Thread: The Ubiquitous Circular Saw

For a long time I have wondered when hand held circular saws came into being. The incident that sparked this question stemmed from the production of handsaws by the Simonds company.. They ceased production of handsaws in 1926 almost as abruptly as they had entered the market twenty six years earlier. There was much conjecture over why they did this. At least one theory was that as an industrial entity without union labour, they were black banned by the woodworking trades.

However, this is unconfirmed and the official reason given appeared in this small carpenters' handbook:

Simonds Carpenters guide 1926 002.jpg

Simonds Carpenters guide 1926 001.jpg

As you can see from the glued on sheet (particularly if you enlarge the pic by clicking on it), Simonds decided to cease handsaw production and concentrate on powered circular saws: At least that was their contention and although this booklet is mine, I have seen other booklets with the same sheet pasted to the inside cover. I actually had a "ho hum" moment over this statement, but recently turned up the following from a 1934 Simonds catalogue.

Simonds hand held circular saws.jpg

This was a full eight years later and to say that Simonds were concentrating on the powered saw is apparently quite a stretch since they only supplied the blade, but the Wappat company clearly was producing this type of powered machine.

Just a little more information is that Fred Wappat established his company in 1918 and the company was bought out by Simonds in 1928, which was a couple of years ahead of the 1926 booklet. The first Wappat circular saws were intended for concrete and presumably adapted later for woodworking. Was Wappat the first manufacturer? So, my question is when did electric handheld saws first appear and who made them?

Regards
Paul