Today's nifty buy
Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA
>After a visit to my uncle and aunt today in their retirement community, we stopped by an estate sale, and, for $2, I got a genuine "Chas A. Strelinger Co., Detroit Mich, No. 8, Spring Steel, Taper Ground" 12" backsaw, in moderately clean, straight, though dull condition.
Also, in my vain attempt to catch up to Marv, a Stanley Handyman push drill with all its bits including the tiny little one that always breaks.
From what I can tell on the internet, Chas A. Strelinger operated a big hardware store around the turn of the last century; it appears the business was still in operation up to the 1990's (if I'd been paying more attention when I lived in Detroit and environs for a few years in the late 1960's, I might have recognized the name without help from the 'net). The saw looks to my uneducated eye like a rebadged Disston. I purely love those old handles.