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Recent Bios FAQ

269662 Christian Gagneraud <chgans@g...> 2020‑01‑13 Disston saw with custom distributor etching
Hi there,

I bought a nice 10" Disston dovetail saw at a shop for 15NZD/10USD.
I could see it had a strange etching but couldn't read it. Once back
home i scratch the saw blade with a razor blade (best way to clean a
saw blade w/o damaging the etching).
And to my surprise the etching was there, crisp and clean, it reads:
MADE FOR
MC CLEAN & ARCHIBALD
WELLINGTON NZ

Such a shop did exist in Wellington from 1904.
The medaillon of the saw suggests 1896-1917 (as per
http://www.disstonianinstitute.com/medv2.html). The steel back has the
usual Disston marking.
The saw is in a good condition, once the handle was removed, i could
see that the steel back was actually blue.

Apparently the New Zealand national library have a few catalogues from
McClean & Archibald Ltd. But i live quite far from Wellington.

Anyway, my questions to the list is:
Is this something common  for a Disston saw?
I own maybe a dozen or more Disston saws, and it's the first time i
see this kind of etching.

Something really weird i noticed on this saw is that the very first
tooth (handle side) is clearly higher than all other ones, and it is
the only one like that, all other teeth have the same height and are
in good condition. I wonder if it came like that from the factory, and
why would you do that given that the teeth are quite fine and so
fragile (13/14 tpi).

Thanks,
Chris

Recent Bios FAQ