Tool Talk
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Branson on May 19, 2012, 09:46:46 AM
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Has anybody seen one of these before?!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-K6-Cutawl-Jigsaw-International-Register-1924-saw-cutter-machine-old-tool-/300713037832?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4603e4d008
We had a thread not long ago on jig saws, and the standard story of its origins was a Swiss fellow who put a saw blade on his wife's sewing machine in 1946. Well, this one really shows its sewing machine ancestry. But the date? 1924?
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The word 'Jig Saw' appears in patent files as far back as 1864, Patent 41,116 is titled "Improvment in Jig-Saws". also calls it a scroll saw, it is reciprocating, and powered (but not self contained as such)
I think the sewing machine thing is suspect , the general idea had been around quite some time...
Jigsaw puzzles on the other hand, seem to have been a huge fad of the 30's....
Someone else has already identified the patents...
http://eweb.furman.edu/~rbryson/dramadept/CutAwl/Patents.html
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Yes. mechanical scroll saws are sometimes called jigsaws. And yes they reciprocate. These were made all the jigsaw puzzles in the '30s. However, both ends of the blade are captured.
The jigsaw we're talking about, though, also called a saber saw, has a blade attached only at one end, the tip operating freely. It is a hand held tool that operates by moving it over the work.
The known history is:
"The first powered jigsaw was created in 1946 when Albert Kaufmann, an engineer of Scintilla AG company in Solothurn, Switzerland, replaced the needle on his wife's sewing machine with a saw blade.[1][2][3] In 1947, after development of Kaufmann's invention, Scintilla started producing jigsaws under name "Lesto jigsaw". In 1954 Scintilla was acquired by Bosch and in 1964 the name "Lesto" was replaced with Bosch."
This information is found on Wikipedia, and is sourced to:
1. ^ Bosch Media Service
2. ^ Invention of the Jigsaw
3. ^ Bosch Media Service
The idea was not so new, though. In the old thread I posted that I had found the suggestion of using a sewing machine to produce a home made stationary saber saw in a woodworking magazine from the 1920s. And now this primitive hand held sewing machine pattern based saber saw, seemingly from 1924. It's the only example I know before 1947, when Albert Kaufmann, an engineer of Scintilla AG company in Solothurn, Switzerland (who did put a saw blade in his wife's sewing machine, so he said, had his invention produced by Scintilla as the "Lesto jigsaw."
Bosch acquired Scintilla in 1954.
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The patent date on this saw is May 6, 1924. Can anybody check out the patent info?
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Searching under Cutawl, I found several more. Including this model K-11 on eBay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/MINTY-K11-CUTAWL-SAW-A-COMPLETE-SETUP-BY-1STAWARD------jig-scroll-coping-hack_W0QQitemZ190679303615QQcmdZViewItemQQssPageNameZRSS:B:SRCH:US:101
They're still made, and while the belt is covered in the current models (yes, they're still manufactured), they're
still built like a sewing machine.
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[Yes]
This is the May patent....
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One possible issue with calling it an early sabre-saw/jig saw is it doesn't seem to have a serrated blade, seems to have a piercing awl....
Edit: No, the patent does mention a saw....
"In operating the device a tool is selected suitable for the nature of the material which is to be cut. When cutting wood a saw is so used and the stroke of the rod 10 is increased over what is necessary, for instance in cut-ting leather,"...
So it does meet all the qualifications to be a sabre saw....
"have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Scroll-Cutting Machines, of which the following is a specification.
This invention relates to scroll cutting
10 machines adapted to work on sheet material such as paper, leather, wood or metal, and the objects of the invention are to provide a machine of this class- adapted to travel while the material operated upon remains
15 stationary ; to provide an improved mount-ing for a reciprocating tool whereby the tool is caused to trail or follow its support as the support is shifted along the material operated upon ; and to provide a device of
20 this nature adapted to cut a fair curve in the general direction of movement of the ma-chine irrespective of slight irregularities of movement of its support due to unsteady handling or guiding. of the device."
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Another patent (1502088, July 22,1924) by the same inventor, not assigned....
*Not* a sewing machine...(Tho it sort of works like one)
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This information is found on Wikipedia, and is sourced to:
1. ^ Bosch Media Service
^^^
This is why I never quote Wiki, since when is a company media/public relations outlet a verifiable source? LOL