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View Full Version : An 18th century saw sharpening bench



Kees Heiden
04-24-2017, 10:34 AM
At least that's what the seller told me. I don't know where he got the 1795 date from, but it sure is old and looks interesting. BTW, I didn't buy it, it was too expensive and I don't have room for it. So I can't give any further details.

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michael langman
04-24-2017, 11:13 AM
The bench looks very practical, and has a nice style to it Kees.
Make me think people were much smaller back then.
My cushioned tubular chair from the 1960's is more comfortable though.

Derek Cohen
04-24-2017, 11:30 AM
At least that's what the seller told me. I don't know where he got the 1795 date from, but it sure is old and looks interesting. BTW, I didn't buy it, it was too expensive and I don't have room for it. So I can't give any further details.

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Kees, that would look good in your entrance hall! :)

You could use the vise to hold your mail.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Pete Taran
04-24-2017, 12:17 PM
Looks like a cobbler bench for leather working to me. Must have been fun trying to maintain fleam angles when seated as you would have had to file from left to right instead of front to back. Skeptical about it's use for saw filing.

bridger berdel
04-24-2017, 1:15 PM
Looks like a cobbler bench for leather working to me. Must have been fun trying to maintain fleam angles when seated as you would have had to file from left to right instead of front to back. Skeptical about it's use for saw filing.



If that clamp swivelled about it's vertical axis, maybe.

Kees Heiden
04-24-2017, 1:51 PM
Well, I know nothing about leather working so you got me there! I was also wondering how to use it. Sitting like on a horse? Or like an amazone? Maybe they didn't use fleam back then, keeping a file 90 degree to the sawplate is easier then at some other angle.

Anyway, it is from the liquidation of a small rural museum, and those are often wrong in interpreting historical artefacts.

Ryan Mooney
04-24-2017, 2:06 PM
Yup I'll second the identification as a stitching horse (if you search for that you'll see what we're talking about).

If I had a nickel for every tool I've seen identified wrong at museums I'd have enough money to buy most of the ones I identified wrong myself./

Kees Heiden
04-24-2017, 2:36 PM
Yup, stitchin horse it is, a quick google search turned up many similar examples. Thanks for the tip.

george wilson
04-25-2017, 5:49 PM
i've even seen wrongly labeled things at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. They identified the Spanish cedar neck of Segovia's guitar as mahogany. I'm sure they didn't believe me when I told them what it really was. After all,who am I compared to the MET!!!!

Tony Zaffuto
04-26-2017, 4:59 AM
Saw on just like it, on Monday, April 25th, at Fayetteville, PA Antique Mall, Route 30, east of Chambersurg, Pa, a few miles (in case anyone wants to get it). It was labeled "shoemakers bench", but it looked to me like it could be used for saws, except it didn't look comfortable.