Something I've Always Wanted To Know BHABATA

[Carl Eyman]

Why is a "Gent's Saw" called that?

[Tom Stovell]

I've heard that a 'Gent's Saw' was to differentiate it from a craftman's tool. In the mid to late 1800s it was fashionable for a gentleman to own a set of tools. These were marketed for this purpose, domestic usage, rather than daily use in the shops/guilds of the day.

Sounds plausible.

Tom

[Dave Anderson NH]

Tom has it pretty well right from what I've read. My only addition would be that the gent's saws all seem to have the straight handles. The name was used specifically to describe backsaws with the straight handle.

Now what's a gentleman? The way I heard it a gentleman is a man of leisure. A man of leisure is a man who doesn't work. A man who doesn't work is a Bum. Hence a gentleman must be a bum.

[Greg Heppeard]

Takes an act of congress to make a gentleman....I was enlisted....

[James Carmichael]

Tom has it pretty well right from what I've read. My only addition would be that the gent's saws all seem to have the straight handles. The name was used specifically to describe backsaws with the straight handle.

Now what's a gentleman? The way I heard it a gentleman is a man of leisure. A man of leisure is a man who doesn't work. A man who doesn't work is a Bum. Hence a gentleman must be a bum.

LOL Dave! Very true, in aristocratic English society, manual labor was beneath the landed gentry. Saws of that type probably weren't used much.

I guess the guys I see sleeping on benches downtown are "gentlemen".