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Patent dates for saw screws are usually found stamped on the face of the label screw. It is not uncommon to have the date appear on the back side of split nuts. Disston’s label screw for the 1887 patent has the date 27, 1887 stamped in the mirror image. There are four Disston saws with this patent date in my possession. One is a correct stamping and three have the reversal. I looked carefully at all saws in my collection plus a multitude of saw screws that had been removed from “junk” saws. This led me to check the backside as well as the face. This research seems to confirm material found in the patent papers. Casting marks were very evident on those screws until the patents were used. Three surprises were found on the back of screws. 1. – an early eagle Warranted Superior c. 1850 had a neat keystone enclosing the shank, 2. – an H. Disston c.1850 had a mirror image of H. Disston in two places that do not reflect the H. Disston on the face, and 3 – a c. 1875 H. Disston & Sons also has a keystone around the shank. This is my pitch in favor of cleaning tools. While on the subject of label screws, saw screws, and medallions a patent No. 86,899 of February 9, 1869 by John Wallwork of Philadelphia should be included in the article. The patent is entitled “Improvement in Attaching Handles to saws”. This patent is directed to the mechanics who have a saw with a broken handle and wishes to replace it. The inventor states in the patent papers the following:
“My invention consists in passing the screws which fasten the handle to the blade of a saw through adjustable slotted plates and through openings in the handle sufficiently large in diameter to permit the said screws to be adjusted laterally until brought in line with the holes in the saw blade, all as fully described hereafter, the object of my invention being to facilitate the attachment of saw handles to blades in which the holes for the fastening screws have been already punched. The position of the holes which are made in a saw handle for the passage of the fastening screws, are determined not by actual measurement but by the aid of the eye alone, so that, although by long practice the operator is enable to make those holes in very nearly the same positions in each handle, the variation is sufficient to demand that holes should be punched in each plate to correspond in position with those of that particular handle which is to be fastened to it. It consequently happens that a handle can be fitted to no other saw blade than the one for which it is especially intended, unless other holes be punched. Although, in manufacturing the saws, this plan results in nut little inconvenience, it is found to be very objectionable when handle is broken at a place remote from a saw factory, for, as no other handle can be fitted to the blade until new holes are punched in the latter, it must often, in the absence of proper tools. Be thrown aside as useless. Instead of making holes in the handle, of the same diameter as that of the fastening screws, I form openings having a diameter larger enough to cover the slight variations in position of the holes in the saw blade.
Those openings are covered by slotted plates pivoted to the handle by screws or pins. They than can be adjusted to any position over the said openings, or turned to one side for the same. Screws may then go through the openings and be fastened to the wood on the backside of the handle.” Words in this patent paper seem to explain why two identical saws by the same maker, seemingly having all screws located equally don’t. In all my experience with saws I have never found a handle to match the holes in a blade. Irv Schaffer’s book “Hand saw makers of North America” was used to obtain material on makers and dates of manufacture. There seems to be very few label screws by American makers before 1840. There will be exceptions. I have a saw by Richardson & co. Boston Fulton Works with large label screw. This 1 ¼ inch diameter screw sets on the surface of the handle and appears to have been struck as a coin. The same information is stamped, with an eagle, on the blade. So far I have found no information on this maker. Information on this tool would be greatly appreciated. Lars Larson has been wonderful in providing the patent
information. Originally published in Gristmill and Fine Tool Journal, this article did not include reprint of the discussed patents. Current version contains copies of patents and discussion of the patent by John Wallwork. WK.
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