Old 2-Man Saws Available...

Hello,

I'm still cleaning out our early- to mid-1800s barn. (We bought an 1800 farmhouse back in 1972; its barn looks decrepit in a 1900 photo). Just sold the Hercules coal furnace we found.

I've now come across several long 2-man saws. They're rusty but have been indoors at least since the mid-1930s (when the last male owner died, leaving the widow & daughter from whom we bought the place).

Some are (I think) crosscut or "felling" saws. At least one is probably a type of bow saw.

If anyone would like more info & might consider buying one or more saws, please reply. I can attach some photos next week.

Yep, pix would be nice. Where are you from in Maine? FF

Those old saws were often referred to as "misery whips" by the old timers.

There are guys who collect them to clean them up. Then they paint landscapes on the blade and sell them for pretty good money at craft shows and such.

Paul

freetown fred wrote:Yep, pix would be nice. Where are you from? FF

Wow Fred, who'd you get so mad they threw all those tools at your house ?

Good thing they've got such poor aim - they could'a broke a window !

Paul

YES! I WOOD be interested!
But F-Fred is a lot closer to you than I am

We live near Skowhegan (an hour north of Augusta.

Love the term "misery whip"--sounds like they weren't much fun to use.

My husband's brother-in-law does paintings on found objects (rocks, wood, saws). He's quite good. We're planning to give our saws to him if we can't find a buyer, but would prefer to sell them.

MaineGrammy wrote:We live near Skowhegan (an hour north of Augusta)

Don't want any saws. But if you come across a short-bladed scythe or two I'd be interested, so as to beat back the weeds creeping up onto my lawn from the beaver bog. Like the one hanging on F-Fred’s house. Only I’m going to use them instead of hanging them up where they might fall off and decapitate some old horse-farmer.

There’s a dealer at the Fairfield Antiques Mall just 20 miles down the road from Skowhegan, who handles a lot of old tools. If you start finding a lot of stuff maybe you can work a deal with him. Watch out your barn doesn’t fall on your head.

Thanks--I know exactly where that is!

And thanks for the warning about the barn... but don't worry. Four or five years ago we had it completely re-roofed; we'd done 1 side about 25 years ago, and now it all needed repair, right down to replacing numerous sheathing boards and purlins. My original job of shingling the walls (c. 1985, back when I could easily go up and down extension ladders--sigh) is still holding up well, thank goodness, though it needed & got repainting. We put cement posts & new sills under it back in the 70s.

What I'm up to these days is more like archaeology... Sorting through our own & deceased relative's old stuff, plus mounds of things left behind by previous owners, and play-spaces full of our own children's long-ago toys (mostly broken). We've already furnished our kids' 1st homes from our own parents' old furniture, so there's little of value left except what I'm digging out of unexplored corners of lofts & stalls. We won't live forever, and want to make it easier for us or our heirs to sell the place fast when necessary.

I found a pamphlet of bylaws from the Civil War vets' women's auxiliary & sent it to a grateful organization in Washington DC. Also have one of those feed bags that hangs from a horse's head--says United States ___[?] on it, looks pretty old (we're travelling, so I can't look at the thing to quote it correctly).

We've found some old axe heads and a pick-axe. No sign of any scythes yet. I'll post again if any show up.

MaineGrammy wrote:We've found some old axe heads.

I'll give you $5 per axe head, and I'll pay for the Bulk rate USPS box so you can mail them to me

Thanks! I'll get back to you next week after we get home and review what we've got.

MaineGrammy wrote:... the barn ...Four or five years ago we had it completely re-roofed; we'd done 1 side about 25 years ago, and now it all needed repair, right down to replacing numerous sheathing boards and purlins. My original job of shingling the walls (c. 1985, back when I could easily go up and down extension ladders--sigh) is still holding up well, thank goodness, though it needed & got repainting. We put cement posts & new sills under it back in the 70s.

It's so nice that you are saving the barn. When I was a child they were everywhere, and now everywhere we go we see them falling down.

We've saved the aging barn... now if only it would fix US!

I would also like info on the old chainsaws, axes or two man crosscut saws. My family were mostly woodsmen, loggers & sawyers, so this stuff is interesting to me. I also know some collectors who restore old saws and preserve them. Some have a couple dozen chainsaws, others have hundreds. These guys would be more likely to sell their first born before letting an old saw go. What you have would likely fill in some holes in someone's collection. A couple live in your neck of the woods, many more are scattered around the country and the globe.

MG, put some critters in that barn, it'll last another hundred yrs or more:)