# Take a Look at this Scroll Saw!



## DCarrier (Nov 23, 2011)

Found this is a local junk store today - looks like a comercial version for a kid mabye? I see a spot where a sticker is missing. The head is reinforced with copper wire and the wire is cloth covered. Anyone remember these from there childhood? The drive wheel is rubber so it may have had an electric motor.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

Thanks for posting this.

I'm always fascinated by antique scroll saws. Have you looked at Rick Hutcheson's site at all the scroll saws he has. Go and look. He's got them seperated into different categories from current built saws, to toy saws, to foot powered saws. You name it, he's got it.

If you go look, just click on the link I put above. Scroll down the left side to "scroll saw collection". From there you can click and search the various categories.


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## StumpyNubs (Sep 25, 2010)

I dunno… Never seen a wooden scroll saw that was mass produced in modern times… But it sure looks interesting! Thanks for sharing it!

-Jim; aka "Stumpy Nubs" 
(The greatest woodworking show since the invention of wood is now online!)


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

I couldn't help but try to find out what it is.

Go to the same site and saw collection I mentioned in my first response. Go to "Saws Older Belt Driven". Starting with the third one down, except for the pulley, everything else matches up perfectly to the one you have pictured.

It was made by a company named Gibbs Manufactoring.

Now, if you go to the section of "Hand Crank or Belt Driven", ninth saw down, it is also just like the one you pictured. It looks like it has the same rubber pulley piece you have in the photo, but the red parts of the mechanism is missing on yours. If this is the case, then the one you have pictured is, or was, a hand crank saw.


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## DCarrier (Nov 23, 2011)

Thanks for the research William! It really is a neat saw - a little dirty. Now I need to find a crany/pully.


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## DCarrier (Nov 23, 2011)

Here is a good shot

Gibbs Toy Saw

And even the missing sticker


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

Here's a better photo of it.








This saw was actually sold as a child's toy. It was made by The Gibbs Mfg. Company in Canton, OH. The company started out making toys in 1896. It went bankrupt in 2001.

Go here and read a little more about the company. The saw in in the first row of photos of their products.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

We were on the same page Don.

I was a day late and a dollar short though.


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## Dusty56 (Apr 20, 2008)

The original Saw Stop design…you cut your finger , you stop cranking the wheel ! : ) 
Great find and info…thanks for posting this rare item : )


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

That's what I love about scroll saws Dusty. Anyone, even children can use the. They were once sold as children's toys.

I do a lot of scroll saw work. I have stuck my finger into the blade many times cutting tiny parts. I still have all ten. The worst I've done was to barely break the skin, less than a paper cut.

My nephew's boyscout troop had a gathering at my shop this weekend to cut little derby car thingies. My brother was trying to figure out how to help them with the cars, while still letting the kids do most of the work on them. Part of the rules of their event is that the kids have to do most of the work on them, not the parents. 
The first thing I done before letting these kids start practicing on cutting (we cut spare practice pieces before letting them cut on their actual cars) was to show them how safe the saw was by sticking my finger to the moving blade.

As a side noted, I also let them do their sanding on my Ridgid spindle/belt sander. I don't recommend allowing kids to mess with the belt sander attachment. For the spindle sander though, loosen the nut for the spindle just enough so that you can sand with it, but it stops if you put a lot of force on it. Then it is safe for a child to use. Even if they try, they cannot hurt themselves no worse than if they'd taken a fall in the dirt playing ball and scratched their hand.


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## doncutlip (Aug 30, 2008)

Is this a scroll saw? It's from the Watters Smith Historic site in West Virginia


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## Hoakie (May 8, 2007)

@William Rick lives just up the road from me and I took a wood turning class at his place this summer. He showed us his scrollsaw collection and it is insane!!! He is definitely an expert in the field.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

It looks like a scroll saw from here Don. 
Is there any other info you can give one it, such as any writing on it, tags, numbers, anything?

I love researching some of these old saws. 
A lot of people don't realize it, but scroll saws have been around since the seventeenth century. There are so many variations of them that noone knows anything about so many of them. That's why it excites me when I'm able to figure out what exactly one is like we did with the Gibbs above.

To further complicate things though, there have been no telling how many scroll saws found that are completely homemade, and this was from way before there were plans to build one at home (which there is now). People have been turning lathes and sewing machines into scroll saws for ages. Also, many were simply built from scratch.

Here, you can buy plans to build a foot treadle scroll saw. It wouldn't take much though to simply add a motor to it.

I'd love to hear more about your saw in the photo though Doncutlip. From what I can see, it may very well be a homemade one though. 
I can't tell from the photo what kind of drive system it had, or if it maybe was a foot powered or hand crank type. 
It appears the blade is attached beneath the table, then above it, and the turn nut on the very top is turned to apply tension from above the spring bar for the top blade attachment. 
The wood work looks like it could very well be homemade, but the spring steel in the upper blade support kind of makes me think it could also be factory made.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

Hoakie, I would love to be able to visit his place. He could let me just snuggle up to a few of those antique ones and spend the night.

His collection has been featured in many magazines for years. I can't remember, but there was a feature section in one of the scrolling magazines in 2011.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

doncutlip,
I'm betting the saw you posted was hand made by one of the Watter family. Here in a brochure for that site it says the wood shop and the blacksmith shop were adjacent. That would explain the spring steel that you wouldn't normally find on a homemade scroll saw. 
Here, it state that all the tools were "made by hand and necessitated the construction of a blacksmith and a carpenter shop". So the man was probably fairly proficient at constructing quality tools on his own.

That is a very interesting piece though. I'd still love to hear anything else you may know about it.


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## DCarrier (Nov 23, 2011)

Here's a 1916 model that I'd love to have.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

That's a treadle type Don. That's what I want to build one of these days. I linked to one of the sources for plans in one of my earlier responses. 
Rick Hutcheson designed a treadle type and a peddle type that you can buy plans for from his site as well. 
I want the treadle type because I think I could use it. The bicycle peddle type I think one would sway side to side too much to use. I imagine you could get used to it though, sort of learning curve I guess you'd say. As for me, I have a bum left leg. I don't see me peddling one. I guess I could use my one good leg and always make sure I only stop on the upstroke of the peddle stroke.
Nah! I think I would prefer the treadle type I could use with my one good leg.

That is a nice saw. I have to try to find the photo of one I seen a while back. Some of those antique saws are works of art.


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## doncutlip (Aug 30, 2008)

William - thanks now I know what that thing is. It's in a museum there.


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## greasemonkeyredneck (Aug 14, 2010)

No problem Don. 
I spent a couple of hours late last night searching articles and photos of the historic hictory and photos of Watter family and that park in hopes of finding out anything else at all about that saw. Unfortunately, the guess work info I already posted is as far as I could get with it. I'd love to know more about thaat saw though. Even though the mechanism for tension and all seems pretty simple on it, I can't help but think there's a story behind it. There always is on most antiques and historic pieces.


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