Todays find

[wood hacker]

Hi All

The kids school had a car boot sale today and I found this little number. Its a GH Bishop 26 inch 6 ppi rip saw. Overall it's in pretty good shape with some surface rust but no pitting that I can see at first glance. It is missing a tooth about half way down the blade. It's very faint but I might be able to see part of an etch under the grime, although this may just be wishful thinking on my part.

Going by the Cincinatti on the medalion my quick research dates it between 1882 and 1899. Over all I'm pretty happy with the find, and the $10 price tag. Looking forward to cleaning it up and putting it into service.

cheers
WH

ps please excuse the substandard phone camera shots :B

[Pac man]

Nice one , good find sir

[DaveTTC]

:whs:

Dave TTC
Turning Wood Into Art

[Luke Maddux]

Yeah... Major score.

[Bushmiller]

Yep. What Paul, Dave and Luke said.

Good price and overall good nick. There will be a lot of jointing and shaping to eliminate the broken tooth if it is to be a user, but depending on your sensibilties, you may not need to do that. If you plan to resell, you will have to do that. The market demands!

The lambs tongue and the nib make it quite an early saw I think.

Regards
Paul

[wood hacker]

There will be a lot of jointing and shaping to eliminate the broken tooth if it is to be a user, but depending on your sensibilties, you may not need to do that. If you plan to resell, you will have to do that. The market demands!

The lambs tongue and the nib make it quite an early saw I think.

Regards
Paul

This one will be a user for me once it's done up. I'm not partically precious, so for the time being I'll see how it goes with the moissing tooth. If it affecting performance then I'll put the effort into jointing and redoing the teeth.

I'm really hoping that there is an etch under the grime. There's not a lot of info out there on the net as to dating the Bishop saws but from examples I've seen the etch changed when they moved to Lawenceburg but the medalion stayed the same. In the end it doesn't really matter I guess but I do like to know the history of my tools if at all possible.

WH

[Bushmiller]

WH

I did a little research, but like you did not come up with any earth shattering information. The lambs tongue style handle was used on the "greyhound" models, but the handle was wheat carved.

In any event, the Cincinnati name on the medallion places it in the early period before they moved as you have already identified. Something I did notice is that there does not appear to be many straight back saws around so you may well have a less common model.

I remembered I had a couple of Bishop saws hanging up. Unfortunately they are all skewbacks. On the positive side this points to your saw being a less common model: I am always reluctant to say rare as this is bandied around a little too carelessly.

A bit of background from what I have and I must point out that most of what I am saying, I learnt today:

The first one is a No.8, but has a warranted superior medallion, which just shows that medallions may be easily replaced. Having said that, this medallion looks as though it has been there for ever so I am not sure what to make of it.

374765374766374767

This next one is a No.300 Greyhound with a particularly sorry handle. It does show however the lambs tongue except that it is missing :? . Well you can see where it was once joined to the handle!

374768374769374761

Rather disappointingly it has a WS medallion again, but this time (it gets worse) with steel hardware. This leads me to believe it was at the end of the company's life.

And lastly: Yeah I know that's three, but I always do this and the "couple" was metaphorical.

This is another No.8 and easily the most attractive of the three saws. In fact I glanced at the teeth, thought hmmm...

I tried it quickly on an old piece of hardwood and it cut like a dream. It will only require the barest touch up with a file. It's now firmly on the immediate resale list.

The bad newsin terms of categorising Bishop saws, is that it has Lawrenceburg on the etch and Cincinnati on the medallion. Could be that Bishop was using up a supply of old medallions.

374762374763374764

As I said, etches are difficult to fudge, but medallions can easily be replaced or substituted.

Having said that I think your saw look genuine and a good candidate to be a user. It would be interesting to hear from anybody who has more information on GH Bishop's straight back saws.

Regards
Paul

[wood hacker]

Thanks for that research Paul.

I've found one other reference where the saw had the Lawenceburg etch and the Cincinatti medallion. Their thoughts were that it was produced during the transition from the Cincinatti to Lawenceburg factories. It was a No 7 saw and the plate looks like a match for mine, however the handle lacks the lambs tonge, has a few other cosmetic differences and the saw bolts are places slightly differently.

I've not had to do up a saw with an etch yet so any tips on bringing it up would be much appreciated.

cheers
WH

Image credit: WKFinetools.com

[Bushmiller]

WH

I don't know which model you have, but it is not the saw in your last post: Too many differences, although it is a straightback.

The GH Bishop etches stand up very well it seems and in the three saws I have they are all very readable. 100% success rate there. I will be surprised if you don't find an etch. I have already today outlined a brief method of cleaning the saw plate across the etch so I will quote from that:


"Sanding away the etch is always apotential issue. Use a small block of flat wood and wet and dry paper to sand over the etch. You can easily do some exploratory work by gradually and lightly sanding. Stop as soon as you think the etch is disappearing on you. I think this etch will clean up reasonably to be a lot more visible.

You can use the W & D dry, but I prefer to use it wet. I use water when doing a full restoration. However that relies heavily on being able to place the sawplate either in an oven or in the hot Aussie sun immediately you have finished to expel residual moisture.

To do a brief check on what you've got, I would use mineral turps or a lubricant like WD40. You won't need much to see detail of the etch. In this case start with 240g and work up if you wish."

Taken from this thread:http://www.woodworkforums.com/f152/diston-plastic-handle-203342
Away from the etch and on the reverse side it is not necessary to use a hard sanding block although you may find it easier to use a block of some description. Always rub along the length of the saw. You cannot remove any marks from rubbing the wrong way which is why power sanding does not work at all.

It is always easier to clean the saw plate if the handle has been removed.

You may be able to usefully start with 120g W&D, but 240g is better. Go up to whatever grit you wish.

There are quite a few other threads on saw restoration around and there is probably no single right way.

Hope this helps.

Regards
Paul

[wood hacker]

Just gave it a quick run over with 240 W&D. There does appear to be something there but unfortunately there is also some minor pitting right through the area where I would expect the etch to be. I'll do a bit more during the week and see what I find.

[wood hacker]

Had another go at it tonight and I just don't think I'm going to find any significant portion of the etch. :no:

The only other dating info I can find is on the medallion. It has the Patent 1887 date on it so that takes the 1882-1886 period out of play.

I've been trolling through google images and if anything I'm getting myself confused. I found this image of what was said to be a Bishop #7 18" Panel Saw and the handle and saw bolt placement looks very similar to mine.

374841

However I also found this image which claims to be a Disston #7 and the handle is almost identical.

374842

It's doing my head in. I also found this site (http://zengrain.com/saws/saw-makers/bishop/) but none of the saws there match mine. I'll keep digging but I don't think there's much more info to be had unfortunately.
(http://zengrain.com/saws/saw-makers/bishop/)

[Bushmiller]

WH

Looks like we are not the only ones having difficulty tracking Bishop saws down judging from that link, which I hadn't seen before.

I am sure that I read somewhere that Bishop got right up the nose of the Disston organisation. The GH Bishop No.8 was a dead ringer for Disston's No.8 (so was Simonds' No.8 for that matter). It looks as though the No.7 was the same story right down to the lambs tongue and the nib (at least Simonds had the good grace to call their equivalent the No.10).

Although the position of saw screws was similar it looks as though the angle was slightly different.

At one time I thought Disston bought Bishop out, but I think I got that wrong.

Regards
Paul