$100 Saw Alan, lookee lookee

[harry strasil]

My $100 scroll saw Alan, an original Lester Improved. No drooling on the keyboard now.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v81/irnsrgn/wood/scrollsaw.jpg

[Deirdre Saoirse Moen]

Wow, that really is a beauty. I'm hoping to find some Victorian scroll saw some day, but I'd have to put it in the parlor. ;)

[harry strasil]

Deirdre, I wonder if Alan will jump on me about power saws this time, LOL, well at least it doesn't have a tail on it. LOL

[Curt Fuller]

Wow, I don't know if Alan is drooling but I am. That's a nice antique!

[James Mittlefehldt]

Harry I saw a fellow demonstrating a little feller like that at a wood show in Kitchener Ontario a few years back, it was made in New England somewhere I forget what brand it was but it was really neat.

I assume you don't cut any thick wood with that.

[harry strasil]

up to 1 1/2

[Alan DuBoff]

No way, you found that for $100? Are you serious, what a gloat!

A friend has a Barnes, and he paid $250 for it locally. I was tracking some for a while and they do go up over $1000 in many cases on ebay.

Awesome looking tredle, and the grate looks to be intact nicely. The most common failure seems to be grates that crack and most are repaired in some way.

I'm actually talking to someone about a tredle lathe that is supposedly pretty solid. I'm waiting on pics of it. I think that would be a cool tool to own.

That's one nice saw, very nice indeed.

EDIT: BTW, who made it?

[harry strasil]

The circumstances surrounding the saw purchase are a bit strange. I was demonstrating WWing in the Civic Arena in St. Joseph, Mo for the 125th anniversary of the Ross-Frazer Supply company there. The whole place was full of booths with representatives showing off new tools and everything else associated with what the company sold.

As a side note, the R-F Co sent a channel 2 film crew to my shop and I dressed up in my mid 1800's garb and they filmed a spot for their 125th anniversary TV commercial of me forge welding the eye on a froe.

I was hand adzing a cedar log for a machinist friend who lives at St. Joe, the crowd was not interested that much in what I was doing, but the representitives of the power tool companies were over in my area watching me work any time they had a spare moment.

One of the widowed retired execs of Ross-Frazer came by to visit with me and had his lady friend who was a Widow, and she took particular interest in what I was doing and asked a lot of questions. It turns out her husband was a Hand Tool WW and tool collector and she asked me if I would come by her house and look at her late husbands tools and give her an appraisal of what they were worth. I had a wedding to attend that evening so set up a date to stop the following weekend when I would be going thru town.

The gentleman had had a quite extensive collection but the people who were coming to look at it were giving her very low appraisal values and offering very low prices for things which in some cases she accepted. Being the honest person that I am I took some tool value books along and gave her an honest value for the remaining tools, and offered a fair price for several of the smaller tools that I could afford. She stated to me, "You really are an honest person aren't you, not like the others that have come by".

She unlocked another small dark room lit with only 1 small light bulb containing some of the better quality tools her late husband had purchased and did not get around to cleaning up after he got sick. It was hard to see anything and when I got a flashlight to look around, it was crammed full of goodies I couldn't believe, all covered with dust. She had a notepad and started writing down the value estimates I was giving her. We got to the little Lester Improved scroll saw way back in a corner and I guess my tone of voice and enthusiasim kinda gave me away (I had been looking for one for a long time) and gave her an appraised value of $250 -300 as the lathe and drill attachments were missing.

We moved back into her late husbands shop office area and she told me that due to my honesty I could have my pick of any of the many old books her husband had accumulated as payment for the appraisal. I think I selected 3 or 4 that particularly interested me and thanked her and was preparing to leave, when she stated I think you have a real interest in that little saw thing back in the corner of the storage room.

I told her that I did but that I could not afford it. She asked me if I could afford $100. I said yes, but I don't want to take advantage of you like the other people. She said that was her husbands pride and joy when he had purchased it and that he she would like me to have it as I would give it a good home and use it.

I took it home at the insistance of that gracious lady, and it is also my pride and joy.

End of long winded story.

[Tom Sherman]

Very cool Harry, and The Truth shal set you free.

[John Timberlake]

Great story, Harry. Always good to be rewarded for doing the right things. Everyone else was looking to make a buck, and you got the best deal of all. I'm sure here husband would be glad to know it found a good home.