Thread: Wheeler Madden and Clemson

Surprised and a little disappointed. The auction finished at four this morning and I set the alarm accordingly. I woke at three and decided to check the bidding progress. It was already at my budget of US$31 (Hence the reference to $31 in my reply to the rascally Pac man a couple of posts ago ). So I re-set the alarm for my normal workday start of five and had a sleep in instead!

WMC auction.jpg

Wheeler Madden and Clemson: At US$93, apparently flavour of the month.



Regards
Paul

Hi Paul et al,
New to the Forum, and my first question involves a saw with a Disston handle (no thumb hole but three brass screws above the sunken medallion and one below,) and it has a Wheeler,-Madden-Clemson stamped blade. Sorry, I don't have photo capabilities at this time, but the first two names are in a curve over the horizontal third name. The saw (5 TPI) also has a cut-away part at the end of the blade, topside. And at the start of this cut-away, there is a small bead or bump or tang. Two-fold question: 1) what is the cut-away part and tang for? and 2) what would be your guess as to the approximate age of this piece? Any comments appreciated

Originally Posted by kenahwm

Hi Paul et al,
New to the Forum, and my first question involves a saw with a Disston handle (no thumb hole but three brass screws above the sunken medallion and one below,) and it has a Wheeler,-Madden-Clemson stamped blade. Sorry, I don't have photo capabilities at this time, but the first two names are in a curve over the horizontal third name. The saw (5 TPI) also has a cut-away part at the end of the blade, topside. And at the start of this cut-away, there is a small bead or bump or tang. Two-fold question: 1) what is the cut-away part and tang for? and 2) what would be your guess as to the approximate age of this piece? Any comments appreciated

kenahwm

Welcome to the Forum and congratulations on choosing such a good place to enter.

However, without a pic, my birdbrain (it's not always like that: Only on a good day) is going to be severely tested. If you can supply a pix at a later date that would be wonderful.

In the meantime, I can answer some of your questions.

The tang and cut away at the toe is called a nib and bead. The tangy, prongy, thingy being the nib. Over the years (more than a hundred of them) there was much conjecture as to the purpose of the nib, but the truth is that it is purely decorative and designed to break up the line of the back. It stems from a time when great store was placed on the design of tools. I have a Disston publication somewhere and it states exactly that it is decorative. If I remember where it is I will put up a pic. Nibs had pretty much completely disappeared by 1920 with only a few exceptions.

From your description I am guessing the handle has a Disston medallion. You will be able to identify the age of the medallion from the Disstonian website:

Online Reference of Disston Saws -- The Medallions (disstonianinstitute.com)

Again from your description of a "sunken" medallion (I love those) I would expect it to be 1888 - 1896, but it could be earlier.

Clearly there is a mismatch here with Wheeler Madden & Clemson being stamped on the saw plate and the Disston handle. However, it is worth noting that WMC were bought out by Disston and amalgamated with Richardson, Harvey Peace and Woodrough & McParlin to form the National Saw Company in 1895. At that time WMC saws were etched and not stamped.

I don't have too much early information on WMC. It could be 1860 - 1863 or 1871 - 1891 and I don't know at what point WMC changed from stamping to etching.

Regards
Paul