As a follow up to the correspondence in NL 89 I would like to add another note. In a Spear and Jackson ledger of 1812 there are four qualities of saw:

London Spring, cast, German, and common steel. The price difference on a 26 inch hand saw was 90, 74, and 64 shillings per dozen for the first three; there is no note of a common steel handsaw, but other types made this cheapest kind cost between 64 and 87% of the German steel price.

What cannot be known so far is whether the price addition for London Spring was determined by what the saw maker did to the steel during its manufacture, or to the saw itself during the several processes between rolling the plate and putting on the handle. Although during the 19th century there were many types and qualities of cast steel offered by Sheffield makers, there was also plenty of scope for superior treatments in saw making itself, witness the six differently priced qualities of saw offered by Thomas Turner in the 1890’s.

The Ledger is reference SJC 47 in the Sheffield Archives; at that period the company was John Spear and Co.