Thread: Mystery Disston?

Hi.
There were vast numbers of 'Warranted Superior' saws made - by the major brands and more - which filled the cheaper section of the market, as I understand it.

This would be the analogue to the kmart and BigW chainsaws you can buy now, vs Stihl and Husqvana and etc.

If you look through US ebay you'll start to get a feel for it.

The oval handle might tend to put it into the 40's to 70's type age ... as a rough estimate.

Cheers,
Paul

It could be from the UK ... WS was on everything there and the sunken medallion would fit too ... also looks like a flat nut in the lower sawnut position.

Can you photo the other side of the handle?

Cheers,
Paul

I don't think it's a Disston. The early ones were traditional English-pattern handsaws. Doesn't look like an English Warranted Superior label screw either. I don't know what it is.

Toby

the nuts are the split type with the thread passing all teh way through, I looked on ther disstonian and these seem pretty old? the eagle on the medallion accoring to them looks 1850 -60? could this be right?
cheers
matt

From here.

Q. Was "Warranted Superior" a Disston brand?A. Many saw makers going back to early 19th century England made medallions with the Warranted Superior (WS) label. It pre-dates Henry Disston (1819-1878) by at least a generation, possibly more. Use of the phrase is not limited to saws. A quick online search shows it was used in advertising for manufactured goods such as shoes and Remington pistols. Warranted and guaranteed have the same meaning, which is the maker's word that his product is superior. The claim is only as good as the word of the maker, if you think about it.
Most English WS medallions have a crown and most American ones have an eagle. Later Disston-made WS medallions have the words "Warranted Superior," a circle of dots, stars at the three and nine o'clock positions, and appear with or without an eagle. Some feature a keystone instead of the eagle. The illustration of replacement medallions in the Disston 1906 catalog shows an eagle, the 1911 catalog has a keystone, and illustrations in the 1914, 1918, and 1923 catalogs feature a blank space in the center of the medallion. None are stamped with the name "Disston." Later medallions on some of the Keystone-brand saws (1935-1954) have eagles. An example of this is shown, left.
Most of the larger American manufacturers made saws with both branded medallions and WS versions. The purpose would have been to differentiate between the products on which they put their name and lower-priced tools on which they chose not to put their brand name. The irony is that, in America, the Warranted Superior label often was put on the companies' inferior products. Many top-grade English saws have WS medallions while others have brand-name medallions.
When you find an American WS saw, there may be a slightly less than 50% chance that it was made by Disston. Disston had a very large portion of the market, but it was not a monopoly. Atkins, Bishop, Jennings, Woodrough & McParlin, and Simonds (1900-1926) were a few of the large saw manufacturers that made saws with some form of a WS medallion with an eagle. Atkins' secondary line was actually labeled "Phoenix Warranted."

Toby

wow its a tangled world of saws for the newby....thanks for all that info, I can feel a steep learning curve coming on...
thankfully forums like this mean that info it would take a lifetime to gather is out there, just a post away.
cheers guys
matt