Sawing Galoots,

In my never ending search for possible "donors" for some of the saws that
I've been building I recently found a couple of saws that I think are too
nice and/or valuable to use (for my neferious purposes). I was wondering if
any of you might help shed some light on a couple of my recent finds.

First is a nice rip saw with a medallion that reads "C.E. Jennings & Co.",
"Pat. Dec. 27 1887", "New York". The medallion has a beautiful, high quality
"coin look" with a very detailed eagle w/shield. If it had an etching it's
long gone. This saw is in fairly nice condition considering it probably was
used to rip miles of lumber. It appears to have been sharpened several
(dozen?) times since it looks a bit narrow. Also, (this is the part that I
really like) the wheat carved (apple?) handle is worn super smooth and has
worn in depressions from the user's grip. Pretty neat.
I've looked at my friends copy of Erv's book and see that "C.E. Jennings &
Co." is the second incarnation of the Jennings saw business that was created
in the late 1870's. I'm assuming that this saw is from somewhere in time
around it's patent date. Anybody have any more information of this saw? Was
this a high quality saw? (looks to have been top of the line in it's day).


Second saw is a nice skew-backed model with a wheat carved handle that looks
like beech. It's not a "cover top" handle. It has an etching on it that says
"SARGENT" in large block letters with "No. 148" and "Warrented Spring Steel"
in a banner above Sargent. There is also a cursive script below "Sargent"
that says something about replacing the saw if it should prove less than
perfect (or something to that effect). I can't quite make out all of the
etch that says this.
Again, looking in Erv's book he says that Disston, Simonds, Atkins all made
saws for Sargent but of the models that he lists I didn't see a #148.
Anybody have any idea of who might have actually made this saw?

I also found a nice keyhole saw made by Wheeler, Madden and Clemson. Looks
like it was bought and put up on the shelf. 

One of these days I'm going to find some saws that I can cut up and not
worry about it. I just hate to think of "altering" anything before I really
know what it is.

Thanks in advance.

Best, 

Brian.