Thread: Original Steiner 1859 hand saw

I don't know how old it is supposed to be, but going on the handle it doesn't look like something manufactured too much earlier than post WWII, but I could be very wrong.

That said, if it is local to you, then look at it this way. If it is $20 (19.99) then it would cost you the price of four cups of coffee and cake; give or take. Any price substantially lower than that, then you would be laughing.

If I saw this at a garage sale for $20.00, you can bet I would be taking it home. The novelty factor alone would have made it an impulse buy.

I am not a hand saw expert, although I have been using them for well over 60 years and always looked at different and interesting saws; but I have never seen anything quite like that.

Mick.

Originally Posted by Optimark

If it is $20 (19.99) then it would cost you the price of four cups of coffee and cake; give or take. Any price substantially lower than that, then you would be laughing.

If I saw this at a garage sale for $20.00, you can bet I would be taking it home. The novelty factor alone would have made it an impulse buy.

Picking it up this afternoon for $15. I'll post more pics after I get it. Researched the company (German) a bit and they used to make wooden planes.

It does not look that old to me either. Perhaps a typo and they meant 1959. Anyhow at the price why not.
Regards
John

Bit of history on the company. Translated from German by Google.

Tool manufacturer and dealer

Jos. Steiner & Sons / Laupheimer Werkzeugfabrik

history

The company was founded in 1859 by Joseph Steiner (1803-1874) and his four sons Emanuel, Alexander, Simon and Hermann. They started the wood tool factory with a tribe of six to eight employees in a hall of economics to cycle on the Kapellenstraße. Soon, the premises were too small and they created on a site between the Kapellenstraße and the later Steinerstraße a stately factory building. As early as 1862, Steiner participated in the World's Fair in London with a large range of tools (list see 10) ). A catalog from this period lists over 300 different planers, other tools and kitchen appliances.

On February 17, 1866, the company was registered as oHG with the shareholders Joseph Steiner and the sons Emanuel and Hermann in the newly established commercial register. In the mid-1870s, a cutting and sawmill with a coupled machine room was built to use water power in the city mill on the Rottum. On a site of more than 42,000 square meters there was gradually a factory, which should finally call the largest wood tool factory in Germany. The workforce increased in this time to 60 employees.
After the death of Joseph Steiner and the departure of Brother Hermann, the company passed in 1887 into the sole possession of Emanuel Steiner. Business difficulties during this time led to a crisis, which led on 16 February 1891 to the transformation into a corporation with the name "Laupheimer tool factory, formerly Joseph Steiner & sons". The first board members were Julius Hess and Emanuel Steiner, who was replaced shortly afterwards by a Mr. Wagner. A conflict with the workforce led to a renewed change and in 1895 Louis Stern sided with Julius Hess. The factory was completely relocated with the renaming in the city mill.

In the mid-1890s, after labor disputes and various re-appointments on the board, the crisis was overcome and the factory, at its height, became the largest woodworking tool factory in Europe. In an illustrated history of Laupheim, August Schenzinger describes the construction of the Laupheim tool factory with the use of steam power, large workrooms for carpentry and metalworking, numerous storage sheds and a "proud residential and office building" where 160 to 180 workers worked. The produced goods were exported to practically all countries of Northern, Eastern and Western Europe and partly overseas, giving the "Original Steiner" brand founded in 1880 international recognition.

Tools were used to make everything the carpenter needed for his job. The focal point of the development was the planer, which is also stylized in the letter 'L' of the company abbreviation. In addition, the production of planing and workbenches for various woodworking professions and school workshops was almost as important. For the production of the variety of tools, there was even a special department for iron working, where also iron planes were made. During this time the Laupheimer tool factory was the largest wood tool factory in Germany. Shortly after the beginning of the First World War, Julius Hess resigned from the board. Production had to be considerably reduced by the loss of foreign markets, but war production allowed for a settlement.

In 1918 the rival company Wilhelm Braun was acquired in Plochingen and its stocks were taken over to Laupheim. Shortly after the inflation Louis Stern retired from the board for reasons of age. His successor Anton Frye led the company until 1945. The second half of the 1920s brought a general slowdown. (The special situation of the woodworking tool industry during this time is described in more detail in the dissertation by Friedrich Ott 5) . The Laupheimer Werkzeugfabrik tried to counter this situation by issuing shares and wooden toy manufacturing as a new branch of production that continued until the outbreak of the Second World War has been.

The economic upturn after 1933 could not be used by the Laupheim tool factory because the two main shareholders Sam Steiner and Viktor Steiner were (American) Jews and the company was exposed to the racial persecution of the Nazi regime. Increasing pressure and discrimination on public contracts eventually led to the Steiner family selling their shareholdings to Deutsche Bank. This sold him to a shareholder group, in which above all the family Zechbauer of the company Maysers hat factory in Ulm was involved. In this so-called Aryanization in 1939, the name of the company was changed to "Holzwerkzeugfabrik Laupheim AG".

The Second World War survived the company relatively unscathed. The post-war period, however, brought about considerable difficulties, which were only partly due to the decreasing demand for hand tools and the disappearance of the markets in the east and south-east of Europe. The unclear possessions of the forced company also had a paralyzing effect. In this time led from 1946 to Erwin Kull and from 1951 to the end of 1956 Max Metz the company. Finally, the forfeited shares of the Steiner family were returned. The interests of the family, however, were now the hop business, and so the stock package was sold again in 1955. Two years later there was a renewed change of ownership. The owners were now the affiliated companies Faradit, Rohr u. Walzwerk AG (Munich) and the Forst Ebner A. G. (Ebnat / Upper Palatinate), which was appointed by the Chairman of the Supervisory Board Dr. Ing. Friedrich were represented. The management was Hans Szalla who, as part of a reorganization, transformed the corporation into a limited liability company and reintroduced the old traditional company name "Laupheimer Werkzeugfabrik". The abbreviation "LW" had however been maintained throughout (but see below the mark LHW on a plane iron).

At the time of its centenary in 1959, the Laupheim tool factory employed 117 people and was able to look forward to a favorable development following a successful reorganization and increasing order intake. (This historical outline was essentially written after a speech at the centenary of the company 3) .)
Sometime between 1960 and 1965, the legal form was changed again and the company called itself "Laupheimer tool factory, Friedrich & Co. KG" [Advertisement in "The German construction and furniture joiner" (1965)].

In 1978 (80 employees) an extension was erected on the factory premises at the Rottum 4). After the bankruptcy of the company Esslinger & Abt the area " Famos " was taken over from there (about 1985). After Dr. Friedrichs death took over the managing director Roland Ripple the company. Because of the poor economic situation, the various production parts of the Laupheim tool factory were shut down one after the other and the company finally closed in 1991. All that remained was Famos, the independent operating division, which today is the market leader for specialist room equipment (see Famos story).

Joseph Steiner and four of his sons founded the company in 1859, everything they made until they closed in 1991 had "Steiner 1859" on it. The logo on the saw you posted has the logo as seen on the 1950 catalog.


steiner_katalog_4_g.jpg Several post made before I got this in, I guess I'm gettin' slow!

Hmm, very interesting. I followed one of the links to Wolfgang Jordan's Kleines Workzeugemuseum, really got interesting then.

I found this, among others like it.

https://www.holzwerken.de/museum/sae...atsaege4.phtml

Seems it is called a Grat Saw or in German Gratsäge. According to my wife (who is German) a Grat is a ridge that follows the top of a mountain range, there are a couple of other meanings, one of which is military, in German.

It is a very small world as my wife grew up in that part of the world, the Swabish Alps area.

Wolfgang's website, when translated from "Kleines Werkzeugmuseum" into English is "Small Tools Museum".

I would suggest you give Wolfgang a hello and see if he can, or is willing to share any information on your saw.

It seems you may have one of the last Gratsäge tools they made.

Maybe some native German speaking people on the forum may have more information on this type of saw, if you start a thread with Gratsäge in the heading, that may lead to some more information coming to light.

Mick.

Originally Posted by tofelofogus

...... Does anyone know anything about this saw, and is it worth buying? It's being sold for under $20. Thanks for your thoughts....

Well, tofelofogus, the first thing I'd ask myself is 'what would I use this saw for?'. I could be wrong (have been, once or twice ), but it looks to me like it's meant for cutting the sides of shallow trenches. So if you plan on cutting lots of trenches by hand, then this saw might be handy.......

Cheers,

To top it off the lady also gave me a bottle of German alcohol. The saw was brought over from Germany by her relative when they migrated to Australia.

Sent from my SM-G900I using Tapatalk

I'm going with a 1950,s vintage saw
The handle is very plain sorry.
And possibly a veneer saw??
Tho yes the blade lacks any breasting for a veneer saw.

Cheers Matt


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Originally Posted by Optimark

Seems it is called a Grat Saw or in German Gratsäge. According to my wife (who is German) a Grat is a ridge that follows the top of a mountain range, there are a couple of other meanings, one of which is military, in German.

Mick.

This link has a photo of a Gratsäge in use.

https://www.holzwerken.de/techniken/...rbindung.phtml

Thanks for an interesting post which I enjoyed reading.
I certainly think it was $15 well spent.
Enjoy the bottle and the saw.
H.

Just from a casual glance I think the saw is a stair saw used for cutting the trenches in the strings. The waste would have been chiseled out.

Below are an Atkins stair saw and an exert from Disston's 1914 catalogue (no significance with 1914. It was just the first one that came up.)

Atkins stair saw.jpgDisston 1914 Catalog stair builders saw.jpg

Regards
Paul

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

Just from a casual glance I think the saw is a stair saw used for cutting the trenches in the strings. The waste would have been chiseled out.

Regards
Paul

Heres a video on how to use a stair saw.
RWW 155 The Stair Saw | The Renaissance Woodworker