty in America. And we are talking specifically about a saw destined for the American market. Some of the posters on the other site (and who know an awful lot more than me about these things) seem to think that the brand (if not the companyof) W. Greaves and Sons carried on after their disappearance from the trade directories.

So it is possible that this saw is ACW period, although I notice that the seller on the site to which you referred supplies no evidence of this, he just says that the "token" is this period.

This is one of the good things about these sorts of discussion sites, you never know when someone is going to come up with a complete gem, or answer your question.

I am not sure that it is categorically answered yet. But we are getting there.

As I put on the other site, ACW versus "Revolution Centennial". It doesn't get any better - if it's true.