Been a lurker for a while, especially after I
erroneously started down the path to NORM-dom....I've
since been enlightened, and fortunately it happened
before I dumped a bunch of cash...

Here's my story....Got married, bought a house, now it
needs to be filled with furniture - well actually
that'll come after it's been restored. (did I mention
that its 212 years old?) So the furniture needs to be
historically correct.

At first I thought that routered raised panels would
be fine for doors and shutters, but I've since decided
that if I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it
right. So about two years ago I started looking into
old methods of doing things, and started using the
limited hand tools that I had access to. 

At any rate, after struggling along with those for a
while, and taking a class or two at a living museum
near our home, I'm hooked.  I am in the middle of
building the easy beginner bench that I found plans
for and I've got a library of books about
woodplanes and setting up workshops, and I've learned
a lot.  So far I built a cold frame for the gardenwith
M&T joints for the windows (very rudimentary M&T
Joints) but they've held together so far; some rustic
pergola looking structures that bordered on Timber
Framing(I would love to get my hands on a hand boring
machine that's not the $575 model that leach has for
sale this month), oh yeah, I also built 140 feet of
a stacked split rail snake fence for one side of our
property by hand.  Felled the trees (cheated and used
a chainsaw), skinned them with a draw knife and then
split out each of the rails.   That was a really cool
project and it turned out looking like it was
professionally done.  So now here I am.  Finally
joined a place where I can hopefully get answers for
the millions of questions that I have. Eventually I'll
be able to answer some too.  At least that's how it
worked with the antique tractor I'm working on
restoring.  (I think I have an addiction to old tools
ad machines)

One last bit of a gloat......My wife bought me a
wooden plane for my birthday last year.  How cool is
that!

So enough about me, now here's my first of many
questions....

I decided I needed a real saw to work with so i went
to an estate sale and bought three saws in a bundle. 
I bought them because the price was rigth, they
appeared mostly straight and I could see the
decorative nib on one of them so I took that to mean
that it was probably old and therefore worthwhile.  
Here's the thing, two of the saws are distons but
don't seem to match any of the models that I've seen
pictures for on the distonian site so I'm figuring
that they're not much.  The third saw in the bundle
however has me in a quandry...

The saw is marked Thos. Tillotson & Co. on the blade
and it is 7 or 8 ppi filed for rip cut.  It appeares
that the saw has seen very little use. The saw is odd,
I think, because there is no medallion(just four dome
nuts with one side's domes being slotted and the other
side's domes being plain), but is in fine shape with a
tight original handle (although it has a crack
visible) and the blade is mostly black, very little
corrosion.  The decorative nib is even still there. 
Did I win the Newbie lottery?  I did learn that
Tillotson was around in the early part of the 1800's,
but could find nothing else.  I also learned that VERY
OLD saws sometimes didn't have a medallion.  Can
anyone here give me some advice as to whether or not
this can be kept for a user or if it should be sold
and the proceeds used to acquire a workshop full of
tools?

Thanks.

P.S. is  there a way to take a mild bend out of the
tip (first 4 inches at the toe end) of a hand saw? 
Both the distons that I got that day seem to have
bound in a cut at some point and were slightly bent as
a result.  Or should I make scrapers out of them?

Thanks a bunch. 

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Protect your identity with Yahoo! Mail AddressGuard
http://antispam.yahoo.com/whatsnewfree

As Bob asked a little while ago, what is your name, and where do you=20
live?

With regard to straightening saws: Go through the archives for=20
information. There are more ways than one  to skin this cat. We have=20
hashed this out more than once.  Then if you still need help we will be=20=

glad to give it.

On Tuesday, November 4, 2003, at 01:13  PM, hb wrote:

>
> P.S. is =A0there a way to take a=A0mild bend out of the
> tip (first 4 inches at the toe end) of a=A0hand saw?=A0
> Both the distons that I got that day seem to have
> bound in=A0a cut at some point=A0and=A0were slightly bent as
> a result.=A0 Or should I make scrapers out of them?
>
> Thanks a bunch.=A0
>
>

Hi ??,

Welcome whoever you are, but I have one question. Who are you?

I don't know for sure, but think maybe your Thos. Tillotston & Co. was a
British maker; I obviously don't know when he worked or if his stuff has
any special value, but doubt it. Not sure where you got the early 1800s
dating; might that be from a crosswiring with a T. Tileston who was an
early 1800s Boston plane maker?

Best Wishes,
Bob 

The mysterious "hb" wrote to oldtools:

>Been a lurker for a while, especially after I
>erroneously started down the path to NORM-dom....I've
>since been enlightened, and fortunately it happened
>before I dumped a bunch of cash...

Welcome to oldtools!

(snip)

>The saw is marked Thos. Tillotson & Co. on the blade
>and it is 7 or 8 ppi filed for rip cut.  It appeares
>that the saw has seen very little use. The saw is odd,
>I think, because there is no medallion(just four dome
>nuts with one side's domes being slotted and the other
>side's domes being plain), but is in fine shape with a
>tight original handle (although it has a crack
>visible) and the blade is mostly black, very little
>corrosion.  The decorative nib is even still there. 
>Did I win the Newbie lottery?  I did learn that
>Tillotson was around in the early part of the 1800's,
>but could find nothing else.  I also learned that VERY
>OLD saws sometimes didn't have a medallion. 

T. Tillotson is mentioned by Kenneth Roberts as a "merchant & dealer"  in 
Sheffield, England, between 1837 & 1856.  He sold plated braces, among other 
tools, that Roberts considered, "purchased for resale."  I've seen chisels 
with his mark.  I doubt that the saw has any great value as the number of 
Tillotson collectors is probably low or non-existent.  But use the saw.  
Sharpen it up and it will be a good rip saw, most likely.

Best regards,
Sandy

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I got it! He's Harrison Bord.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sanford Moss" 
To: "oldtools" 
Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2003 6:42 PM
Subject: Re: [oldtools] Howdy fellas! Sorry this is L O N G.

> The mysterious "hb" wrote to oldtools: