Started buying handsaws at flea markets. Did I stumble into some rare/old saws?

[Josh Waine]

After buying so many planes I thought I'd start picking up a few handsaws. I found these three saws recently and to my surprise, all three seem like they're pretty rare. Of course I had no idea at the time, I just bought ones that were in decent shape and had all their teeth. The only other thing that stuck out to me was the London pattern handle on the first saw. I've cleaned all of them up a bit, mostly just a quick rub with an abrasive pad to uncover the stamp or etch since I couldn't see anything previously.

First up I think is made by J Flint out of Rochester NY. Only the last two letters in Flint and last four in Rochester are legible but it seems like a good match. Does the fact that there's no medallion date it earlier? There isn't much life left on the plate and the toe is warped a decent amount. This one especially screams "old" to me so I'm hesitant to do anything with it.
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[Josh Waine]

Next is R Groves & Son from Sheffield England. From what I can tell it's a very good saw, maybe not the most valuable but it makes a great user.
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[Josh Waine]

Last is a Disston #76. Disstons seem really common here in the northeast US, but there's only three of these up on ebay currently and they're all out of Australia. Is this just a rare model? Unfortunately it's missing the medallion, does that kill the value?
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[Rob Paul]

A good looking trio of saws !
Flint's 1873 catalog shows handsaws with and without medallions, with the non-medallion models being the cheaper saw lines, so yours may be older, or just a budget model
Groves looks good
You should be able to find a replacement medallion for the Disston 76 from any old other Disston of the same age
(no ideas on value)

[Mark Casper]

I don't see a London pattern saw you mentioned, but that first one is most definitely a J. Flint. Having been born in Rochester and living here a very long time, I have a particular interest in their saws. Here's the brother to yours:

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- Mark

[Stew Denton]

Hi Josh,

With regard to your model 76, Disston produced it from about 1876 to about 1920, according to to information from the Disston Institute web site. The design of the etch used on your saw was used by Disston from about 1910 to 1928, so that puts your saw as being made between about 1910 and 1920.

With regard to the other saws, I don't know when the other makers switched from he split nut design to more modern design, but I would guess most had switched over by 1900 or so. Even so, my guess is that they are considerably older. My guess is prior to the 1880s.

I hope Pete chimes in to help with the dates.

Stew

[Jim Koepke]

Or you can look here for information on when the different types of saw nuts came into use:

http://www.disstonianinstitute.com/medv2.html

jtk

[Mike Allen1010]

Hi Josh,


IMHO, the short answer is yes – the Groves and J Flint saws are likely pre-1875 as that's when most manufacturers switched from the split nuts to domed screws.


I'm no expert, but as Stew mentioned, one of our fellow Creekers Pete Taran is absolutely one of the world's leading experts on vintage saws. Hopefully will chime in with the real answer.


FWIW, I would encourage vintage saw seekers not to shy away from saws with narrower plates (like your J Flint). In my experience, the only reason a saw gets sharpened so much as to significantly reduce the width of the plate is because multiple generations of extremely knowledgeable hand tool woodworker's found it to be a great user.


Cheers, Mike

[Josh Waine]

Thanks everyone for the info. It's really cool to come across these old saws, uncover the stamp or etch then research the history behind it.

Here's one more. I got this for cheap on ebay. It came with a terrible handle with the horn sanded down. I didn't want to keep this one backwards in my saw till forever so I finally got around to making a handle. Used curly maple then dyed with transtint before BLO. When sanding down the plate, I uncovered the etch. GEO H Bishop and it says "High Speed" in the center, looks like a good match to the #250 here https://geobishopsaws.blogspot.com/2016/12/geo-h-bishop-ohlen-bishop-handsaw-models.html

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[Stew Denton]

Josh,

Nice craftsmanship on the handle, and I especially like the lambs tongue.

Stew