Not too long ago I received an email from Wisconsin advising me to check out a saw on eBay. It was listed as a Disston tenon saw. It looked more like a medical tool to me, however the seller said it was marked Disston.

Having not ever heard of a Disston medical amputation saw I figured it was worth a bid.

We take pleasure in presenting herewith an illustration of the saw-file guide referred to. It is manufactured by Messrs. E. Roth & Bro., New Oxford, Pa. While this device may be a novelty to many of our readers, it has been before the public long enough to have demonstrated its utility.

We learn from the manufacturers that, although it was patented as recently as 1876, over 20,000 have been sold. Some improvements were patented only last year, and the engraving presented herewith shows it in its best form.

This is one of the most interesting and instructive industrial enterprises in Pennsylvania. Here is a fine exhibition of the inventor's skill; machinery which has greatly economized mental and muscular effort, contributed to the health and happiness of the operative, and producing an article of better quality, while lessening its cost to the consumer.

Mr. Henry Disston, the founder of this enterprise, was an Englishman who came to Philadelphia in 1833, when he was fourteen years old. Seeing an advertisement in a newspaper that an apprentice was wanted by a sawmaker, he applied for the position. The advertisers were two Englishmen, Charles and William Johnson, who were then engaged in making hand-saws. Successful in his application, Disston began his apprenticeship.

Any handsaw labeled Warranted Superior is the Rodney Dangerfield of the saw world; it just don’t get no respect. This is because most of these saws are the second line offering of the maker and are not up to the high standards of the rest of the line. They were produced in large numbers and are not sought out by collectors. However, the following three saws with Warranted Superior on the label screws are early and unusual.

The first saw is by the uncommon maker W. Stevens of New York circa 1860. It is a 10 PPI crosscut, 16” panel saw with three Warranted Superior label screws. The large center label screw is ¾” in diameter and the two smaller ones are ½”, which are the smallest size label screws I’ve ever seen. If anyone knows any of the history of this maker, please contact me.

Peter A. Frasse and Co. began as a mechanical shop and tool import business owned and operated by Henri Frederic Frasse, a Swiss immigrant to New York City.

Frasse's shop was located at 95 Fair Street, later renamed Fulton Street. During the first decades of the nineteenth century Frasse's business prospered and his reputation grew due in large part to the assistance he was known to have provided Robert Fulton in perfecting the steamboat and other inventions.

Upon Henri Frasse's death in 1849 the business was taken over by his son Peter A. Frasse and the company's name changed accordingly. The name of the business was changed again in 1868 to "Peter A. Frasse & Co." when John M. Montgomery joined Frasse as a business partner.

A while back I got an email from the assistant editor of the Russian woodcarving magazine in Moscow, asking for permission to take information about my mallets to use in an article they wanted to publish. I gave permission and asked for a copy of the magazine. I just received my copy.

I took my copy to a store to have it scanned so I could send Wiktor a copy, but they refused to scan it citing copyright laws. I pointed out that it was my copyright, but to no avail. I wound up shooting pictures of the whole thing on my very old copy stand.