The saw makers gang of Joseph Flint

Joseph Flint left England for America to start a saw making works in New-England.
Just like we saw in the history of plane making in Canada, other trained tool makers, both American and British, emigrated to Canada and established themselves, and would be Canadian tool makers went to both America and/or England to learn their trades.
Accordingly, and not surprisingly, one of the first recorded established saw maker in Upper Canada (today's Ontario) was that same Joseph Flint, now of Rochester New York.  He operated a saw making business in Rochester from 1844 to 1888.

J. FLINT

CAST STEEL                        WARRANTED

ROCHESTER

The "label" is not chemically etched, but stamped, as earlier saws plate were

Pic from Backsaw.net

Advert from 1879

153 State street, Rochester NY

J. FLINT ROCHESTER N.Y. medallion

Pic from Canadian Woodworking online Forum

J. FLINT SUPERIOR medallion on a handsaw

Pic from Canadian Woodworking online Forum

The Pat date on it is Dec 31 1867.
That was a patent on saw nuts.  This design is rather fragile, careful when attempting to remove these saw nuts.  Notice it still used a split nut

DATAMP screen shot

Notice the Dietrich wood saw patent and the Dietrich patent 2 hands hold saw

Among the workforce in Rochester NY were: RH Smith, Jerome C Dietrich and Cosmos J Shurly

The 1872 double handle patent to Jerome C Dietrich, 

witnessed by Cosmo J Shurly

DATAMP screen shot

Here is a picture of two examples, of which only 3 are known...

Photo credit on pic

Jerome C Dietrich was born and raised on a farm near Rochester NY.  He entered the saw works of  D.R. Barton of Rochester NY .  In 1866 he became a traveller for J Flint Co.  After being offered  another job elsewhere, his employer countered with a raise and part ownership.  As a result of a later disagreement, he sold his ownership and left with Cosmo Shurly to start The Maple Saw Works in Galt.  In 1877 he invented the Lance tooth crosscut saw, which was reputed to be the world's fastest and shipped around the world.

JC Dietrich residence in Galt (Cambridge) Ontario.

Apparently there is money in saw making...

Joseph Flint opened a saw factory in St-Catharines On in 1855

J. FLINT

CAST STEEL St CATHARINES WARRANTED

on a back saw steel spine

Pic from Canadian Woodworking on line Forum

J. FLINT

St CATHARINES

CAST STEEL WARRANTED

Pic from Canadian Woodworking on line forum

RH Smith bought the J Flint factory in St-Catharines in 1870

RH SMITH & CO Ltd

PAT DEC 27

1887

St CATHARINES

. RH SMITH & CO. 

PAT DEC 27 1887

St CATHARINES

The patent date of  Dec 27 1887 is for the Glover saw nuts patent.  A much more robust saw screw, easier to manufactured (not cast but stamped) and has ribs to prevent rotation.  It would eventually displaced the Disston screw version and became the defacto standard to this day.

DATAMP screen shot

Cosmos Shurly married J Flint Daughter.  In 1873, Shurly and Dietrich moved to Galt On (now Cambridge) to start their own saw works, The Maple Leaf Saw Works.  They were established in an old tannery building which belongs to Goldie & McCulloch Foundry.
They started with 9 saw makers from both Rochester NY and Sheffield England.
by 1886 they employed 70 skilled workers.

Sequence of apparition. 

The beaver was a left over from the St-Catharines factory (post 1893), 

the maple leaf appeared after they transition all production to Galt On (early 1900s).

 They were one of the first company to use Maple Leaf and Beaver as a Canadian identity

 

1902 catalog

When RH Smith retired in 1893, Shurly & Dietrich assumed full control of the company.
In 1914, this business was renamed the T.F. Shurly Company, and was operated by Cosmo Shurly's son Theodore.  It will continue until the 1920s.

The Arrow Head saw, made previously by RH Smith 

continued to be made under TF Shurly, then SDA

Pic from link above

At the turn of the century, logging was big business in Canada, this in turn fueled a high demands for axes and saws. Shurly & Dietrich earned a good reputation for the quality of their steel.  Their saws commanded a large part of the logging market.

Shurly & Dietrich manufactured and patented a whole range 

of saw maintenance tools for the logging industry

By 1906, Cosmo Shurly son's Theodore was the factory superintendent.
Between 1909 and 1910 Shurly & Dietrich expanded its original factory in Galt On.
In 1914, the Galt factory sustained damages in a fire, but by that time, they had another plant in St-Catharines On (the TF Shurly Company, which was the previous RH Smith who bought J Flint).

Beginning in 1910, the big American saw maker E.C. Atkins (established 1857) opened a factory in Hamilton On.
Coincidentally or not, that is at the same time frame that Disston went to Toronto, and Simonds in Montreal... (AKA going around Tariffs :-)

In 1931 Shurly & Dietrich merged with the E.C. Atkins of Hamilton On, becoming Shurly, Dietrich & Atkins.  Meaning essentially that SDA became the Canadian branch of the American EC Atkins.

Older EC Atkins medallion showing the Dec 27 1889 

Glover saw nut patent, same as used by RH Smith and SD

Pic from eBay

from 

 LumberJocks post, see Canadian medallions

At, or around this time, the Hamilton plant closed and the machinery relocated to the Galt plant.

They opened a branch factory in Vancouver BC in 193x (?)

The SDA plant on 30 Mar 1935

1642 Richards St Vancouver BC

Archives city of Vancouver, Public Domain

SD, then SDA, was a long established maker of refined, silver (steel) and cast steel. Having developed an expertise in hardening and tempering steel, they were tasked with producing 40,000 tons of light armour plate during WW II.

Maple Leaf No 460 precision web saw jointer

These two pics Ebay

By 1957 they were one of the two major saw makers in Canada (the other one being Disston)

SDA 1950 salesman manual

This being a salesman manual, it has instructions 

on what to ask if you have to "adjust" complaints

The plant at 17 Glebe St Galt Ontario

 as it appears on the back of 1950 booklet

These pics from EBay

By 1968, about 1,400,000 feet of bandsaw blades, for cutting metal, and over 1,000,000 jig saw blades were being manufactured each year.

Jig saw blades packages from 

Shurly-Dietrich Atkins Co Ltd

Galt Ont

Pic from Progress is fine blogspot

In 1969, SDA was acquired by HK Porter (who also acquired Disston in 1955) and lets be honest, HK Porter did a fine job running both Disston and SDA...into the ground !!! :-(

In 1973 they would close the plant in Galt (Cambridge) after one hundred years of operation.

So there you have it:
RH Smith, Cosmo Shurly and Jerome Dietrich were working for Joseph Flint in Rochester NY making saws (operated 1844-1888).
Joseph Flint opened a saw works in St Catharines On in 1855
RH Smith bought the Flint works in St-Catharines On in 1870
Cosmo Shurly married Joseph Flint daughter
Cosmo Shurly and Dietrich start the Maple Leaf Saw Works in Galt On in 1873
Shurly and Dietrich take over the St Catharines plant of RH Smith when he retired in 1893
In 1906 Theodore Shurley, son of Cosmo, is the Superintendent of the Maple Leaf Saw Works
In 1914, the St Catharines plant is renamed TF Shurly Co and Theodore is running the company (it will last until the 1920s)
in 1931 Shurly Dietrich (SD) merged with EC Atkins and becomes Shurly-Dietrich-Atkins (SDA)
In 1969 they are bought by HK Porter who will close the Galt plant in 1973
The end

Hope this get the story straight, there is a lot of confusion with dates on line, as I found out...
As usual, errors or omission's, let me know.

The saws from my till that were used for some pics.

Some RH Smith, some SD, but could not find any of my SDA saws??

The material used to cleaned up the medallions.

Yes, some were consumables :-)

Bob, overdue for a cold one