Thread: Warranteed Superior Medallion ?

Originally Posted by STAR

A friend has given me an old hand saw once owned by his grandfather who was a sawmiller and timber cutter in Tasmania.

I had just completed renovating his old dovetail saw with a clean up and a new handle and he rewarded me with another brownie point job of making a new handle for this one. At least it proves that my day at IanW's workshop might not have been in vain, at least as far as my friend thinks.

Does anybody have any ideas as to what make it might be. All the medallion has on it is
" WARRANTEED SUPERIOR "

Peter.

Gidday there,

From memory, "warranted superior" is possibly one of a few major brands of saw that were in production at the time. For example, Disston may have produced some, in addition to other makers.

Generally they seem to be of fairly good quality.

I believe the reason was something like modern day supermarket bread - essentially the same product, but different marketing campaigns and therefore different prices, even if they are from the same manufacturer.

I may be off the mark, as I'm just passing on something I read somewhere a few years ago - I'm sure one of the knowledgable gurus here will be able to correct me or fill in any blanks.

Cheerio,
sCORCH

Peter,

"Warranted Superior" was made by Henry Disston & Sons, Philadelphia USA. It was their "vanilla" brand and supplied to a number of other tool companies and hardware merchants. Disston was the OEM for many suppliers around the country.

As far as I know the range of saws was simllar to the Disston branded saws and there is no evidence to suggest that the materials were any different (inferiour). I have seen it stated that the finish on these was less fastidious than the main brand.

BTW, have you seen the Disstonian Institute site? http://www.disstonianinstitute.com/

BR,

Fraser

Originally Posted by STAR

A friend has given me an old hand saw once owned by his grandfather who was a sawmiller and timber cutter in Tasmania.

I had just completed renovating his old dovetail saw with a clean up and a new handle and he rewarded me with another brownie point job of making a new handle for this one. At least it proves that my day at IanW's workshop might not have been in vain, at least as far as my friend thinks.

Does anybody have any ideas as to what make it might be. All the medallion has on it is
" WARRANTEED SUPERIOR "

Peter.

This is from the site that Loco mentioned above:

"Warran and Ted Superior were not brothers in the saw manufacturing business.
Warranted Superior medallions are found on secondary lines manufactured by Disston and other major saw makers with other brand names on the etch. Some smaller 19th century saw makers may have bought sawnuts and medallions from the bigger factories.
After 1900 or so the "small guys" were actually secondary lines of the "big guys." The small companies were bought up by bigger ones and some of their products were continued for a time. Harvey Peace is one example. Most American saws from the 20th century, regardless of brand name, were made in the works of Disston, Atkins, Bishop, or Simonds.
In the case of Disston, their replacement medallions were stamped Warranted Superior rather than "Disston." I would speculate their rationale was they didn't want their name on lesser-quality saws. Brand identity and loyalty in the U.S. was much stronger in the first half of the 20th century than it is today. "